The only job robot can't do is politician.
Not so sure ... read some Isaac Asimov. (And yes, I'm generalizing from fictional evidence, but I'm only playing).
Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
61–70 of 83 posts
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#62For me this article tells me I am growing up. Previously I would have thought "gosh Google is getting into robots, well that sews up the market everyone will buy from them." today I think - "Wow, Google is path blazing, there is going to be so many opportunities - let's dig out ROS and find a local company with a needs"
And you'll know you're grown up when you can spot a reactionary PR fluff piece instead of anything with actual content in it! The Amazon announcement had a concrete end goal and time commitments, and was met with cynicism, whereas this fuzzy approach allowing people to project what they want into what they're reading creates a sort of delusional optimism among many.
Thanks for being a cynic! I am sure all big discoveries are made using concrete deadlines. I guess the quest for exploratory research is dead.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. It is exactly the right time. People really need to stop trying to bring scifi to life without considering that most of those scifi books/movies resulted in the extinction of mankind , or something near that.
People need to learn to stop generalizing from fictional evidence, especially wrt. to sci-fi tech. http://lesswrong.com/lw/k9/the_logical_fallacy_of_generaliza...
Actually, when it comes to autonomous robots, I would generally say, "Holy shit we're all going to die unless these are very thoroughly regulated and controlled" is a pretty good heuristic.
A delivery drone that crashes into your car due to a software bug wasn't turning sapient and trying to kill you. You just ran off a bridge and died anyway.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#64I wonder how long it will be before the sex industry catches on. Surely realistic and anatomically correct androids are preferable to blow-up dolls are what have you... even Star Trek mentioned the issue. It might seem flippant, but I genuinely think that is a potentially huge market (though probably not Google's cup of tea). After all, why create a robot that is shaped like a human? The human form is remarkably vers…
> The best reason for having a robot that emulates human form and behaviour would be for interacting with other humans.
Alternatively, for interacting with things that were designed for humans, including most of the world we live in.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#65they seem to have used a file photo from 2007 NYT story that has a toy robot. Hmm, bit tricky - to average person I think the photo suggests THIS is an example of the robots he's working on, no? http://hunterwalk.com/2013/12/03/andy-rubin-poses-with-same-...
More likely he just was hard to schedule for a photo shoot, so they used a file photo and this was better than a headshot of him speaking at some conference. Unless there were new robots to show from Google, it wouldn't add much to take a new photo.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#66To put some weight behind the quote from Andrew McAfee's quote (“The opportunity is massive,” said Andrew McAfee, a principal research scientist at the M.I.T. Center for Digital Business. “There are still people who walk around in factories and pick things up in distribution centers and work in the back rooms of grocery stores.”), just the external logistics of the Supply Chain of modern businesses accounts for around 7-9% of the GDP[1]. In developing countries, it is much higher (although I don't have a non-gated reference for other developing countries, the link in [1] shows China's cost at 18%). Interestingly, while inventory holding costs are included in that estimate, internal fulfillment costs (think Pick and Pack, Rail Shunt Yards, Crossdocking, etc) is not included as that is typically considered an operations cost. Those costs vary wildly by industry, but I can imagine it tacks on another 20-30% on top of that.
This would mean that the modern industrial supply chain costs the US around $1.5 trillion/yr.
[1] http://www.kpmg.com.cn/en/virtual_library/Property_Infrastru...
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year" um, how many people are actually killed by industrial robots? while the robots provide what economic value?
Only three reported deaths last time I checked. One in 1979, one in 1984 and another in 2009. Pretty sure more deaths occur from other equipment than that, every year even.
This is untrue, but it is hard to get international numbers.
In the US alone, it is about one death a year, purely by OSHA standards. This doesn't include things like "struck by robot, died three days later due to brain haemorrhage".
OSHA: https://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/AccidentSearch.search?acc_keyw...
Economist: 77 accidents with industrial robots in 2005 alone - http://www.economist.com/node/7001829
Research paper: 103 self reported and survey responded by 1995 - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hfm.4530050304/ab...
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
The question I've always had in regards to Bot & Dolly - how are they ensuring safety? Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year. Putting untrained actors in close proximity with arms without some sort of safety system seems like madness. I hope I'm wrong though, since the company seems to be bringing robots to an interesting new place.
"Industrial robot arms are notoriously unforgiving and kill people every year" um, how many people are actually killed by industrial robots? while the robots provide what economic value?
Some.
Some.
Both of these questions need more specificity - the former in the data available and the latter in what you're considering value.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#69For me this article tells me I am growing up. Previously I would have thought "gosh Google is getting into robots, well that sews up the market everyone will buy from them." today I think - "Wow, Google is path blazing, there is going to be so many opportunities - let's dig out ROS and find a local company with a needs"
And you'll know you're grown up when you can spot a reactionary PR fluff piece instead of anything with actual content in it! The Amazon announcement had a concrete end goal and time commitments, and was met with cynicism, whereas this fuzzy approach allowing people to project what they want into what they're reading creates a sort of delusional optimism among many.
I used to (and still do) run the opposite direction that the crowd is going. Its just that I am choosing my tribe - and my tribe is full of people who also run the opposite direction from the crowd.
So I have to be careful to spot both the larger crowd, the crowd that is now my tribe and when people are dropping FUD scent markers over their desired territory.
In short - robots still look like a hobby that will pay off the same way writing games for the ZX 80 or Atari will pay off.
Re: Google Puts Money on Robots, Using the Man Behind Android
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you'll know you're grown up when you can spot a reactionary PR fluff piece instead of anything with actual content in it! The Amazon announcement had a concrete end goal and time commitments, and was met with cynicism, whereas this fuzzy approach allowing people to project what they want into what they're reading creates a sort of delusional optimism among many.
I used to (and still do) run the opposite direction that the crowd is going. Its just that I am choosing my tribe - and my tribe is full of people who also run the opposite direction from the crowd. So I have to be careful to spot both the larger crowd, the crowd that is now my tribe and when people are dropping FUD scent markers over their desired territory. In short - robots still look like a hobby that will pay of…
Comparing Robotics to Atari development is like comparing Computers to Atari development. It is the comparison of an idea and the application of an idea. You might be right about trendiness of robotics applications, but to throw the whole idea out with it is foolish.