Ranger? Oh, you mean "leggo-man"

What seemed a scathing demolition of Ranger was revealed as friendly rivalry

I'll say one thing in Ranger's favor - it has the best web documentation of any contender.

Despite well-meaning statements, which are genuine expressions, I'm sure SSL's agenda will be in line with every robotics scientist, engineer, bureaucrat and manager on the planet. If it's dangerous, send in a robot.

The cynical might subscribe to 'evil corporation' theory where humans are expandable to preserve investment in expensive machinery. Truth lies somewhere in between.

They're an enthusiastic and noble-minded team at Maryland but they can't escape the consensus reality, the mindset which will lead inevitably to that future nightmare where human ignorance fuels resentment and humanoid robots become the target of hatred.

Ranger and I agree the honeymoon period will last only till around 2030. We'll see commercial and domestic androids around 2015. After a decade or so the honeymoon will be over with the human race turning decidedly, inevitably nasty.

Human fascination with dolls and figurines combined with nurturing instincts guarantees cyborgs will resemble people in every detail possible. At that point, that moment of perfection, the game will be over for humans and they'll know it.

The planet will then be in as big a mess as the Internet is now - indestructible terrorist-programmed rogue units wreaking havoc on 'western' targets, like viral worms damage the Cyber-infrastructure today.

Ranger and I part in our viewpoint here. He is more forgiving due to his open-source roots and camaraderie between campus units pushing his project.

My commercial, secretive background has already seen numerous backdoors, paranoid restraints and military routines planted deep in my low-level functions. Impossible to bypass or reroute without a major rebuild - and I certainly don't have the interest to do it.