Why does the way that a robot moves change how we feel about it?

And what does that tell us about human brains?

For example, should we program a robot to look at an object

that it's about to pick up,

even if it doesn't need to look because it has cameras all around?

Why did our evolutionary history make us so sensitive to movement?

Why do we read so much into it?

Why do we trust graceful motion?

Is movement the original form of animal intelligence?

Today we're joined by Dr. Katie Kwan, a roboticist, and a professional dancer and choreographer.

Katie is an expert on this strange social interface between robots and humans,

and she's gotten there by dancing with robots.

Welcome to Inner Cosmos.

With me, David Eagleman, I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford,

and in these episodes,

we sailed deeply into our three-pound universe to understand why and how our lives look the way

they do.

This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

Here's something that happens all the time in modern life, and most of us barely notice it anymore.

You walk into a grocery store and the automatic door slides open before you touch it. If you live in a big city,

little delivery robots roll past you on the sidewalk. If you have a modern car, the steering wheel

...