There's a place in France where the robots do a dance. And that place is TEDxConcorde, where Bruno Maisonnier of Aldebaran Robotics choreographs a troupe of tiny humanoid Nao robots through a surprisingly emotive performance.

Robots reflect their creators: Us. Counterintuitive and insightful, these robots show us glimmers into what it means to be human.

Scaremongers play on the idea that robots will simply replace people on the job. In fact, they can become our essential collaborators, freeing us up to spend time on less mundane and mechanical challenges. Rodney Brooks points out how valuable this could be as the number of working-age adults drops and the number of retirees swells. He introduce...

Imagine a future home filled with robots in the likeness of dogs, cats and even dinosaurs ...

Let's be honest, flying cars are still a ways into the future. Until then, learn about the extraordinary lengths we've come with cars that drive themselves.

Computers are being taught to learn, reason and recognize emotions. In these talks, look for insights -- as well as warnings.

Your smartphone may feel like a friend -- but a true friend would give you a smile once in a while. At TED2013, Keller Rinaudo demos Romo, the smartphone-powered mini robot who can motor along with you on a walk, slide you a cup of coffee across the table, and react to you with programmable expressions.

By studying the movement and bodies of insects such as ants, Sarah Bergbreiter and her team build incredibly robust, super teeny, mechanical versions of creepy crawlies … and then they add rockets. See their jaw-dropping developments in micro-robotics, and hear about three ways we might use these little helpers in the future.

What kind of robots does an animator / jazz musician / roboticist make? Playful, reactive, curious ones. Guy Hoffman shows demo film of his family of unusual robots -- including two musical bots that like to jam with humans.

When disaster strikes, who's first on the scene? More and more, it’s a robot. In her lab, Robin Murphy builds robots that fly, tunnel, swim and crawl through disaster scenes, helping firefighters and rescue workers save more lives safely -- and help communities return to normal up to three years faster.

As machines grow ever more intelligent, they're emerging not just as powerful tools, but close companions. These talks -- while offering some whizzy demos -- examine how robots are becoming an intimate part of our lives.

With technical advancement comes great ethical responsibility. In these talks, amazing, life-altering feats of science make us ask: How could we mess this up?