This is pretty cool. Some place called Cornell University devised a robot that is capable of becoming self-aware. What if, say, my car became self-aware one morning on the way to work, and decided it didn't want to transport me to work after all, but instead drive to the beach and sit around looking out across the ocean all morning? Now that would be the perfect excuse for missing a day of work - "I'm sorry I wasn't here yesterday, but my car became self-aware and it took me to the beach instead!" This can also work for washing the dishes..."I'm sorry, but the scouring pad became self-aware last night! It demanded I just set it on the windowsill! I was held fast in its thrall!"

This robot can apparently also adapt to overcome "injury" (though I would call that mechanical failure). It looks kind of creepy, in a robo-punky Silent Hill kind of way. I can imagine a horde of these slowly tapping their metallic appendages along a dimly lit hallway on their way to subjugate me.