When I see videos of robots walking around and performing tasks just like humans, it always strikes me as strange. A little eerie. Even sort of . . . creepy.

It’s like it would be easy for a robot to blow out of control and not give a hoot because it doesn’t have a hoot to give, at least not a human hoot. Even if it were powered by a million yottawatts, it still wouldn’t have a heart, and that is precisely what makes them scary, to me.

I think it’s the fact that there is “no one” inside, to whom I can actually relate, even though it acts like it’s alive. It has no soul, so it has no concept of good or bad behavior. I know, I know, AI can be “taught” to reason, but reason isn’t the same as ethics, and I don’t see how virtue can be programmed in unless there is a conscience to attach it to.

In a robot, the essence of mankind is totally absent, even though it can mimic my movements, and that leaves me with a certain amount of insecurity. It’s somewhat akin to why I don’t trust fake or shallow people, so it stands to reason that I would be a bit wary of a machine whose true persona consists of circuits, screws and bolts.

All of our lives we have been told to “be real,” and these days we seem to be headed in the opposite direction, which doesn’t feel right. Even Alexa can make me nervous. It reminds me of The Body Snatchers. Or The Stepford Wives. I thought those movies were pretty hair-raising, and now it doesn’t take much for me to sense that I’m living on the edge of similar scenarios, surrounded by the unreal pretending to be real.

At any rate, it’s just a thought. But it is from my heart, which is, by the way, human.

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