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1. Elektro, the world’s first humanoidrobot,debuted in 1939. Built by Westinghouse, the seven-foot-tallwalkingmachine “spoke” more than 700 words. Elektro later appearedin the1960 B movie Sex Kittens Go to College.

2. The first known case of robot homicide occurred in 1981,whena robotic arm crushed a Japanese Kawasaki factory worker.

3. Leonardo da Vinci drew up plans for an armoredhumanoidmachine in 1495. Engineer Mark Rosheim has created afunctionalminiature version for NASA to help colonize Mars

4. Archytas of Tarentum, a pal of Plato’s, built amechanicalbird driven by a jet of steam or compressed air—arguablyhistory’sfirst robot—in the fifth century B.C.

5. There are currently 4,000 robots serving in the USMilitary,including reconnaissance Talon bots that scout forroadside bombsin Iraq and PackBots that unsuccessfully poked aroundfor Osama binLaden’s hideout in Afghanistan.

6. Chris Melhuish of the Bristol Robotics Laboratorycreatedrobots that use bacteria-filled fuel cells to produceelectricityfrom rotten apples and dead flies. The goal: robots thatforage fortheir own food- essentially they wouldn’t need humanstosurvive.

7. Mini Me: Australian researchers are trying to build amicrorobot that would mimic the swim stroke used by E. colibacteria. Itwould be injected into a patient so it could take abiopsy from theinside.

8. Cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick calls himself theworld’sfirst cyborg, with computer chips implanted in his left arm.He canremotely operate doors, an artificial hand, and anelectronicwheelchair.

9. Winebot, built by Japan’s NEC System Technologies andMieUniversity, can ID scads of different wines, cheeses, andhorsd’oeuvres . . . up to a point. It recently mistook areporter’shand for prosciutto. (In Winebot’s defense, that guy wasapig.)

10. Robotics expert Henrik Christensen predicts humans willbehaving sex with robots within four years. If you’rethinking,“Finally, no strings attached…” keep in mind that HansMoravec,founder of Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute, predictsthatrobots will emerge as their own species by 2040, with feelingsandexpectations. In other words, if you don’t call your robotflingthe next morning, you’ll be disassembled.