How About Getting Grandma A...

...robot?

Pepper (presumably no relation to Tony Stark's secretary) will retail for a very reasonable price - a bit under $2,000. They're going to be demonstrating it (her?) in stores and it will go on sale in February.

The robots are humanoid and learning-capable, although not the size of a human (yet). The plan is that the robots will be marketed as elder care assistants, companions for the lonely (I think I'd rather have a dog) and babysitters.

We'll have to see how well it works. Robotics is turning into an exciting field now, with the EU making a $3.8 billion joint investment with the robotics industry into robot research.

(The question is, can we make the adjustment to a society in which robots are common and are in stores, restaurants, and homes? What do we do about the displaced human labor?)