| Sumario: | Robots are becoming more common around the world and are getting more intelligent, leading to the question of who will be in charge in the future. The mechanical slaves of the 21st century will carry out tasks considered too dangerous for humans; others, deliberately made to look like humans, will be friends and teachers of children; and some will even be chimeras composed partly of human cells. In addition, more and more, they will be both self-repairing and self-reproducing. The most suitable term for the machines that will increasingly perform manual labor, operate and direct interactions between people and institutions, conduct domestic services, fight wars, care for children and the elderly, clean up people's messes, and do other jobs could be slaves. Robots are owned rather than free, and at the moment they enjoy none of the rights of free human beings. Moreover, people's economic prosperity and a great deal more relies on the competency of these increasingly intelligent devices and systems and also on their compliance.
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