The Future of Robots (Part 1 of 2). Speakers: Dr. Ben Davis, James McDonald, and Stephen Euin Cobb as the moderator. Dr. Ben Davis has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics and an M.S. in Nuclear Astrophysics from the University of Notre Dame. He taught at the college level for several years on a number of technical subjects including: computer programming, mathematics, astronomy, and physics. His main avocations now involve history, futurism, and skepticism. James McDonald is a technologist and writer interested in history, anthropology, the sciences, and literature. Hosted by Stephen Euin Cobb, this is the July 20, 2016 episode of The Future And You. [Running time: 36 minutes] This episode contains the first half of this panel. The second half will be in next week's show. This panel was recorded in front of an audience in Charlotte NC on June 4, 2016 at the SF&F convention ConCaolinas. Stephen Euin Cobb has interviewed over 350 people for his work as an author, futurist, magazine writer, ghostwriter, and award-winning podcaster. A contributing editor for Space and Time Magazine; he has also been a regular contributor for Robot, H+, Grim Couture and Port Iris magazines; and he spent three years as a columnist and contributing editor for Jim Baen's Universe Magazine. For the last ten years he has produced a weekly podcast, The Future And You, which explores (through interviews, panel discussions and commentary) all the ways the future will be different from today. He is an artist, essayist, game designer, transhumanist, and is on the Advisory Board of The Lifeboat Foundation. Stephen is the author of an ebook about the future entitled: Indistinguishable from Magic: Predictions of Revolutionary Future Science.