[ExI] Smallest human-equivalent device

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
...
 
>>... I will make this speculation: the next generation of humanoid robots 
> will have a bunch of interdependent processors.  Future sports will be 
> robots racing and playing against humans and against each other.  This 
> stuff will be big entertainment and possibly big employment in the near
term future.

>...The big advantage of autonomous cars is that this not just kills trucker
and delivery jobs (the poor bastards), but it vastly reduces the number of
cars built. So it actually hits car makers far, far more than it hits
truckers. 
_______________________________________________

Eugen's comment leads me to the future of one branch of robotics.

We now have cars that can drive themselves, but they require a bunch of
extra stuff to be added, sensors and computer gazazzafratzes and such.  I
see the Google cars around here occasionally, with people in them, but they
can drive themselves, as Google has demonstrated on closed courses at
Moffett Field recently.

We could imagine retrofitting existing cars with the sensors, but that would
be costly.  I can imagine a next-generation idea: driving robots capable of
taking a current Detroit and driving it unmodified, as is.  It would need to
be able to take the keys, open the door, get in, start the car, drive it
somewhere safely, come back, lock it and leave.  That next engineering goal
is exciting!  We could set them to delivering packages, since they can get
in and out, can pick up and move stuff and so forth.  The supply of junky
old cars would be nearly endless, so they would be cheap as dirt.  It
wouldn't matter if the cars smelled like barf inside because some drunken
prole had used it for his latest rolling Bacchanalian indiscretion; the
humanoid driving robot wouldn't know or care.

We are going to need a bunch of these kinds of devices to replace all the
guys who once drove around doing errands but are now too busy wearing VR
goggles walking around in a big empty warehouse or office building with
others doing the same thing: struggling to negotiate a hike to the springs
in the periphery offices.

spike