Apparently I didn’t wear out my welcome talking about anime, because the folks at SF Signal’s MindMeld column asked me to participate in another round, this one on the coolest robots in science fiction. Snip:
I decided that the robots I love best are the ones who aren’t trying to be human. Why should they? What makes humans so special? Unless robots are built with a Shakespeare plugin that requires them to keep Hamlet Act II Scene ii in mind at all times, they have no automatic inclination to respect us. Not harming us, or through inaction not allowing us to come to harm, is not the same as respect or love. It’s babysitting.