There's a new book out
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How to Build an Android: The True Story of Philip K. Dick's Robotic Resurrection"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805095519/It chronicles the design, building and programming of one of the most advanced humanoid robotic devices to date.
As you can see in this video (skip ahead to minute 3),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ZAMR7F47oBc&NR=1the Phillip K Dick robot made eye contact when it conversed, had all 28 major facial muscles, giving it a full range of expressions, and could remember your name---way beyond its toylike droid or Japanese fembot contemporaries.
It was making the rounds in 2005 and on its way from Texas to San Francisco to meet Google execs when disaster struck. Its inventor left Dick's head in an overhead bin on an AirWest flight bound for Orange County (the real Phillip K Dick's hometown!) The airline found it in Vegas and promised to ship it. It never arrived.
Read the book for the rest of the amazing true story.
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Or read on.
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Quote:Stolen Head of Philip K. Dick Android Discovered in Russian Pirate Bust
http://www.fictioncircus.com/news.php?id=529&mode=oneYep, Russian software pirates somehow got hold of him, erased his encyclopedic memory of Dick's works and history, and replaced it with stolen copies of "Three's Company" for smuggling to South America. For real.
He's back, sporting a colorful latin american style shirt and spouting his dystopian philosophy of the manipulation of human perception:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20028602-1.html