In other words, you're looking at a future in which robotic hands interpret the nuances of a surface or gripped object akin to a human fingertip and artificial skin senses touch similar to the way tiny hairs on an arm do.

ENGADGET

The skin not only protects the body, the senses in it also tell the brain a lot about what is going on in the outside world.

ECONOMIST: Robotics

By the 2020s he thought it likely that artificial intelligence would reach human level, dinosaurs would be cloned, and neurological research into the senses would mean that mankind could bypass information from the ears, eyes and skin.

ECONOMIST: Sir Arthur C. Clarke, visionary, died on March 18th, aged 90