SPACE ROBOTS JUST MAKE it harder for me to complain about the “real” 2010’s futuristic shortcomings: “A new humanoid robot capable of working side by side with people” — Robonaut 2, or R2 for short — is being developed by GM and NASA; the former gets a better way of building cars, while the latter gets a badly-needed PR boost in addition to inching millions of little nerd-boys’ (and -girls’) dreams closer to fruition.
See here: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/robonaut.html.