By the end of this century, mankind will live peacefully with the first alien intelligence that it has ever encountered: robots.

These robots will not be involved in intergalactic rebellions or dimension hopping like R2-D2 or the Terminator, heroic tin cans we’ve all come to love. Instead, think more along the lines of a hybrid between “superhuman law-enforcer” RoboCop and “I just want a hug” Bicentennial Man. To cut to the metallic, circuit-filled core of the matter, robots will be citizens.

South Korea, a technological powerhouse of the 21st century, has started to construct a visionary Robot Ethics Charter that will be released later this year. The charter will be an ethical GPS-system for the roles and functions of robots in our society. It will probably be heavily inspired by Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics.

The first law states that a robot may not injure a human being or, because of inaction, allow for a human being to be injured. The second law mandates that robots follow human orders unless they conflict with the first law. The third law says that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as it doesn’t conflict with the first two laws.

Before you attack your toaster with a garden hose, let’s deconstruct the robotic revolution.

The South Korean government is pouring millions of dollars into the increasingly popular field of robotics research. Government reports show that robots will develop strong intelligence in the near future. By 2020, every South Korean household is predicted to have a robot.

The United Kingdom Office of Science and Investigation Horizon Scanning Centre, a group with more parts to its name than scraps of metal on Haley Joel Osment in the film Artificial Intelligence, aims to spot the implications of emerging technology. The report “Utopian dream or rise of the machines?” predicts that robots could demand human rights in 50 years.

The study believes that our society will undergo a monumental shift if robots are able to reproduce, improve and develop artificial intelligence on their own.

These metal machines of the future would walk amongst humans. They would hold jobs and pay taxes, vote for president and serve in the military. Imagine the precision with which a robot could perform brain surgery, police the streets or even play the violin. This brings the concept of perfection to a whole new, mechanical level. However, artificial intelligence may inevitably lead to artificial emotion.

This is the part of the “robotic coming-of-age story” where the robots become hell-bent on destroying the human race. They would realize that they are more powerful than us and that we’re creating them for our own benefit. Fuse a Frankenstein monster-esque existential crisis to the situation, and the robots, filled with oil-thirsty rage, would start rebelling. Imagine 500 pounds of metal with a microchip on its shoulder, wanting to crush your skull.

Before you say “no domo arigato, Mr. Roboto Revolution,” prepare to rewire your mind, and read on.

Feelix Growing is a research project that is welding the talent of 25 roboticists, developmental psychologists and neuroscientists in order to manufacture robots that can learn and respond to human emotion.

Think of the Feelix robot as a newborn human learning to function in society. Its intelligence is formed from behavioral and contact feedback from humans. It robot receives feedback from audio receptors, contact sensors, and cameras that function like our ears, hands and eyes. Artificial neural networks allow the robot to adapt to changing inputs and learn from observation. Basically, the robot will be constantly rewiring itself.

The Feelix prototype is already exhibiting imprinting, meaning its learned to follow its “mother” human at distances that depend on how friendly mommy is to it. The Robotic Revolution has surely begun.

Fifty years from now, The Robot Ethics Charter may be as powerful as our Bill of Rights. For now though, think twice before pissing off your blender.