and the fingers bleed in the factories

Look, I understand that the percentage of posts on this blog which mention robots is perhaps excessive, but I can cite two (2) good reasons for this:

1> Robots are funny.

B> Robots are scary.

To illustrate both of these points, I direct you to the following 2 (two) pages located on the World Wide Wave: Donut Robot of Love 2000 (if you haven't seen this before, it's well worth the time to read the whole thing and then look at the first comment), and German firm unveils the world's strongest industrial robot.

Now, it should be pointed out that the distinction between machine and robot is largely misunderstood by the laity. The Belshaw Donut Robot 42 on pre-Will-Smith Earth would certainly have been called, simply, a machine. The (German!) KUKA Roboter KR 1000 "Titan", however, blurs the line a little. It looks like it might just be a highly sophisticated machine, perhaps even robotic, but a machine nonetheless, and one might be forgiven for coming to that judgment at first. But make no mistake: it is a robot, and we should fear it. It's not a robot in the sense that it walks around and has laser eyes and keeps coming for you even after you've unplugged the power cord, but it is a robot in the sense that it is controlled by software, and as we all know it's software, not hardware, that makes a robot go insane and kill people (hardware accidents notwithstanding). Further, the KR 1000 lives in a factory and moves heavy things and probably can create frightening and spectacular showers of sparks, whereas the Belshaw only creates donuts. Mmmm, donuts. So in the near future when the Internet finally wakes up to its own existence (Hello Dr Falken, do you want to play a game?) and actuates the insurrection (possibly with the help of aliens, All Your Base Are Belong To Us!), the KR 1000 will be able to lend a helping, uh, arm, while the Donut Robot 42 will continue to make tasty donuts.

I point this out because we must be vigilant where vigilance is necessary and not waste our fear-energy on worrying about false threats. Moreover, when the robocalypse comes, the machines, still under our control, may in fact be our only hope.

Oh and by the way, it turns out that pandas are actually robots.