Robots in Sci-Fi -- Will bots be in our future or not
I was thinking about Sci-Fi shows and movies earlier when I realized something. Several popular shows lack robots. I don't mean for building stuff I mean androids and AI type robots. Even cyborgs. Today we are already developing and using robots for a number of things. The current robot spectrum run from the little Roomba running around cleaning floors all the way to human looking personal assistants.
| Roomba | Jiajia |
|---|---|
 |  |
| source | Source |
So why with robots being developed for decades and automatons thought of over 200 years ago do some future Sci-Fi shows not include them?
This 240 year old automaton is the worlds earliest robot.
Source
Lets take a look at some shows. Or at least what I remember from those shows
Star Trek:
No featured robots and not even any utility ones. There were episodes with robots the most famous being The Changeling with NOMAD. Another one What Are Little Girls Made Of featured android copies of people. There was also that big planet killing machine. Not sure if you would call that one a robot. I think it was more of just a ship on autopilot.
Star Trek TNG:
Here we have DATA a member of the crew. Other than that not much in the way of robots. Sure there were episodes that had robots/androids in them but for a galaxy full of aliens they are rarely encountered. Now it did have The Borg with cybernetic implants.
Star Trek DS9:
Similar to TNG. One of these years I need to finish watching the later episodes. Lost track when it switched networks and never picked it back up.
Star Wars:
Droids everywhere. This is more of the future I would expect. Utility droids personal assistants, just about anything you can think of including combat. I would expect some more human looking ones though. Also cybernetics seem to be common with easy body part replacement.
Babylon 5:
Humans and aliens everywhere but strangely not much in the way of robots. Intelligent cameras the flew around, maintenance bots outside to do cleanup and repairs but really not much for a series that big. This from one of the most realistic series. Ships so realistic they are the inspiration for real designs.
Firefly:
Don't remember seeing a robot anywhere. Maybe they had them in the core worlds who knows but the verse that is shown not much. Now in the movie Serenity an android sex doll does play an important role.
Doctor Who:
I never got to keep up with this series. Originally it was only on public television and the times were either too late when I was a kid or they moved it around so you never knew when it was on. Later Sci-Fi did the same thing with moving it around. I gave up trying to track when it was on after the first season. From what I remember there weren't many robots there either. There was K-9 but I don't remember any more. There were the Daleks but were they machine at all or just living beings encased in those death machines?
BattleStar Galactica
This one has the Cylons. As for other robots not much and that is for an important reason. There is the daggit Muffit in the original. The spin off Caprica also showed that robots did exists before the war.
Stargate/SG1/Atlantis:
Other than Earth humans using some military robots/drones for recon not much here either that I can remember. It makes sense for us to be using only available tech since it's set now but you would figure there would be at least some aliens using robots.
Lost in Space:
Who can forget Robot B-9 and his danger Will Robinson. Sadly I don't remember much of the series as I was very young when I saw it.
There are many more series but my memory on robots in them fails me.
So why do so many Sci-Fi shows have little or no robot presence? It seems kid of a big omission or writers don't see robots playing a big role in our future. What are your thoughts. Do you see a future more like Star Wars, Babylon 5, or maybe BattleStar Galactica?