This ebullient and optimistic book features thirty visions of robot futures-nearly incredible scenarios based on real machines that are here, imminent, or easily conceivable based on modern technology Throughout history, people have been infatuated with the notion of artificial intelligence. But now the moment is fast upon us when super-AI is poised to arrive for real. These are not the lumbering, industrial-grade bots that have been churning out paper clips, Prozac, and Volkswagens for decades. These are robots that we can truly talk to and interact with, robots that are as smart as, or even smarter than we are. Teddy bots and sex bots, robot psychiatrists, robot lawyers and judges, super AI machines that will alter the trajectory of human progress. To techno-optimists, the quest to upgrade and improve humanity will seem achievable at long last. For these true believers, robots and AI offer our first legitimate chance to vanquish war, hunger, and disease, our enemies since time immemorial. They will allow us to live longer, healthier, and safer lives. There are infinite possible futures at the hands of this technology. David Ewing Duncan considers thirty such scenarios, having conducted extensive interviews with robot experts, famous engineers, entrepreneurs, philosophers, and thinkers. How do these robots function as machines? And, more importantly, what do they say about us, their creators? For while we continue to be equally intrigued by and apprehensive of the impending robo-future, our fascination with robots has always been less about the potential technology, and more about what robots can tell us of what it means to be human.