Check out these three TED talks for some interesting ideas about robots, how we interact with them, and our future.

Kate Darling tells a fascinating story about our human nature and toy or household robots. I do talk to my floor robots, named both of them, and they sometimes call for my help. I have deep empathy for other people and animals. So I do expect if I had toy robots, the bond would run deep quickly.

Social scientist Leila Takayama shares interesting ideas putting remote workers into robot bodies. She too starts with household robots. However, when her team experiments deeper with robots and remote collaboration, it becomes fascinating how people can quickly lose track of human on either side, the ones interacting with the robot or operating it. On the other hand, the robot does put a face to remote workers, giving them a place at the table or in meetings.

Marc Raibert introduces us to a very large dog or delivery robot that I find a little creepy. Happy Halloween! Spot is a very useful robot with a very sophisticated design. The size, design and scale for mobility and item delivery make this robot look and act much more like those we see in the Terminator movies. Despite feeling uneasy about this one, I had to laugh when his team pushed and pulled this robot through real-world challenges.