Information Retrieval

Robots will eventually be a part of our everyday lives, in some way they are. But as we imbue them with more personality and human like characteristics will it become harder to think of them as hardware? Take this little guy from builder Legoloverman, it's really hard not to feel sorry for him. A robot is a bunch of metal, plastic and circuits, no more "alive" than a Roomba, but I doubt I'd feel anything if one was in this same position.