Robot Or Not?

The robotic guardian of the Beams. He looks like a bear but has a satellite dish on his head. He’s a thousand years old.

Game controller, robot, or total embarrassment?

ˈrōˌbät or ˈrōbət?

An unadorned iPhone can be a Naked Robotic Core, but is it a robot?

Look who was under the tree! It’s a giant mechanical monster!

Among the fiercest creatures in the machine kingdom are the Battlebots. They’re designed for fighting! But are they really robots, or is that just a clever marketing name?

High school students carry them around and learn what it’s like to be a parent. Or you learn how to revive them by pressing their chest and breathing into their mouths. But are these learning tools also educational robots?

It patrols the mall. Sometimes it knocks over small children.

The HBO series “Westworld” makes us contemplate whether its central characters, the Hosts, are robots or not. (We recorded this episode after the first seven episodes of season one had aired; forgive us if it was revealed later that “To Serve Man” was actually a cookbook.)

A robot slowly turns himself human. When does he stop being a robot?

Sometimes Mario is metallic. Does that make him a robot?

They are boats with paddles. What else are they?

Straight out of “Star Trek” come these technological villains. Also, we discuss larger issues including AIs and hive minds.

It just keeps going, and going, and going….

Little cute robots from “Ghost in the Shell.”

Self-guided rockets and drone barges.

They’re sure tasty, and it’s meat between bread, but are hot dogs sandwiches?

They sure look like robots. But who’s under the masks?

The owl and the snake from “Blade Runner” raise some interesting questions.

A little metal owl from “Clash of the Titans.” Crafted by the gods, can he possibly be a robot?