5 ms·
> Their problem is that it is very very hard to make a business case for humanoid or quadrupedal robots that is not better solved by more standard automation sy
by mulmen 4y ago
> Their problem is that it is very very hard to make a business case for humanoid or quadrupedal robots that is not better solved by more standard automation systems that (for example) don't have to be charged every 30 minutes or have to climb up and down the stairs.
This reminds me of the realization that the difference between a Star Trek replicator and a microwaved can of Campbell's soup is about 30 seconds. We already have robots all around us. Microwaves cook our meals, washing machines do our laundry, dishwashers clean our dishes, etc. The time savings are immense but these devices do not resemble how humans perform the same tasks.
- Teever 4y ago> This reminds me of the realization that the difference between a Star Trek replicator and a microwaved can of Campbell's soup is about 30 seconds. Can a microwave make another microwave? Self-replication is the killer feature of sci-fi replicators that people often miss. We already to have robots everywhere, it's true, but they can't self replicate, so we still need humans in the loop. bipedal robots have the prospect of being the glue that combines all the other machines together, just like humans are. Once that happens you'll have a novel machine that humans have as of yet never been able to make -- a Von Neumann probe.
- mulmen 4y agoI'm certain there are robots involved in manufacturing microwaves.
- Teever 4y agoYes but can a microwave make a microwave? Not only could a humanoid robot make a microwave, it could even make a copy of itself. And if it didn't have the parts lying around it could get into a car, drive out to the mountains and start mining the raw materials to build the parts. Can a microwave do that?
- D13Fd 4y ago> This reminds me of the realization that the difference between a Star Trek replicator and a microwaved can of Campbell's soup is about 30 seconds. Well, 30 seconds plus the entirety of the farming, production, supply, transportation, and commercial infrastructure that gets that can of soup into your cabinet. That said, I mostly agree with your broader point.
- steve_adams_86 4y agoThat and the replicator can make me a PS5 or a yo-yo to play with while my microwave heats up a can of soup.
- mhio 4y agoThe replicator could also create the microwave with the 30 seconds on the timer, with the soup inside, already running. Think of the time savings!
- ben_w 4y agoThe five-minute hypothesis, also known as "Last Thursdayism", suggests that the entire universe, including our memories of earlier times, was created 5 minutes ago (or last Thursday). So… have the replicator make the microwave with hot soup waiting on the inside, 0 seconds on the timer, ready to go "ding" the moment it's materialised. :)
- zuminator 4y agoYou make an interesting point but I think the difference between the replicator and the microwave is pretty great, as we recently learned from our worldwide supply train issues. The can of soup had a whole factory, with robotic and human workers, management, metals, fossil fuels, storage containers, inspectors, transportation devices, highways, warehouses and retailers that it needed to get to your microwave. When any of those are bottlenecked there's a huge problem. It will likely forever be a fantasy but a Star Trek type replicator would streamline that process by a fair margin and have far fewer critical links. A real-world example would be the difference between a old-fashioned printed newspaper with no digital distribution and an online only paper. The print version might seem superior in some respects but by the time it would get to McMurdo, the news would already be pretty old, vs up to the minute currency for a web browser. And once we start talking Shackleton or beyond, the difference only gets worse. In fact a good use case for an autonomous robotic presence is extraterrestrial exploration or labor. They could endure higher g acceleration, long periods in cold storage, don't need atmosphere, and don't experience existential terror -- as far as we know!
- akozak 4y agoImportant downside of replicator technology that it's not likely to be physically possible outside of TV. Otherwise I agree it's superior to microwaves (though curious about its techno-economics).
- ramraj07 4y agoWhy not? Perhaps we might not replicate everything but let’s say a food replicator might be very possible. No need to invent quantum whatever even.
- ben_w 4y agoAt the speed shown on TV, thermodynamics is a problem. Let's take water as an example. Say you've got a supply of all the atoms you need and a way to place them precisely enough to reliably get water rather than a mix of hydrogen peroxide and hydrogen gas. When the atoms combine, they release as much energy as burning hydrogen in oxygen. Equivalent problems for virtually everything. I'm not sure if it's provably impossible, but AFAIK there is no known way to cool this down fast enough to even be stable for the duration of the TV show's materialisation sequence.
- nwiswell 4y agoI don't think microwaves or dishwashers can accurately be called robots. They're just regular old machines. A computer is not meaningfully involved with their operation. You could certainly make an argument that a printer is a robot, though.
- simonh 4y agoI don't think OPs reference to them as robots is supposed to be taken literally, but rather in the sense that these are devices that substitute for many of the same human tasks that robots would.
- fragmede 4y agoSo are they robots if we throw an app frontend and some IoT thing at it so there's a computer involved?
- nwiswell 4y agoI think that's just a microwave or dishwasher with a computer glued on. The computer needs to be actually integral to the operation of the appliance, and in general it needs to be involved with motion control. So e.g. a self driving car could qualify as a robot.