No matter whether you are a stay-at-home parent or a full-time employee, it can be difficult to find that perfect work-life balance. Aside from “work,” common day-to-day tasks such as household chores, yard work, caring for pets, managing finances, and taking care of ourselves can quickly become overwhelming.

While they may seem tedious and mundane, these everyday tasks keep our homes, vehicles, and bodies in good working order. However, often, these errands become so commonplace that we typically perceive them to be far more dreadful than dangerous.

However, these stories prove that all it takes is a split second for either a mistake or a bizarre external factor to completely change the trajectory of our lives, even while doing something as simple as taking the dog for a walk, mowing the grass, or making a routine trip to the dentist.

Here are the stories of ten common activities and tasks that quickly turned into tragic freak accidents.

Related: Top 10 Freaky Car Accidents With No Survivors

10 Walking the Dog

Around 5 am on August 16, 2023, 34-year-old Madeline Kelly of Mendota, California, took her boyfriend’s dog out for a walk.

Unfortunately, there had been a small fire in the area on August 14. While the fire department extinguished the vegetation fire, the power company—Pacific Gas and Electric—was not alerted as the power lines did not appear to be affected by the fire. However, the fire had indeed weakened the power pole, and sometime between the Monday night fire and Kelly’s Wednesday morning walk, the line fell.

Without the aid of sunlight during Kelly’s early morning walk, she was unable to see the hazard and stepped on the live wires. Sadly, both Kelly and the dog were electrocuted. Kelly’s boyfriend later discovered the pair’s bodies.

Emergency responders attempted to revive Kelly, but after unsuccessful attempts, first responders pronounced both she and the dog dead.

A spokesperson for Pacific Gas and Electric later issued a statement that read, “We are working with first responders to investigate the circumstances of the tragic accident in Mendota this week. Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who have been impacted.” An investigation is ongoing.^[1]

9 Mowing the Grass

Sixty-four-year-old Peggy Jones and her husband, 66-year-old Wendell, planned to end the day of July 25, 2023, by mowing the lawn of their investment property in Silsbee, Texas, and then heading off to the casino together.

Given that the yard work was typically a three-hour job, Wendell got to work in the front of the property while Peggy set out on a riding mower in the back of the property. Then, “all of a sudden, out of the clear blue sky, a snake fell… and landed on Peggy’s arm.”

The four-foot (1.2-meter) snake clutched onto Peggy’s right arm and wouldn’t let go. The snake then began striking at her face, but thankfully, its venom landed on Peggy’s glasses rather than in her eyes. However, the more Peggy attempted to thrust her arm, the tighter the snake’s grip became. As if this situation wasn’t bad enough, Peggy had to continue to maintain control of the tractor, all while desperately screaming for help. Unfortunately, the sound of both tractors, along with traffic from the nearby highway, made it impossible for Wendell to hear her cries.

Just then, a brown and white hawk swooped down, creating a “tug-of-war of nature” as the hawk tried to grab the snake, who still refused to let go of Peggy’s arm. Despite the failed attempt at capturing the serpent, the hawk refused to give up on its prey. After swooping in four more times, the snake was finally released from Peggy’s arm, and the hawk flew away with it.

Thankfully, Peggy was eventually able to get her husband’s attention, but by this time, her arm was covered in blood, claw marks, lacerations, and punctures. Wendell rushed Peggy to the emergency room, where she was given antibiotics, her wounds were cleaned and bandaged, and her condition was stabilized.

The incident not only left Peggy with nightmares but also with the inability to use her arm. Fortunately, Wendell, along with the couple’s children and grandchildren, assisted Peggy with daily tasks and took extra precautions to keep her wounds wrapped and free from infection.^[2]

8 Running on the Treadmill

On July 21, 2023, 36-year-old Delrie Rosario and her sister, Marissa Woods, went to a local LA Fitness Center in Kent, Washington, to run on the treadmill, something the sisters did nearly every day. Unfortunately, their typical exercise routine turned into a “bizarre accident.”

As Rosario attempted to slow the treadmill down, she stumbled and hit her head on the front of the machine, causing her to fall off and lose consciousness.

Woods stated she then began screaming for help in hopes of gaining the attention of someone who knew how to perform CPR. While other gym-goers came to her aid, Woods claimed none of the gym staff tried to assist her.

Rosario was rushed to a nearby hospital but, sadly, never regained consciousness.

Amid the family’s grief, they found peace in knowing that Rosario, who was known for having “the biggest heart,” would go on to save the lives of others. Her heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver were transplanted in order to save the lives of five people on organ donor waiting lists.^[3]

7 Going to the ATM

Sixty-three-year-old Michael Diaczyszyn of Glenarm, North Ireland, was described as a “fun-loving big man with a good soul” who “saw the bright side of everything.” Unfortunately, his life was taken due to a freak accident at an ATM machine.

On February 22, 2017, Diaczyszyn went to withdraw money from a cash machine in Larne, North Ireland. However, while attempting to complete the transaction, a runaway empty Vauxhall Vivaro van rolled back down the street and hit him.

Diaczyszyn was taken to a local hospital for a broken leg but sadly died the following morning due to complications from surgery.^[4]

6 Getting a Tooth Filled

On March 18, 2022, 60-year-old Tom Jozsi of Antioch, Illinois, went to the dentist’s office for a routine procedure. However, what should have been a normal trip to the dentist ended with a trip to the hospital and the need for intensive surgery.

As Jozsi was getting his tooth filled, he “felt a cough” coming on. Jozsi was then told that he had swallowed one of the dentist’s tools—a one-inch (2.5-cm) long drill bit.

Jozsi went to a local hospital, but X-rays were unable to show the location of the drill bit. A CT scan later revealed that the drill bit was located really far down on the right lower lobe of Jozsi’s lung rather than in his stomach. In light of this, doctors believed that prior to Jozsi’s coughing, he also inhaled, which caused the drill bit to go into his lungs.

Jozsi was transferred to a hospital in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but unfortunately, the drill bit was so deep in his lung that traditional scopes could not reach it. Jozsi was advised that part of his lung may have to be removed if the drill bit could not successfully be taken out.

Thankfully, Dr. Abdul Alraiyes and Dr. Hasnain Bawaadam were able to utilize robotic bronchoscopy—a procedure that uses a smaller and more flexible scope that can get into lung airways and detect lung cancer at its earliest stage. The doctors used this to navigate the narrow airways and reach the drill piece without damaging Jozsi’s lung.

Fortunately, the 90-minute procedure went “exactly as planned,” and Jozsi was able to go home the same day. Jozsi said the drill bit is now proudly displayed on a shelf at home.^[5]

5 Changing a Flat Tire

William Jason Lamont Bell Sr. of Chicago, Illinois, and his family were on a road trip to Kentucky. However, late in the morning of August 15, 2023, the vehicle they were traveling in got a flat tire along the interstate in Northwest Indiana.

When Bell Sr. left the vehicle to change the tire, his 15-year-old son, William Jason Lamont Bell Jr., followed and insisted on helping his father. Unfortunately, while the two were fixing the flat, a semi-truck traveling in the same direction experienced a mechanical failure. As it passed by, one of its rear wheels dislodged from the truck.

The loose wheel, with its tire still attached, rolled along the barrier wall before striking Bell Jr. and the four other individuals who were outside of the parked vehicle.

Police were dispatched to the scene, and Bell Jr. was quickly rushed to a local hospital. However, once his injuries were deemed life-threatening, Bell Jr. was transferred to a hospital in Chicago. Bell was placed on life support but died on August 18, 2023. The other four individuals received non-life-threatening injuries.

The semi-truck driver was sent to a local hospital for a mandatory toxicology test. Although drugs and alcohol were not believed to be a factor in the accident, the semi-trailer was impounded for inspection by state police.^[6]

4 Doing Laundry

On the evening of September 21, 2008, 29-year-old Carl Thomas of Dixie County, Florida, went to do his laundry in an unattached shed near the home where he lived. However, when Thomas did not return to the house, witnesses said they went to look for him.

Unfortunately, they found Thomas on the floor next to a clothes dryer. Witnesses performed CPR until first responders arrived. Thomas was then transported to the Old Town Helipad but, sadly, pronounced dead shortly after his arrival.

An investigation into the electrical wiring of the shed revealed that the electrical system did not meet current standards. Therefore, when the dryer was plugged in, it would have become energized and had the potential to shock anyone who touched it.

An autopsy later revealed Thomas’ cause of death as “positional asphyxiation with the contributing cause of electrocution.” It was believed that in attempting to plug in the dryer, Thomas was shocked and then fell between the appliances, causing him to be unable to breathe.^[7]

3 Going Through the Drive Thru

In the early morning hours of September 8, 2021, a man, later identified as 42-year-old Anthony “Tony” Eyles, stopped to get breakfast from a local McDonald’s in Vancouver, Canada.

Eyles went to pay for his meal at 5:30 am but dropped his bank card onto the ground. Eyles then opened the car door to pick up the card, but unfortunately, “the vehicle rolled forward, colliding into a structural piece of the restaurant.” Eyles became pinned between the vehicle door and frame and was unable to free himself.

First responders arrived at the McDonald’s location and attempted to revive Eyles, but sadly, he died at the scene.^[8]

2 Taking Out the Trash

In May of 2012, 66-year-old John Fozard of Anglesey, Wales, was emptying a garbage can in his house. However, as he was throwing the trash away, pieces of a broken wine glass tore through the bag and cut him, leaving a 1.5-inch (4-cm) wound on his thigh, just above the knee. Unfortunately, the glass severed his femoral artery—the main blood vessel supplying blood to the lower body.

Fozard attempted to stop the bleeding but later collapsed in his bathroom due to the loss of blood.

Fozard’s next-door neighbors, Gwyndaf Rowlands and his wife, became worried after hearing the sound of running water for hours but never seeing Fozard. It was then that Rowlands looked through a kitchen window and saw blood, so he contacted the police.

Paramedics arrived on the scene and broke into Fozard’s house in an attempt to provide medical care, but sadly, it was too late. Fozard bled to death.^[9]

1 Putting Gas in Vehicle

On December 22, 2021, 46-year-old Sheryll Grace “Shoi” Delfin Caballes was pumping gasoline at a Circle K station in Palm Harbor, Florida. As Caballes proceeded to put gas into her 2018 Honda SUV, a 66-year-old woman backed her 2006 Nissan sedan into a gas pump.

The impact knocked the fuel dispenser from its base, causing the gas pump to overturn on Caballes. Caballes became pinned between the pump and her SUV, which then caught fire.

Two of Caballes’s children (ages 11 and 14), who were in the car at the time, were able to get out and attempted to save their mother. Thirty-four-year-old Jared Pierson, a homeless Good Samaritan, also attempted to help by using the fire extinguisher beside the pumps and getting the children to safety. Unfortunately, the flames were too much, and Caballes burned to death.

In August of 2022, the Caballes family went on to file a lawsuit against 13 defendants, which included Circle K Stores, Inc. and Shell Oil Company, since the device designated to stop fuel flow if a gas pump is damaged or struck by a vehicle was not working, and additionally because the Circle K employee failed to trigger the emergency stop switch.^[10]

Cannibalism is a taboo line that many dare not to even think of crossing, even in hypothetical situations of extreme desperation or survival. Within it are plenty of moral, ethical, and downright sanitary dilemmas. Of course, that isn’t to say that it hasn’t happened, and even happened in ways that exceed our collective wildest imaginations. Below are 10 examples of cannibalism that would be beyond belief if they hadn’t been so well documented. 

10 Rudy Eugene

We’ve all heard of stories of “Florida Man,” but Rudy Eugene is proof that you cannot fathom the depths of depravity capable in a drug-fueled rage. On a beautiful sunny afternoon on May 26, 2012, in Miami, Florida, Rudy Eugene, 31 years old, crossed paths with homeless Ronald Poppo on the MacArthur Freeway. Eugene’s car had broken down on his way to a beach party, but he continued on foot, shedding all of his clothes along the way. First red flag.

After a short, apparently polite, greeting, Eugene lunged at Poppo, beating him into unconsciousness and removing his pants. He then proceeded to bite viciously at Poppo’s face, chewing off parts in the process. One of those parts was his left eye. Eugene was unresponsive to officers when they arrived on the scene, save an animalistic growl. He was then shot and killed. While postmortem toxicology reports were expected to turn up bath salts in his system, nothing definitive was found, save marijuana. 

9 Fore People, Papua New Guinea

It’s easy (and common) to foist the idea of cannibalism on the “less civilized” peoples isolated from modern civilization and balk at their customs, but that’s not what we’re here for. Ick factor aside, did you know the possible danger of consuming human flesh? The Fore people of Papua New Guinea didn’t. In the late 1950s, members of the Fore society were stricken with Kuru, a terminal wasting disease, at an alarming rate. Researchers discovered that a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy was to blame, akin to Mad Cow Disease. Prions (misfolded proteins) cause neighboring proteins to misfold (in a way currently not understood by scientists), creating plaques that turn your brain into Swiss cheese. This happens when an infected cow’s meat is ground up and served to unsuspecting burger lovers.

But the Fore People? It turned out they practice funerary cannibalism, where eating your loved one is a sign of mourning and respect; women and the young were most likely to consume the brains of the deceased. 

8 The Milwaukee Monster

Jeffrey Dahmer, aka The Milwaukee Monster, is a well-known serial killer active in the late ’80s and early ’90s who preyed on some of society’s most vulnerable: gay sex workers. He would often lure these men (ranging from ages 14-31) to his home on promises of payment for nude photos. Then he would spike their drink, strangle them, engage in acts of necrophilia, and then mutilate their bodies. He would “savor” those he was most attracted to by cooking up their flesh (Dahmer once mused that human tastes like filet minion). He then used their bleached bones as decoration in his apartment.

But did you know that the brevity with which he approached his crimes is what eventually would get him killed? In prison, Dahmer would often arrange his food into the shape of severed limbs with the final touch of a squirt of ketchup “blood” in order to antagonize his fellow inmates. This is what pushed inmate Christopher Scarver to bludgeon Dahmer to death in 1994, only a few years after his 16 consecutive life terms sentence.

7 Jamestown Starving Time

In history class as kids, we are often taught about the glorious coming-together of the pilgrims and the Indigenous people of America in what we now celebrate as Thanksgiving. Skimming over the actual genocide of their neighbors, everything wasn’t always hunky-dory for America’s first European settlers. In the winter of 1609-1610, due to a dry rainy season stunting crop growth, restricted access to clean water, delay in supplies delivery, and just too many mouths to feed, the people began to starve.

When horse, dog, cat, rat, or even shoe leather wasn’t available for meat, the few remaining settlers settled for humans. Scientific analysis of unearthed remains revealed that one 14-year-old girl was murdered and sectioned apart to be eaten, deduced from four shallow chop marks to her skull. All in all, the population of Jamestown went from roughly 500 to 61 over the course of this infamous winter.

6 Leonarda Cianciulli

If you’re any bit of a supplicant to the increasingly trendy mass fascination of “True Crime” (which, judging by your interest in this article, that’s quite likely), then you know that historically, female serial killers are rare. So here’s one for you: Leonarda Cianciulli. Leonarda was born in idyllic Southern Italy and was plagued with the fears that none of her children would survive into adulthood. This was due in part to fortune tellers, paranoia, and most reasonably, the available healthcare at the time. By 1938 some of her dread was warranted as only four children out of a total of 17 pregnancies had survived. When her eldest child wanted to join the army in preparation for WWII, well, that just wouldn’t do. Leonarda’s most logical solution to ensure his safety was with not one, not two, but three total human sacrifices.

The victims were three women from her community who trusted Leonarda, and we’ll let Leonarda reflect on how she mishandled that trust: “She ended up in the pot, like the other two…her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil, I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbors and acquaintances.” As for the leftover blood: “I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk, and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.”

5 North Korean Black Market

Even in 2021, North Korea remains an insular totalitarian state under the rule of their Glorious (late) Leader Kim Il-Song, stewarded by his progeny and their progeny, dedicated to complete rejection of any outside influence. While we may find their attempts to appear up-to-date, such as Kim Jong-Un’s love of Dennis Rodman and the fake props of actually-uninhabited buildings in capital Pyongyang, funny, what isn’t is the condition a majority of the North Korean people live in. What little we know is thanks to testimony by defectors who survived their escape into China and South Korea: the majority of people, excluding the elite and government officials, subsist off of very little to eat, now known as the “Hidden Famine.”

Enter the Black Market. In its darkest corners, you can find some conventional and other strange-looking meats. It’s also in these areas that children disappear. A specific account details the disappearance of two siblings last seen near a noodle shop… The owner would reveal that she offered the children a place near the fire and a bit of broth to warm themselves up. When they fell asleep, she murdered them, butchered them, then later served them up to eat.

4 The Man Who Ate His Own Foot

This story comes from Reddit user IncrediblyShinyShart and yes, before you ask, there are multiple interviews AND pictures to support its validity. Having suffered a debilitating foot injury in a motorcycle crash, this user agreed with the doctor’s decision to amputate. Now, apparently, a running gag in his friend group was eating human meat, so he thought, “I’ll just ask if I can bring my foot home.” Harmless, right? Now, back at home, foot in hand, after some casual goofing with friends, the group decided to salvage what foot meat they could, marinate it overnight, and pan-fry it up the next day alongside some veggies for tacos. Foot Tacos. 

3 Armin Meines

In the last entry, we asked the question: what if you could cannibalize yourself? In the case of Armin Meines, now known as the Rotenburg Cannibal or Der Metzgermeister (The Master Butcher), he wondered, “What if you could cannibalize someone else, but consensually?” You see, Meines fantasized about the truest form of intimacy: eating another person. They would therefore exist inside you, indefinitely. This desire possibly stems from perceived insecurity in familial bonds in his childhood, but to Meines, it became one of his greatest sexual desires. And he found a consensual partner in Bernd Jürgen Armando Brandes on the website The Cannibal Cafe. (Fair warning, this next part is gruesome.)

Together, on March 9, 2001, Brandes downed sleeping pills and cough syrup, and Meines cut off his penis, fried it in a pan with salt, pepper, wine, garlic, and Brandes’s fat, but much to Brandes’s dismay upon trying it, found it was overcooked. Meines was then moved to a tub to bleed out (while Brandes read a Star Trek book), stabbed in the neck, hung on a meat hook, and dismembered. This was all videotaped. Forty-four pounds of Meines was enjoyed by Brandes over the next ten months and was only caught when his search for his next partner online was alerted to authorities.

2 Joel Guy Jr.

This one technically doesn’t involve cannibalism per se, but the gruesome murder scene authorities would walk into on November 26, 2016, is enough to make anyone’s stomach turn. Joel Guy Jr. was unhappy to learn that after 28 years of not having a job, being entirely supported by his parents, that they were planning to retire soon, thus cutting him off. He planned to murder Joel and Lisa guy, burn the house down and somehow pin it all on his father in a tragic murder-suicide and rake in that sweet sweet life insurance money (valued at $500,000).

Instead, authorities were called in to perform a welfare check and discovered the following scene: Joel Sr. had been stabbed over 40 times, dismembered, mostly dissolving in a vat of decomposition stew except for his hands, which were found on the floor. Lisa received over 30 stab wounds and got mostly the same treatment, except her head was found in a pot on the stove, likely simmering for days. Yikes.

1 Issei Sagawa

Issei Sagawa, a Japanese-born student, studying in Paris in 1981, exacted a plan to lure classmate Renée Hartevelt to his apartment under the guise of dinner and poetry translation, killed her via a rifle shot from behind, then proceeded to mutilate, rape, and eat her corpse. He photographed her at each of these stages.

He was caught trying to dump her remains but was found legally insane in France. He was deported, and through legal loopholes, is now a free man. He’s widely known in Japan and has written books testifying to the twisted reasoning behind his crimes. At 4’9″, he felt inferior and weak and wanted to absorb Hartevelt’s beauty and strength. It just freaking sucks, doesn’t it?

We’ve come a long way from fearful predictions of artificial intelligence taking over humanity, and futuristic renderings of robots that look like CP3O had a baby with Rosie (the robot maid from The Jetsons).

Engineers have crafted silicon skin that mimics human skin texture; they are perfecting the subtleties of expression. They’ve even crafted autonomous-minded conversationalists with the ability to learn and store information based on interactions with humans and other robots.

No, robots and AI haven’t taken over the world yet, but their brains are in our technology, and the robot model can be so realistic it’s terrifying. Here are ten realistic robots that will freak you out.

Related: 10 Interesting Facts About The Rise Of Sex Robots

10 Ai-Da

Ai-Da recently made news when she was stopped from boarding a flight. Why? Because she’s a robot, and the country in question suspected that she might be a surveillance robot. Now, she’s no James Bond, nor is she even the webcam on your laptop that you cover up with a sticky note so the government can’t spy on you. No, Ai-Da is an artist, darnit! Let her fly, let her paint!

Ai-Da’s programming is so sophisticated that it allows her to process everything she needs to sculpt, paint, and draw. Her torso and up are all very developed, and engineers gave her a fitting female voice. What entirely gives her away as a robot is her pair of exposed, mechanical arms.

Her claim to fame is being the first AI to create self-portraits. Did she self-portrait herself because she wanted to? No, her creators programmed her to do that, and there’s no sign of sentience—yet. But this accomplishment still shows the potential of a robot to infiltrate more than computers and numbers. Even art is on the table.

9 Sophia

Sophia the robot hit the scene in 2016 and almost immediately went viral. She is pretty badass, especially with her Mojo Jojo-esque brain. Developed by Hanson Robotics, she is incredibly realistic, with very human-like responses and facial expressions. I mean, just watch her speak. It’s the eyebrows, the way she moves her head when she speaks, even the quality and texture of her skin…it’s crazy.

Sophia’s ability to hold entire conversations with people has led to several appearances on late-night talk shows and other platforms of interest. With a shirt and a wig on, you’d probably have no idea you were speaking with an intelligent AI, maybe someone who is just a little bit odd.

Outside of looks, because it’s the inside that counts, Sophia provides the blueprint for innovative research into robot-human interaction and the future of AI in general.

8 Geminoid DK

Not for nothin’, but this next guy sounds like Frank Zappa named him. Geminoid DK is an ultra-realistic robot modeled after Danish professor Henrik Scharfe (down to the way he shrugs his shoulders). DK acts as Scharfe’s surrogate, and Scharfe operates it remotely.

Geminoid was originally unveiled in 2011 as a way to study the interactions between humans and robots. However, we can’t help but obsess over how realistic engineers and artists crafted its face. Out of all the robots here, this is the one you’d never guess was a robot (until you see that his bottom half is hooked up to all sorts of computers).

I guess this would be more fascinating than freaky if it weren’t for the fact that some of the robot’s facial transitions aren’t quite perfect. If you watch the YouTube video for this section (you watch the videos, right?) and skip to around 0:16, its sudden open expression is a hell game version of peek-a-boo. 

I don’t like it.

7 Jennie the Robo Dog

Jenny, I want your numbah!

This isn’t that, Jenny. This is Jennie. Jennie is a robot therapy dog for people who cannot care for pets. It runs on batteries and doesn’t have to go to the bathroom. Unlike many robotic animals that are mostly exposed to the “bones,” Jennie is modeled after a fluffy golden retriever and was given all the cute nuances.

Kind of.

Its face is a little like a taxidermy project gone wrong, but it’s real enough to be convincing from a distance…it’s pretty creepy. Still, the creator has gone to great lengths to meet a need, and he’ll probably be a very rich man one day. Even if robot dogs aren’t man’s best friend.

6 Nadine

We covered the robot emotional support dog, but what about an emotional support robot human? Nadine, who was developed in Singapore by Professor Nadia Thalmann, is what robotics folks call a “social robot.” That means she is capable of conversation, remembering things you tell her, and learning. Her design isn’t half bad, and engineers even gave her hands! The only thing is that her hands are different (some OG Michael Crichton Westworld right there).

Like, you know how you’re supposed to dance the robot with Barbie hands? They’re like that. Go in for a handshake, and there’s no firm grip, just a weird robot hand with thick fingers.

Nadine’s potential to become a prototype companion robot is pretty high, and her purpose is noble. But she is a little freaky looking—only because she’s a robot. I’m sure she’s a lovely human being.

5 Henn na Hotel Workers

I guess this is what robot-fearing people mean when they say that robots are taking over human jobs. The Henn na Hotel in Japan is staffed almost entirely by AIs. These AIs are not only friendly and experts in hospitality, but they are also multilingual. There’s even an English-speaking dinosaur robot. This is great for business as the robots have entirely opened up the hotel to the world’s travelers and unique hotel enthusiasts.

However, I can only imagine what kind of paranoia would surface being humans at the mercy of robots. Will the hospitality staff turn on the tourists? Is this where the robot revolution will begin? Yes, that’s right, get them comfortable, and when they’re asleep in their rooms at night, robots attack!

Ahem, anyway. The hotel’s concept is centered around technological evolution, but no room service, no microwaves. There is Wi-Fi, though. Maybe in the future, humans won’t need to eat.

4 U.S. Air Force Nano-drone

Up until now, in this list, engineers have developed these robots for more innocuous reasons: art, support, hospitality. This one, though, was built to be a spy/DNA-taking mosquito. Not only did the U.S. Air Force help a team of researchers create something to invade your privacy, but they also made it one of the most hated creatures on the face of this planet.

This micro aerial vehicle (MAV), or nano-drone, was designed to fly and land perfectly on someone’s skin. An operator controls it from afar. The MAV has eyes and ears, too (a camera and a built-in microphone). Now, I guess, yeah, that’s freaky. But that’s regular spy stuff. What you should really be worried about is the fact that this thing can “bite” you, take a DNA sample, and inject an RFID chip underneath your skin. That is a tracking device.

Today, it’s tracking devices. What is it going to be tomorrow, terminal illnesses?

3 PETMAN

Militarize robots, they said. It’d be a good idea, they said. Actually, for the sake of testing how well a soldier’s clothes and protective gear can withstand hazards, yes, it’s a good idea. Developed by Boston Dynamics, PETMAN was made for just that, and yes, he was engineered to move like a soldier, too. It can squat, jump, do push-ups, and maintain homeostasis.

If we rewind to middle school science classes, homeostasis used to be the thing that defined a “living being.” Of course, that has changed, and maybe because of, you know, robots being able to maintain homeostasis, too.

Though PETMAN isn’t a skinned robot, when put into military gear, you can’t tell. It makes you wonder how soon robots we’ll be fighting our wars for us or instilling peace.

2 Diego-san

Diego-san is a one-year-old robot baby developed by UC San Diego, Kokoro, and Hanson Robotics in 2013. Its baby purpose is to help researchers study cognitive development. You could put clothes and a wig on it, and that would do just fine to cover up its pneumatic actuators. 

The problem is that it has an oddly large head. The head stores all the hardware to run instructions and the 27 servo-motors that control Diego-san’s facial expressions. It can also interact with humans the way a one-year-old would. 

1 HRP-4C

Outside of the awful name, HRP-4C is a neat robot. Why? It can dance! In fact, it can full-on entertain, sing, and perform alongside humans. The robot’s full female body, however, is a little strange. Though engineers and artists have come a long way with facial expressions, they still haven’t mastered the art of fluid movement. 

Listen, HRP-4C can dance, but if I want jazz hands, I’m not going to get jazz hands. And her arms seem strangely long. The more you look at HRP-4C, the freakier she gets, and the more you question whether or not an Austin Power’s fan made her emulate Fembots.