Virtual reality eSports are a thing! The marriage between competitive gaming and VR is now official and they’ve put a ring on it. But let’s be honest, we could see this coming with or without an Oculus Rift.

Helping lead the charge is MassVR, a premier virtual reality gaming company in Chicago, who has opened a massive 32,000 square foot space dedicated to eSports. Additionally, the facilities have banquet rooms to accommodate large parties and special events.

Participants engage in player vs. player matches in one of the four 8,000 square foot arenas. Players rent a VR headset, a backpack, and a controller to play in 8-person team first-person shooter matches. Concerned about motion sickness? The game runs through Unreal Engine 4 and allows players to experience sensations of flying via jetback and teleporting without all the nausea.

Think it’d be cool to compete in front of a crowd? There’s that too! VR League, in partnership with ESL Gaming Network, is the first and biggest VR esports league, catering to one of the fastest growing sports on the globe.

VR League hosts three different levels: Open, Challenger, and Masters where anyone from beginners to pros can have a chance to compete. The organization also hosts tournaments and events.

VR eSports is putting to bed one of the primary complaints against video games – that players don’t get off the couch and get enough exercise.

Well, news flash, the future is here and it’s bound to get your adrenaline up. Whether you are a veteran gamer or someone looking for a fun team-building activity, there’s plenty of gaming to go around. So, grab your Oculus Rift and some friends, and get ready to have a good time.

Neil deGrasse Tyson said, “With regard to robots, in the early days of robots people said, ‘Oh, let’s build a robot’ and what’s the first thought? You make a robot look like a human and do human things. That’s so 1950s. We are so past that.” If you don’t believe him, take a look at what these little bots are doing these days:

1. Robots are doing acrobatics. Atlas can do a backflip and raise its arms after nailing the landing. What’s next? The 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics?
2. They shop for you. Walmart is testing shelf-scanning robots in their store.
3. In Saudi Arabia, a robot became a citizen. However, no one knows exactly what that means yet.
4. If a robot can become a citizen, should they be allowed to fight? Welcome, combat for robots.
5. Dubai police force has a peaceful Robocop patrolling its sidewalks.
6. Bill Gates believes bots that take jobs away from humans should be taxed. Can we make the tax code any more complicated?
7. They can play cards, bet and win, even when humans cheat. Carnegie Mellon’s AI bot, LIbratus beat out 4 world class poker pros in a Heads-up No-Limit Texas Hold’em tournament.
8. They are writing books and news reports.
9. If drones can deliver packages, then why can’t robots deliver food? It’s happening in London.
10. Norwegian scientists have developed a robot that can debone a chicken.
11. The University of Southern California San Francisco Medical Center has invested in automation that can fill prescriptions, allowing pharmacists and techs to spend more time counseling patients and consulting with physicians.
12. They are acting as Buddhist monks at funerals.

For those of us who grew up with role models like C-3PO, Data (Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Daleks, none of this should come as a surprise. Researchers have often taken inspiration from screen. Now, we have to think of what rights robots will have as they gain more roles in society.

You know what’s not hard? Calling a restaurant and making a reservation. You know what’s even easier? Making that reservation though OpenTable. You know what we really don’t need, but it’s here so we have to deal with it? Google Duplex.

Falling under “just because we can do it, doesn’t mean we should do it,” Duplex, Google’s eerily human-sounding AI chat agent that can arrange appointments for Pixel users via Google Assistant has rolled out in several cities including New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco which now means you can have a robot do menial tasks for you.

There’s even a demo video of someone using Google Duplex to find an area restaurant and make a reservation and in the time it took him to tell the robot what to do, he could’ve called and booked a reservation himself.

Aside from booking the reservation for you, Duplex can also offer you updates on your reservation or even cancel it. Big whoop. What’s difficult to understand is the need or even demand for Duplex. If you’re already asking Google Assistant to make the reservation, what’s stopping you from making it yourself? And the most unsettling thing about Duplex? It’s too human.

It’s unethical to imply human interaction. We should feel squeamish about a robo-middleman making our calls and setting our appointments when we’re perfectly capable of doing these things.

However, there is hope. Google Duplex is here, but you don’t have to get used to it.

Your company can opt out of accepting calls by changing the setting in your Google My Business accounts. If robots are already calling restaurants and businesses in your city, give your staff a heads-up. While they may receive reservations via Duplex, at least they’ll be prepared to talk to a robot.

And if you plan on not opting out, at least train your staff on what to do when the Google robots call.