Buy Your Own Child for Only 300 Bucks!

Well, just kidding. He's almost a child though....

Yesterday at the Wired Nexfest, David Hanson of Hanson Robotics showed off his pride and joy to groups of fascinated kids and adults. The object of all the attention? Zeno, an AI boy that has his own realistic facial expressions and mannerisms and who recognizes and remembers people's faces and names.

Zeno is named after, and based on, David Hanson's 18 month old son but has been in conception for the last 5 years. Zeno is technically still a prototype (he still has to be connected and positioned next to computers that communicate to him what expressions to make) but Hanson is hard at work on the little dude and plans to make Zenos available for people to buy within the next few years for around $200-$300.

Hanson sees robotics as artistic expression, and if you agree, then you'll admit that this is the epitome of art imitating life. The technology is truly fascinating and makes you wonder about what our world will be like in 50 years if everyone is walking around with robot kids (and robot girlfriends and boyfriends and bosses and friends even?) who look like them. Hanson might just be envisioning our future as such because he believes that the market for robot companions will be hot pretty soon. Some of the folks in Steven Spielberg's AI: Artificial Intelligence (rent this film if you haven't seen it. It's one of the best films of 2001) might beg to differ, however.

Check out the full story and video here.

Of course, if you're mildly creeped out by humanoid looking robots but still love technology and the marriage of art and science, and you have just a smidgen of tech geekiness in you, an awesome book to get you started is a brand new title called Making Things Talk: Practical Methods for Connecting Physical Objects.

And if you're majorly creeped out by robots and concerned about your future safety, this book is a must have: How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion.