There is a day.
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About ten years ago when I asked a
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friend to hold a baby dinosaur
robot upside down.
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It was a toy called plea.
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All It's a super courts are
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showing off to my friend and I
said to hold it, but he'll see
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what debts.
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We were watching the theatrics of
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this robe that struggle and cry
out and and after a few The first.
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After my little and I said o.k.
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That's enough.
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Now, let's put him back down and
pepper, about to make it.
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Stop crying and I was kind of a
weird experience for me one thing,
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wasn't the most maternal person at
the time.
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Although, since then I've become a
mother and nine months ago.
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And that is a score when hold them
up to now, but my response to this
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robot was also interesting because
I knew exactly how this machine
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work it.
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And yet.
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I still felt compelled to be kind
to it.
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And that observation sparked that
curiosity that I spent the decade
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pursuing it.
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Why did they comfort this robe.
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One of the things I discovered was
my treatment of this machine was
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more than just an awkward moment
in my living room that in a world
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were increasingly integrating
robots into our lives and things
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like that might actually have
consequences because the first
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thing that I discovered is that.
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It's not just me in two thousand
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seven.
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The Washington Post reported that
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the United States military was
testing this robot diffused
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landmines.
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We workers were shaped like a
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stick insect would walk around a
minefield on its legs and every
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time he stepped on a mine.
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One of the legs would blow up
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would continue on the other legs
to block your minds in the colonel
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was in charge of this testing
exercise for calling it off
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because he says it's too inhumane
to watch this damage robot drag
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itself along What would cause a
hardened military officer and
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someone like myself to have this
response to row.
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But what.
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Of course for prime for science
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fiction, pop culture really want
to personify these things, but it
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goes a little bit deeper than that
it turns out that we are
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biologically hard wired to project
intent and life onto any movement
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in a physical space.
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It seems I promised us people
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treat all sort of robots like
their life.
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These bomb disposal units get
names.
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They get medals of honour had
funeral for them with gun salutes.
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Research shows that we do this.
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Even with very simple household
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robots like the room.
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A vacuum cleaner.
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Just a desk that runs around the
floor and clean it just the fact
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that it's moving around on his own
will cause people to name the
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marimba and feel bad for the room.
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But when he gets stuck under the
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couch.
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We can design about specifically
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to invoke this response using eyes
and faces were movement.
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People are magically
subconsciously associate with
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state of mind.
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There's an entire body of research
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called Human robot interaction
that really shows how all this
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works so.
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For example.
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Researchers at Stamford University
found out that makes people really
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uncomfortable and asked them to
touch her about his private parts
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from this from any other studies.
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We know.
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We know that people respond to the
cues given to them by the lifelike
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machines.
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Even if they know that they're not
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real.
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We're heading towards a world
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where robots are everywhere about
the technology is moving out from
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behind factory was entering
workplaces households and as these
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machines.
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They can sense and make a ton of
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my decisions and learn enter into
the shared spaces.
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I think that maybe the best
analogy.
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We have for this is our
relationship with animals.
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Thousands of years ago, we started
to domesticate animals and we
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train them for work and weaponry
and companionship.
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Throughout history.
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We've treated.
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Some animals like tools are the
products and other animals.
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We treated with kindness and given
a place in society as our
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companions.
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I think it's possible.
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We might start to integrate
Robartes, but similar weights
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animals are alive.
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Robert and that.
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And I can tell you from working.
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What about the sister were pretty
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far away from developing robots.
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They can feel anything there, but
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we feel for And that matters
because if we're trying to
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integrate robots into the shared
spaces need to understand that
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people treat them differently than
other devices that in some cases.
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For example, the case of a soldier
who becomes emotionally attached
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to the robot.
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They work.
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Well, if that can be anything from
inefficient to dangerous.
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But in other cases.
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It can actually be used for the
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faster this emotional connection
to, but we're really seeing some
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great use cases.
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For example, robots working with
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autistic children to engage them
in ways that we haven't seen
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previously robot's working with
teachers to engage kids and
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learning with new and it's not
just for kids early studies show
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that we can help doctors and
patients and health care settings
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and this is the pirate b. b. c.
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But it's used in nursing homes
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with dementia patients has been
around for a while I remember
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years ago.
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Being a party and telling someone
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about this throwback and her
response was I can't believe we're
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giving people robots instead of
human care.
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is a really common response and I
think it's absolutely correct
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because that would be terrible.
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And in this case.
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It's not with this robot replace
it with this robot replaces his
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animal therapy in context which he
was real animals.
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We can use robots because people
consistently treat them like more.
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More like an animal and have it
acknowledging this emotional
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connection.
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Robert, can also help us
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anticipate challenges as these
devices.
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Move into more intimate areas of
people's lives and for example is
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it.
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o.k.
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If your child's teddy bear robot
records private conversations.
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Is it.
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o.k.
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If your sex robot has compelling
in our purchasers because rope.
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That's plus capitalism equals
questions around consumer
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protection and privacy and those
aren't the only reason, said her
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behaviour around these machines
could, madam.
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A few years after that first
initial experience.
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I had with this baby dinosaur
robot do workshop with her friend
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Hannah Scott.
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Scott, then we took five of these
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baby dinosaur about we give them.
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The five teams of people.
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We had the name them and play with
them and them for about an hour.
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Then we unveiled a him or a
hatchet and we told them to
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torture and kill the row and then
this turned out to be a little
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more dramatic than we expected it
to be because none of the
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participants wouldn't even so much
as straight.
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A robot.
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So we had to improvise.
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End at some point.
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He said o.k.
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You can save your team's robot.
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If you destroy another team throw.
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I And anyone that didn't work.
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They couldn't do it.
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So finally said, We're gonna
destroy all the robots are someone
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takes a hatchet to one of them.
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This guy stood up and he took the
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hatchet and the whole room,
Winston.
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See brother had to down on the
robot's neck and there was this
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half joking.
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Is there reason to.
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For example, prevent the child
from kicking about Doc That just
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out of respect for property
because the child may be more
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likely to take a real dark and
again.
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It's not just kids and this is the
violent video games question, but
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it's a completely new level
because of this visceral
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physicality that we respond more
intensely.
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Two images on a screen, we behave
violently towards Robarts
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specifically robots that are
designed to mimic life is is that
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training cruelty muscles.
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The answer to this question has
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the potential impact human
behaviour has the potential impact
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social norms.
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It has the potential to inspire
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rules around.
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What we can and can't do certain
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Robarts animal cruelty, because
even if robots can't fuel our
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behaviour towards a matter for us
and regardless of whether we end
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up changing ovals robots might be
able to help us come to a new
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understanding of ourselves.
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Most of what learned over the past
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ten years have not been about
technology.
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A It's been about human psychology
and empathy and how we relate to
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others.
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And because when a child is kind
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to her room.
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But when a soldier tries to save a
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robot on the battlefield.
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When a group of people refuses to
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harm her about a baby dinosaur.
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Those robots aren't just motors in
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years and a groom's.
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