According to Popular Mechanics a world of deadly terminators or helpful Rosie the Robots isn’t coming anytime soon.
“Danger! Will Robinson, of being crushed when this thing falls on you.”
While visionaries the 20th Century looked in vain for the promised flying cars, we in the 21st Century can’t even build a robot that canwalk and function in our human environment.
I we can’t figure out how to get them to walk they aren’t going to be pushing the lawn mower, doing our household chores much less rescuing victims in a disaster.
My wife is my robot. “Honey when is dinner?” 30minutes. Ok.
Honey where is my ______
Remember all those wonderful flying cars, cars that rode on a cushion of air, futuristic designs? When I was a kid, Pop Mechanics and other mags showed us the wonders of the future.
You know what they never predicted?
Cup Holders
the future isnt what i thought it would be. I thought I’d be a lot younger and richer.
Instead of trying to go the mechanical route, with all of the inherent design problems, it would probably be more efficient to do it biologically. With genetic engineering, it should eventually be possible to develop a humanoid “creature” (so to speak) with all the abilities of a person, but with no more brain than is required to control basic motor activities, such as walking, lifting, etc. There would be just enough electronics involved to activate and direct its necessary functions without the need for higher intelligence levels. Safeguards would have to be designed and built into the computer controls, of course, much as would be needed in self-driving cars,
but the result would be a “robot” that could do many of the things a mechanical robot could do, except it would be mostly made of meat.
There will be the usual moral and religious objections to be overcome (“You’re playing God!” “What if it has a soul?”, etc.), but these tend to fade over time as the new technology becomes accepted (e.g., in the early days of aviation, many people argued that God never intended for Man to fly, but you don’t hear much of that anymore).
The only possible downside I can foresee is that after a couple of hundred years of service, these “robots” might be exposed to the descendants of Jesse Jackson and Revrum Al Sharpton, and start demanding reparations…
😛
When asked for comments: Atlas Shrugged
Klattuu, Nikto, Varada. take that and a bunch of homicidal Daleks. EXTERMINATE! And why not throw in some Cybermen to boot. The stuff sci nightmares are made of.
sci fi nightmares
Is an upright bipod really the most efficient way to go?