I think the simple answer is just that Musk and many people like him are huge dorks. They read SF as kids and watched things like The Jetsons and especially Star Wars and their dream has always been to make those stupid robots real.
It's why all these Silicon Valley maniacs who didn't understand the lessons of cyberpunk fiction have spent their lives trying to make cyberpunk dystopias real all while believing that's a good thing.
So it has nothing to do with efficiency or anything. It's just idiots with too much money who never grew up.
A lot of them also have the idea of a sex robot in their heads. To the extent that porn drove the development of a lot of the web, imagine robot sex slaves when that eventually happens.
This was terrific, and makes me think of my reaction when Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta and tanked the company’s stock price: tech billionaires are really weird and different from us normies. The things tech billionaires think are awesome--virtual reality and humanoid robots, for example--the rest of us are indifferent to or creeped out by. We don’t buy it, literally. The robots that actually make sense in our world are the ones assisting with surgery, performing specific tasks on assembly lines and in warehouses, and the like.
And I laughed at the bit about your dog and the fridge. My husband likes to sing a little song to our dog, which includes the line, “You are so feeble you can’t even get into the treat cupboard. Everyone else in the house can get into the treat cupboard.”
I feel like this is what happens when people who hold positions of power and hoard enormous amounts of wealth like Musk and Zuckerberg get to indulge their hobbies. They think they’re changing the world or building the future but they’re really just running around unchallenged.
Also, side note, I hope that your dog gets into the treat cupboard at some point.
We clearly follow similar stuff (which is likely why I read what you write...) and I have also pondered the android vs. human society question with these recent unveilings and advances. As with Elon himself, I think the reality will be much more complex than we imagine. I am in the "technology to try to advance under-resourced populations" realm, which is literally the place where there is the most to gain but no money to drive things forward. This likely impacted my vantage point: the first scenario I pictured when I saw that video was not a robot flipping burgers or laying brick, but a device that could enable a person with limited mobility - every one of us if we live long enough - to live independently far, far longer. While 20k seems a chunk of change, it's a fraction of the cost of a nursing home. This would be absolutely transformative. Add in effective transportation in smaller cities and rural areas (which is actually my primary focus) and communities start to be vastly more alive.
This is all assuming the AI unleashed on our primary methods of communication - social media - don't inspire us to destroy ourselves in order to keep our attention.
So true, I’ve never understood the need to make our robots humanoid. Automation is lovely, but when I picture a more beautiful future, humanoid robots are not part of it.
Also I loved this 😆 -> Rosie from The Jetsons was apparently inefficient because no one connected her to the wi-fi.”
It’s fascinating. It’s similar to the way we imbue human qualities on theoretical alien life. Some just straight up look human albeit with minor physiological changes (I’m looking at you Spock). I would love to have a cup of earl grey with Data more than anything, though.
Thanks for reminding us that Musk isn’t entirely terrible. It’s too easy to fall into black and white thinking. Which makes me wonder, is there a way to have robots with some human qualities? Does it have to be all or nothing?
I think the simple answer is just that Musk and many people like him are huge dorks. They read SF as kids and watched things like The Jetsons and especially Star Wars and their dream has always been to make those stupid robots real.
It's why all these Silicon Valley maniacs who didn't understand the lessons of cyberpunk fiction have spent their lives trying to make cyberpunk dystopias real all while believing that's a good thing.
So it has nothing to do with efficiency or anything. It's just idiots with too much money who never grew up.
A lot of them also have the idea of a sex robot in their heads. To the extent that porn drove the development of a lot of the web, imagine robot sex slaves when that eventually happens.
Totally!
This was terrific, and makes me think of my reaction when Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook as Meta and tanked the company’s stock price: tech billionaires are really weird and different from us normies. The things tech billionaires think are awesome--virtual reality and humanoid robots, for example--the rest of us are indifferent to or creeped out by. We don’t buy it, literally. The robots that actually make sense in our world are the ones assisting with surgery, performing specific tasks on assembly lines and in warehouses, and the like.
And I laughed at the bit about your dog and the fridge. My husband likes to sing a little song to our dog, which includes the line, “You are so feeble you can’t even get into the treat cupboard. Everyone else in the house can get into the treat cupboard.”
I feel like this is what happens when people who hold positions of power and hoard enormous amounts of wealth like Musk and Zuckerberg get to indulge their hobbies. They think they’re changing the world or building the future but they’re really just running around unchallenged.
Also, side note, I hope that your dog gets into the treat cupboard at some point.
Thanks! She does indeed get treats because she is a very good girl. 😊
The problem is it’s never been adequately explained to me how R2 can move easily across all levels of terrain.
We clearly follow similar stuff (which is likely why I read what you write...) and I have also pondered the android vs. human society question with these recent unveilings and advances. As with Elon himself, I think the reality will be much more complex than we imagine. I am in the "technology to try to advance under-resourced populations" realm, which is literally the place where there is the most to gain but no money to drive things forward. This likely impacted my vantage point: the first scenario I pictured when I saw that video was not a robot flipping burgers or laying brick, but a device that could enable a person with limited mobility - every one of us if we live long enough - to live independently far, far longer. While 20k seems a chunk of change, it's a fraction of the cost of a nursing home. This would be absolutely transformative. Add in effective transportation in smaller cities and rural areas (which is actually my primary focus) and communities start to be vastly more alive.
This is all assuming the AI unleashed on our primary methods of communication - social media - don't inspire us to destroy ourselves in order to keep our attention.
So true, I’ve never understood the need to make our robots humanoid. Automation is lovely, but when I picture a more beautiful future, humanoid robots are not part of it.
Also I loved this 😆 -> Rosie from The Jetsons was apparently inefficient because no one connected her to the wi-fi.”
It’s fascinating. It’s similar to the way we imbue human qualities on theoretical alien life. Some just straight up look human albeit with minor physiological changes (I’m looking at you Spock). I would love to have a cup of earl grey with Data more than anything, though.
Well done, Dan. Thanks for your efforts.
Pictured: The human drive to anthropomorphize https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1E-FlguwGw
Thanks for reminding us that Musk isn’t entirely terrible. It’s too easy to fall into black and white thinking. Which makes me wonder, is there a way to have robots with some human qualities? Does it have to be all or nothing?