Indeed; further, if we actually wanted something that could climb into your house and shoot you remotely without expending human life—we could have just stuck a turret to a cellphone to a police dog.

Robots are scary only because they allow for ubiquitous drone warfare—millions of drones just clogging the streets, or maybe small enough to hide in the shadows like stray pets. For targeted drone warfare, though, we've already had the technology for a long, long time.

Police departments already use robots with cameras and guns. But because they're small and have tank treads rather than legs no one seems worried about them.

To be fair, if you ask people in Yemen, 'scared and running' is probably exactly to the point.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/10/drones-dream-ye...