Asimov's nightmare

I bet this isn't much like any other story you've read lately:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- We might be more responsive to robots designed to look human rather than mechanical, but other factors may determine what causes us to accept or shun these virtual humans.

"Recent evidence indicates that androids are better able to elicit human norms of interaction than less humanlike robots or animated characters," said Karl F. MacDorman, associate professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics. "However, there's a heightened sensitivity to defects in near humanlike forms -- an uncanny valley in what is otherwise a positive relationship between human likeness and familiarity."

So, up to a point, we'd rather see Data from "Star Trek" than Robbie the Robot from "Forbidden Planet" (and later borrowed for "Lost in Space") taking out our garbage and mowing the lawn. But at that point, when they look too much like us, they creep us out, for one thing reminding us of our own mortality and imperfections. Guess what we'll need are androids that look like us but uglier, maybe a little deformed and misshapen. They can do stuff for us, and we'll also get to make fun of them. But then they'd probably organize and hire a lawyer to file class-action suits claiming human-centric bias.