The rise of the "Automacene": How robots will define the next epoch in human history

I've always had a close relationship with robots -- even a fondness for them. When I was a kid I had a Baby Alive doll, mass-produced in the 1970s by Kenner. The baby ate through its battery-operated mouth and subsequently pooped, a ridiculously simple simulation of the real-life care of a newborn. In the wake of an avalanche of news on the ethical implications of technology -- whether that's Google bowing out of the military's Project Maven or a report questioning whether it's emotionally healthy to have sex with robots (it's probably not) -- I connected the trail of my own attachment with AIs and their physical counterparts, robots. Throughout my own career, I've thought a lot about robots replacing jobs.