The Next Big Sensation?

"Well, that's not a current research program, I can just tell you that," Schaeffer says.

May be missing a bet.

Last year an impressive range of serious publications, including this one, respectfully reviewed a book titled "Love and Sex With Robots: The Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships," by David Levy.

"Levy's thesis isn't as silly as you might initially think," The Post's reviewer wrote. "Technological advances will someday be complemented by cultural changes, and cavorting with robots just won't seem weird anymore."

Why is it important to humans that machines are beginning to touch us back?

"It was incredibly important to humans when robots started to look at you, recognize a face and make eye contact," says Sherry Turkle, a psychologist, author and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self.

"The eye contact turned out to be a significant Darwinian button. We are hard-wired for that. That's how we sense the presence of an other. Same thing with touch. That is the way we connect with an other that knows about us, that understands us. It is in our evolution. We are hard-wired to communicate with each other by touch. It's how we stroke babies, how we want to be comforted. . . .

"A heartbeat is a powerful way of signaling the presence of another human soul."