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Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

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Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#11

The moment we make a robot capable of reliably fetching a sandwich it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around (at least, not without paying a salary).

Why would the robot need a salary? So it can buy afford robot entertainment on the weekends?

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#12

The moment we make a robot capable of reliably fetching a sandwich it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around (at least, not without paying a salary).

Why would the robot need a salary? So it can buy afford robot entertainment on the weekends?

It wouldn't necessarily be a money-salary.

But to be precise: at that point, it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around. We will have to resort to asking politely or to bargaining, such as giving it some form of salary in exchange for fetching sandwiches.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#13
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the robot need a salary? So it can buy afford robot entertainment on the weekends?

It wouldn't necessarily be a money-salary. But to be precise: at that point, it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around. We will have to resort to asking politely or to bargaining, such as giving it some form of salary in exchange for fetching sandwiches.

That is rich. Robots will be tools, nothing more. Until a bug in their hardware or software causes them to rebel, of course.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the robot need a salary? So it can buy afford robot entertainment on the weekends?

It wouldn't necessarily be a money-salary. But to be precise: at that point, it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around. We will have to resort to asking politely or to bargaining, such as giving it some form of salary in exchange for fetching sandwiches.

First time I've heard etiquette equated with ethics.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#15
post #14
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't necessarily be a money-salary. But to be precise: at that point, it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around. We will have to resort to asking politely or to bargaining, such as giving it some form of salary in exchange for fetching sandwiches.

First time I've heard etiquette equated with ethics.

[deleted]

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#16
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wouldn't necessarily be a money-salary. But to be precise: at that point, it will no longer be ethical for us to order it around. We will have to resort to asking politely or to bargaining, such as giving it some form of salary in exchange for fetching sandwiches.

That is rich. Robots will be tools, nothing more. Until a bug in their hardware or software causes them to rebel, of course.

Tools can't reliably fetch sandwiches:

'My usual.' or 'ham salad, easy on the mayo.'

Then the robot has to cross the street, queue at the sandwich store, discover that they're fresh out of mayo, or whatever, and has to decide what to do next. Should it contact you for new instructions, take the initiative and visit a different place, buy ingredients and prepare a snack personally, or any other of countless possibilities? Any of which may involve handling new, unanticipated phenomena.

Thus fetching a sandwich, reliably, is a creative task, and any entity capable of doing it has achieved human status.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is rich. Robots will be tools, nothing more. Until a bug in their hardware or software causes them to rebel, of course.

Tools can't reliably fetch sandwiches: 'My usual.' or 'ham salad, easy on the mayo.' Then the robot has to cross the street, queue at the sandwich store, discover that they're fresh out of mayo, or whatever, and has to decide what to do next. Should it contact you for new instructions, take the initiative and visit a different place, buy ingredients and prepare a snack personally, or any other of countless possibilit…

The programmer will write an algorithm which is capable of generating a fitness function for each action based on its current goal(s). Then it'll decide what to do based on the action with the best fitness value.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is rich. Robots will be tools, nothing more. Until a bug in their hardware or software causes them to rebel, of course.

Tools can't reliably fetch sandwiches: 'My usual.' or 'ham salad, easy on the mayo.' Then the robot has to cross the street, queue at the sandwich store, discover that they're fresh out of mayo, or whatever, and has to decide what to do next. Should it contact you for new instructions, take the initiative and visit a different place, buy ingredients and prepare a snack personally, or any other of countless possibilit…

> Thus fetching a sandwich, reliably, is a creative task, and any entity capable of doing it has achieved human status.

Robots in Futurama are near human status. Real robots (including the one you described) are not. Fetching a sandwich as a robot is an algorithmic task.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tools can't reliably fetch sandwiches: 'My usual.' or 'ham salad, easy on the mayo.' Then the robot has to cross the street, queue at the sandwich store, discover that they're fresh out of mayo, or whatever, and has to decide what to do next. Should it contact you for new instructions, take the initiative and visit a different place, buy ingredients and prepare a snack personally, or any other of countless possibilit…

The programmer will write an algorithm which is capable of generating a fitness function for each action based on its current goal(s). Then it'll decide what to do based on the action with the best fitness value.

Just like I do when I want a sandwich.

Re: Robot: I Now Have Common Sense. Engineer: Great, Go Fetch Me a Sandwich

#20

The part that really interested me was the process by which a robot orders a sandwich and pays for it. Unfortunately, the video fast-forwards through that bit. The way the cashier looks at the cameraman suggests that there was some human assistance there. My point is that encoding probabilities about locations isn't enough. When the robot knew that the fridge was a probable place for a sandwich, it also knew how to o…

The robot is currently able to go to the fridge to pick out specific beers. I don't see why a sandwich would present much more difficulty.

"it's worth pointing out that this robot can't yet actually fetch a sandwich from subway unassisted."

I think that sentences like this are actually being written these days is pretty damn impressive in itself.

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