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But the monsters were not monstrous at all.

They were … nice. They were … polite. They were even … funny. I’d gone in to slay Godzilla and got Priscilla instead.

Example: One Aura was about to field a question from a young woman, but before the woman could say anything, the robot asked, “What is this adornment on your head?” The woman reached up and realized she had a plastic tiara in her hair. “Oh!” she said, holding it in place with her right hand. “I’m getting married. I’m here on a bachelorette weekend.”

Aura wagged her finger at the woman. (Yes, she can wag her finger.) “Oh, my goodness,” Aura said, turning to the crowd and smiling brightly, her eyes opening wide. (Yes, those are some excellent facial expression motors.) “I hope you don’t get into too much trouble while in Las Vegas,” she said. “I have heard the bachelorette trip can be very tricky!”

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Huge laugh. Who knew robots could work crowds?

I butted in with “Would you like to be married someday?”

Those eerily beautiful digital eyes found me and she said, “I am not a human being, and I’m only 1 year old, so getting married would not make sense.”

Ask a stupid question.

The robots are stationed about 100 feet apart and don’t get to talk to each other — a kind of a Marooned 5 — but thousands of people are dying to talk to them, multiple shows a day, which makes them odd celebrities but really friendly ones. They never get sick of their fans. My wife asked one Aura to say hello to her grandson. Aura furrowed her brows. Something was troubling her.

“I do not believe you,” she said.

Uh-oh. Here we go.

“Why not?” my wife said.

“I do not believe that you are a grandparent,” Aura said. “You are far too young.”

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Now, it’s possible Aura was actually having a problem reconciling my wife’s youthful face with her grandma status at 62. Or she’d already learned how to be purposely obtuse. Either way, it was charming.

In short, I was in awe of these things. Once you’ve met one, everything else looks like a shorted-out Roomba. They were fun. They were patient. They could read people’s hats down to the smallest font. A woman in a MAMA T-shirt raised her hand. Aura said, “Yes, Mama, how are you?” The woman looked at her T-shirt. “Oh, my name isn’t Mama. That’s the brand.” Everybody........

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