It's exciting to watch the progress being made because it means that those of us who are thinking differently is going to be able to push our own boundaries -- pushing limits on what can be done with technology.
What robot process automation means can be boiled down to three essential characteristics:
1) It will now allow machines to do anything we want them to do, given enough resources and enough time.
2) It's mostly autonomous already (i.e., it could just as easily be controlled by people as it can by machines).
3) It's capable of doing things faster than humans can do them (based on years of research and testing).