Eando Binder's Adam Link scifi series predates Isaac Asimov's more famous robots, posing issues in trust, control, and intellectual property. In 1939, Eando Binder began a short story cycle about a robot named Adam Link. The first story in Binder's series was titled "I, Robot." That clever phrase would be recycled by Isaac Asimov's publisher (against Asimov's wishes) for his famous short story cycle that started in 1940 about the Three Laws of Robotics. But the Binder series had another influence on Asimov: the stories explicitly related Adam's poor treatment to how humans reacted to the Creature in Frankenstein.

The robot apocalypse is probably a ways off, but the pop culture robot apocalypse arrived years ago. Our movies imagine a doom spiral of slavery and extinction, but reality is a bit different: Robots build cars and dance for our pleasure. Imagine robots are terrifying and real robots are useful, but that doesn't stop us from fearing our potential overlords. To be clear, what I'm talking about is closer to prejudice than "robophobia," which is, by definition, an irrational fear. The fear of robots I'm referring to seems to stem from associations people make and conclusions that they draw. The fear is not irrational, but that doesn't mean it's well thought out.