For example, rather than build a robot that can clean an arbitrary toilet I could either standardize the internal dimensions of the toilet bowl Sure, this is a

For example, rather than build a robot that can clean an arbitrary toilet I could either standardize the internal dimensions of the toilet bowl Sure, this is an argument often made by self-driving car enthusiasts, let’s just remake all the roads, ban all pedestrians and non-self-driving vehicles and so on. But it’s another instance of the same paradox, instead of radically underestimating the computation involved in actions that nature has given us dedicated hardware for, underestimating the vast cost of doing so. In this case not only would you need to standardise the toilet bowl, but the route through the house to get to the bathroom and what to do about any unexpected obstacles... The paradox in general applies to everything that humans take for granted that we can do without fully appreciating that it took us a billion years of evolution to get here.