Since the dawn of human ingenuity, people have devised ever more cunning tools to cope with work that is dangerous, boring, burdensome, or just plain nasty. That compulsion has resulted in robotics--the science of conferring various human capabilities on ma- Chinese．And if scientists have yet to create the mechanical version of science fiction，they have begun to come close． As a result，the modern world is increasingly populated by intelligent gizmos whose presence we barely notice but whose universal existence has removed much human labor．Our factories hum to the rhythm of robot assembly arms．Our banking is done at automated teller terminals that thank US with mechanical politeness for the transaction．