In dystopian visions of the future, the humanoid takeover typically doesn’t look like this: a four-foot tall robot on wheels guiding you through the Baroque collection of an 18th century palazzo. But for visitors to the Palazzo Madama , the House of Savoy ’s old haunt in Turin, that’s precisely what they’ve been encountering in recent months. The robot in question is called R1 , a pristine white thing with arms, an extendable torso, a bevy of cameras, and a battery life of two hours (at which point presumably museum fatigue sets in). R1 has been programmed to tell visitors something of the story of how a noble family crossed the Alps in the 11th century, gradually established a powerful duchy, and would eventually offer up the first king of a unified Italy in the mid-19th century. It’s also primed to detail the paintings, tapestries, and furniture that decorate the former royal apartments. Visitors can address R1 directly and look into its beady LED eyes to ask it to go deeper or move along.…