Next time you're gone, your friends may end up replacing you with a robot. At least, that's what happened to Steve Ganz.

The Ganzbot may not look like much, but it's the most expressive block of cardboard you're likely to ever see, and it can read text from your computer to boot. Builder Jeremy Gillick and his crew over at The Mozmonkey Blog created the Ganzbot when friend Ganz left to compete in the PDGA World Championships, and had it read from his Twitter. The Ganzbot is able to build word tables based on the text it pulls from your PC and reads them back to you — from text documents, social sites such as Twitter, and what have you — and it has a microcontroller that governs its facial expressions. Its shining blue LED eyes compliment looks that are placid, happy, sad and, when its eyes glow red and its brow furrows, angry.

Click Continue to see a video of the Ganzbot in action, as well as Steve Ganz's reaction to his cardboard doppelgänger.

How did Ganz react to his friends replacing him with a robot? Watch below:

Mozmonkey, via MAKE