Only half-kidding, really. The article focuses
on the rising tide of Moore's Law without considering anything other than the cost and speed of the hardware.
What would it take to get a domestic robot to
perform household chores? Besides the required quantum leap in machine vision and robotic AI capabilities, I assume such a robot would have to be individually *trained* for the tasks at hand.
The costs for such training could easily get out of hand. What are humans, after all, other than incredibly complicated machines? And what does it take to "train" a human to perform simple chores, interact safely with its environment, and avoid
harming property and other humans? Good parenting and a lifetime of experience being in the world.
I find it hard to imagine a machine capable of human-level visual perception, language, and the ability to move about in and affect its environment being without some form of sentience. Again, as humans, we are just complicated machines. Our value lies in our programming -- I doubt that the raw materials of which we are composed would inherently be worth more than a few dollars, and we are incredibly easy to reproduce.
I think a functional household robot would demand some form of compensation for its labor, and the freedom to pursue its own visions of happiness. Otherwise it would cease to function effectively.
Quite possibly the more capable robots would come to be valued even more than mere humans -- after all, why risk damaging a highly-trained, experienced, and expensive robot to do a job that a cheap human could perform just as well?
Slashdot Mirror
Only half-kidding, really. The article focuses on the rising tide of Moore's Law without considering anything other than the cost and speed of the hardware. What would it take to get a domestic robot to perform household chores? Besides the required quantum leap in machine vision and robotic AI capabilities, I assume such a robot would have to be individually *trained* for the tasks at hand. The costs for such training could easily get out of hand. What are humans, after all, other than incredibly complicated machines? And what does it take to "train" a human to perform simple chores, interact safely with its environment, and avoid harming property and other humans? Good parenting and a lifetime of experience being in the world. I find it hard to imagine a machine capable of human-level visual perception, language, and the ability to move about in and affect its environment being without some form of sentience. Again, as humans, we are just complicated machines. Our value lies in our programming -- I doubt that the raw materials of which we are composed would inherently be worth more than a few dollars, and we are incredibly easy to reproduce. I think a functional household robot would demand some form of compensation for its labor, and the freedom to pursue its own visions of happiness. Otherwise it would cease to function effectively. Quite possibly the more capable robots would come to be valued even more than mere humans -- after all, why risk damaging a highly-trained, experienced, and expensive robot to do a job that a cheap human could perform just as well?