Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Hello You, this is the middle episode of Rise of the Robots, not the usual inside science, but we think you might like it anyway. This one concerns the

concept of embodiment in robotics how we physically interact with robot workers

helpers and sex robots. It's called more human than human, which is a quote from?

Hello, I am Casper.

Let's play together.

It will be disingenuous for me to not point out that he's pretty creepy looking.

Why is he designed like that?

You're not alone, a lot of adults who see Casper for the first time give us exactly this type of reaction.

We seem to be made to suffer. It's our lot in life. For your convenience, I am monitored to respond to the name Robbie.

Nice climate you have here. High oxygen. I rarely use it myself, sir. It promotes rust. The first 10 million years were the worst and the second 10 million.

They were the worst too.

Oh, didn't I tell you I were the brain the size of the planet? the Winging Translator C3PO, the Dower Robbie from the forbidden planets, and a terminally depressed

Marvin from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

At the beginning I was talking to Kirsten-Doutenheim and her creation Casper, a real robot boy used to help kids

with autism to engage emotionally.

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