The Robotic Dexterity Deadlock • Hacker News Board

Re: The Robotic Dexterity Deadlock

#51

Post by belviewreview » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 3:12 AM UTC

The basic problem is that human hands are made of flesh, while robot hands are made of artificial materials like steel and carbon fiber composites. Flesh is a million times more complex, starting at the molecular level, and so it can do all sorts of things that artificial materials cannot.

Compare for instance a jetliner and a bird. The jetliner can fly fast and carry a lot of cargo or human beings. The bird is a lot smaller and slower, but it can do all sorts of things a jetliner cannot. This includes growing itself from a single fertilized egg, self-repair, defense against attacks of various types, finding and getting food, building its own shelter, and reproduction. All because it is made of biological cells. And note that for a jetliner, the similar tasks are carried out by human beings also made of biological cells.

I think a similar analysis explains why artificial general intelligence is impossible.

Re: The Robotic Dexterity Deadlock

#52

Post by LoganDark » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 7:07 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #40

LoganDark wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don't back-drive well What? An ideal capstan drive can be backdriven perfectly fine. You only run into problems once it stops being ideal (e.g. built out of heavy parts, high gear ratio, etc.)

It's the high reduction ratio that's the problem. If you build a 200:1 capstan, it's not going to back drive well. And it won't be anywhere near ideal.

That falls under both of the examples I just listed, so yes.

Re: The Robotic Dexterity Deadlock

#53

Post by Zigurd » Sat, Feb 28, 2026, 1:57 PM UTC

program_whiz wrote: post #7

Zigurd wrote: post #3

Surgical robots, and robot pianos both exist. Neither employ humanoid hands. This all just illustrates how humanoid robots are, in multiple dimensions, going down technology rat holes. In some cases better solutions already exist without looking humanoid. In other cases, the humanoid form factor fails to address problems like a high center of gravity in a device that needs to not fall on grandma while helping her aro…

I think one major draw to human-like for factors is the reuse of existing ecosystems and tools. If you have human-like grasping, you can reuse tools and utensils for human hands, otherwise, you need custom attachments. If you have human-like legs you can navigate stairs, wear pants for customization, and possibly operate a car or bike. Its a bit like choosing JS / python -- of course performance is inferior to a comp…

> and possibly operate a car or bike.

This is exactly the example I used to show the ridiculousness of humanoid robots. You're not going to have a humanoid form climb into the driver seat of your car and act as your chauffeur. Your car will be the robot.

Just how ridiculous is a humanoid robot chauffeur? Should know how to drive a stick shift? Should it use its superior ability to swivel its head around to check for cars in the blind spot?

Someday business schools will have a chapter in their product management course that covers all the ways people slide ass backwards into thinking a humanoid robot makes sense. Humanoid robots will always be crushed between the rock of low value use cases below their price points the hard place of high value use cases that deserve tailored solutions.