Now build me a robot ninja.

To be perfectly honest, the Shadow Robot Company sounds like an evil corporation from a 1990s anime – maybe Mobile Suit Gundam: Hoxton. ON THE OTHER HAND (wait for it, that phrase becomes pretty important shortly) they actually design and make robot components, so the name is fairly appropriate. Plus, two of my friends work for them (or with them, or around them, or something) so I have a vested interest. Actually I don’t have a vested interest, but I wish I did, because robot parts are going to be big in the future. Not big physically – although they might be, especially if that whole Gundam thing has a revival – but big in a pop-cultural sense. Trust me, you heard it here first, or you read it somewhere else first, which seems more likely. Anyway, Michael Pollitt (yes, one of those friends and my ex-flatmate) circulated some press coverage to me a while back, which I managed to ignore. In a spirit of reconciliation, here are the videos:

They build robot hands, you see? That’s why I said “On the other hand”!

Truly my time is wasted on you, the reader.