More and more, science-fiction is catching up with science-reality.
If not's the huge advancements in VR technology, it's the burgeoning field of robotics and 3D printing. While most of the robots we've seen are more concerned with walking over heavy terrain or being able to lift heavy things, there's another side of robotics that's more concerned with making robots completely lifelike.
But what do you base these robots on? People you know or are familiar with, of course. Ricky Ma, an amateur engineer and technician spent a total of $50,000 building a lifelike robot completely from scratch with no other help beyond himself.
It just so happens that the robot looks like Scarlett Johansson and if you call it pretty, it responds with "hehe, thank you," which is not the least bit terrifying at all.
As Ricky explains it, he's always be interested in robotics. ""When I was a child, I liked robots. Why? Because I liked watching animation. All children loved it," Ricky explained. Sure, man, but so did we - but we're not going around building replicants of ScarJo because we watched Animaniacs or Transformers a lot as children.
Ricky's determination saw him learning the basics of programming, dynamics, electromechanics and plenty more before his unholy creation was put into action. Despite all the time, money, effort and - be real here - obvious ridicule he's about to receive, Ricky has no qualms about making a lifelike Scarlett Johansson that only says a few words to him. "I figured I should just do it when the timing is right and realise my dream. If I realise my dream, I will have no regrets in life."
You say that now, Ricky.
Wait until it becomes sentient and decides to rip your face off in the middle of the night and makes contact with Skynet.
Via Reuters