Best 169 words you'll ever read about robotics

This article from Wired is short, but if you want to understand the behind-the-scenes deal with the robotics industry, you can do no better:

Why Things Suck: Robots
By Thomas Hayden 01.18.08
Wired Magazine

Automatons work pretty well — if you're looking to weld thousands of cars exactly the same way. But what we really want is C-3P0: a robot that looks, acts, and responds like a human, except is easier to boss around. So why don't we have one?

Well, despite sophisticated mathematics and years of experimentation, we still aren't very good at modeling life... (read more...)