ANDROID V. ROBOT

Defining the difference between an android and a robot is a little like having an intellectual argument over whether a unicorn bearing stripes is indeed still a unicorn -- or just a really dope lookin' zebra? Show me an actual unicorn and I'll give you an actual definition of one.

Since the androids of science fiction are at present mythical entities, I'm willing to throw my two cents into the pot in offering up a "definition."

I'd argue that the distinction between android and robot is more than a matter of mere aesthetics. Androids aren't just robots that look human. Androids are the next link in the cybernetic evolutionary chain: the marriage of robotics and artificial intelligence. Androids can think. Robots can't. Therein lies the distinction.

Oh, and just as an aside: ever wonder what keeps Stephen Hawking awake at night? If you guessed the prospect of nuclear Armageddon or an asteroid of extinction event proportions on a collision course with Earth, you'd be wrong.

The source of Hawking's insomnia is in fact the rise of artificial intelligence. The advent of super-intelligent, self-replicating machines which may prove antithetical to the very existence of their creators.