Can the Cylons of a Battlestar Galactica like future be far off?

Technology Review reports on an article in Science about running robots on real muscle power, just like the rest of us:

Researchers at Harvard University have made several small mechanical devices powered by heart muscle harvested from rats. The mechanical devices include pumps, a device that "walks," and one that swims. [...] In one example, Feinberg made a rectangular strip of plastic that curls up on itself, with the diameter of the resulting tube decreasing, then increasing again, as the muscle repeatedly contracts and relaxes. The researchers say that the device could serve as a pump. Another strip of plastic opens and closes like a pair of pinchers at a rate determined by electrical signals sent to the device. A curled triangular piece of plastic walks across the bottom of a petri dish as muscle tissue repeatedly contracts, and another triangular sheet, with a different arrangement of heart-muscle cells, mimics the movement of a fish's tail to swim through a solution.

For now "the beating muscles only survive for a few weeks."

Looking forward:

... future designs could mimic natural heart tissue in more detail to extend longevity. For example, the researchers may also try constructing a three-dimensional tissue, rather than the flat arrangement they have now. Previous experiments have suggested that three-dimensional structures may be key to the survival of the cells.

NOTE: I'm not really suggesting that the human race will have a future like that portrayed in Battlestar Galactica. I have my doubts that we are rational enough to survive our own intransigence and will annihilate ourselves long before we can travel among the stars. Sad thoughts, indeed ...