Evidence of humans fearing technology dates back to the Industrial Revolution, when the term technophobia was coined.
Seventeenth-century factory workers worried that the development of new machines would take away their livelihoods and ability to survive.
It turns out some of those fears are justified.
Violent man-versus-machine conflicts saw members of the British working class destroying the devices that had replaced their jobs well into the 1800s, setting the stage for centuries of anti-robot rhetoric played out in books, movies and ideological movements.
Today, serious fears of a "robot revolution" are starting to crystallize for the average person – it's happening quickly, and spreading beyond science fiction.
'The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.' - Stephen Hawking
The year 2015 featured stories of robotic technology, artificial intelligence, autonomous weaponry and what the exponential rate of innovation in these sectors could mean for humanity.
And if foreboding statements by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and other tech industry leaders this year prove true, robot-human relations could nosedive sooner than many of us expect.
"Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has reached a point where the deployment of [autonomous weapons] systems is — practically if not legally — feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high," reads an open letter from July signed by Hawking, Musk, Steve Wozniak and Noam Chomsky, among others.
"If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable, and the endpoint of this technological trajectory is obvious: autonomous weapons will become the Kalashnikovs of tomorrow."
The world's top minds say we shouldn't create AI w/ lethal autonomy. It's imperative we listen http://t.co/Ty12n9shm0 http://pic.twitter.com/pccDWuC7QY
— @mg
Here are some of the most "terrifying" news stories about robots from 2015, as judged by the reactions of our audience members, staffers and the world at large.
They took our jobs
Robots Xiaolan and Xiaotao are servers designed to bring customers their food at a restaurant that opened in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China earlier this year. (Reuters)
Japanese data scientists predicted in early December that more than half of all jobs in Japan could be lost to machines by 2035. The same has been forecast for the U.K., which could eventually see 50 per cent of its workers replaced by robots, according to a recent Bank of England study.
"Technology appears to be resulting in faster, wider and deeper degrees of hollowing out than in the past," said Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane when the study's results were released in November.
"Why? Because 20th-century machines have substituted not just for manual human tasks, but cognitive ones too," he said. "The set of human skills machines could reproduce, at lower cost, has both widened and deepened."
Robots demonstrated an aptitude for jobs that fell far away from factory lines over the past 12 months.
Friendly humanoid receptionists made their way from Japan to Canada this year, where they already had jobs lined up at Edmonton's Fantasyland Hotel.
Robear the Polar Bear robot demonstrates how it can transfer frail patients from a wheelchair to a bed or a bath. Shown to reporters earlier this year in Nagoya, Japan, the bot has been described as having 'a polar cub-like face with big doey eyes.' (Jiji Press/AFP/Getty Images)
While relatively new to Canada, service bots like these have become increasingly popular in recent years among Japanese business owners. In 2015 alone, robots made headlines for working as bank tellers, department store greeters and even actors.
The health-care industry, too, continues to be rocked by new technologies that either promise, or already do everything from take care of dementia patients and perform surgery to sniff out cancer in humans.
Also on the list of potential job threateners that emerged in North America this year are tree planting robots, delivery drones, robot first responders, flying farm workers, robo-garbage collectors and, of course, drivers.
Not even dogs are safe from technological unemployment, thanks to the advent sheep-herding drones.
They did our chores (... on their own)
Creepy, cool or disturbingly sexy? Tesla's new automatic 'robot snake' car charger provoked some strange feelings around the web this week. (Tesla Motors/YouTube)
Robot chefs? Check. Robot yard workers? Check. Robots that will wash, fold and put away your laundry? Check.
It's hard to say much that's negative about machines that take away our most dreaded household tasks, and yet, the very idea of a robot butler still creeps many people out – particularly now, with AI advancements that have seen bots teaching themselves how to do things without our help.
In August, Tesla unveiled a functional charger prototype for its Model S electric car that can purportedly find a charging port, plug itself in, and juice the vehicle up without any sort of human assistance.
The fact this machine takes the shape of a giant, undulating snake was more terrifying to most than the whole "car that can plug itself in" thing.
Another project deemed spooky on the viral web this year was Google's deep dive into Artificial Neural Networks and the ensuing images of "dreams" machines were said to have had.
Produced by computer networks without any specific instructions, the "trippy" images were generated purely from random noise and what the networks had "learned" in training.
Mattel had privacy advocates up in arms this year over the release of Hello Barbie, a doll that can record conversations and engage in two-way dialogue with children. (Mattel)
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