Robots may be used to care for elderly people lacking family aid, according to a team of academics who estimated the highly advanced artificial intelligence could be available within three years, BBC News reported Monday. The international team, sponsored by the European Union and Japanese government, have begun a $2.5 million project in an attempt to develop robots capable of looking after older people. More than 1 million elderly people were lacking the daily living assistance they need, according to charity Age UK. Researchers said robots would not only help out with physical tasks, but also provide companionship with uniquely programmed, culturally sensitive personalities. "Assistive, intelligent robots for older people could relieve pressures in hospitals and care homes as well as improving care delivery at home and promoting independent living for the elderly," Professor Irena Papadopoulos, an expert in transcultural nursing, told BBC. "It is not a question of replacing human support but enhancing and complementing existing care."

"Answer," published in 1954, encapsulated a prescient meditation on the future of human-machine relations within a single double-spaced, typewritten page. "Answer" begins under the watchful eyes of a dozen television cameras that are recording the ceremonial soldering of the final connection to tie together all the "monster" computers in the universe. The machines are about to link 96 billion planets into a single "supercircuit" that combines "all the knowledge of all the galaxies." Two witnesses on the scene are identified only as Dwar Ev and Dwar Reyn. "Thank you," said Dwar Reyn.