The technologic Singularity is crucially dependent on AI developments, unfriendly AI represents the greatest existential risk out there, and many

significant figures in Singularity circles have a primary interest in AI, namely Ben Goertzel, Neil Jacobstein,

Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Jaron Lanier.

It does not naturally follow that all AI researchers are believers in the Singularity. Some are, some aren't, with every flavor in

between you can imagine.

It is amazing how much of a "relationship" you can strike up with the Sony Aibo robotic dog despite the fact it represents 2005 technology, none have been

produced since then. Imagine what their capabilities would be today if Sony had continued developing

them over the past six years!

The only way I could get one in 2003 and 2004 was to fly to the US stay in a hotel just long enough for the

product to be delivered and then fly back home, they were impossible to get in Canada after 2002 through regular Sony channels here as there was not a market

among Canadian consumers.

A child playing with them quickly deconstructs them to a point where they look quite ugly and incomplete. The main market in the US was affluent young women.

Most government investment in robotics in North America is in military robots, whereas the

investment in Asia is in robots to care for the elderly and do household tasks. Most consumer

developments in this area while probably emerge from Asia.

However many people forget that the replicants in the movie are biology based flesh and blood beings, not silicon and circuit boards.