If you didn’t get the memo (or fax, email, or text alert), 2008 is already shaping up to be a year of revolutionary technological advances in the world of gadgetry. Enter the new limited edition Robot Guitar from Gibson. Ten years in the making, the new axe is equipped with a built-in digital system that automatically tunes itself. Turn a knob, strum the strings and the tuning pegs adjust themselves, resulting in a guitar with perfect pitch. (Watch it in action here.) Also, intonation troubles are easily found and fixed with the guitar’s internal circuitry, so struggling musicians don’t have to drop hard-earned cash on routine maintenance. The bummer is that if you’re trying to pinch pennies, you probably won’t be able to afford the hefty sticker price of $2,500. That’s too bad, because this seems like the perfect starter guitar for prepubescent paperboys that haven’t learned the fine art of tuning yet. But for the beginners with rich parents, here’s the best feature: by turning the control knob, you can scroll through six alternate tunings (open E, dropped D, DADGAD, open G, Double Dropped D, and Hendrix Tuning) or you can program and save your own customized tuning. You don’t even need to know chords anymore! With a little luck, Thurston Moore, the king of oddball tunings, will endorse one and encourage fledgling indie rockers to get creative with his preprogrammed settings. This is just a dream so far, but Billy Corgan and Muse’s Matt Belamy have already added these to their collection, so if the robot guitar doesn’t short circuit and go all Johnny 5, maybe we’ll see a limited edition of the limited edition sometime in the near future. How about a limited edition Captured By Robots Robot Guitar?