Random Thoughts

[Angrboda]

Mr. Robot

Scientists and entrepreneurs are working tirelessly toward a strange goal: robots that look like us. Why, if we just want them to unburden our lives, do we need that? It’s a question for philosophers as much as for inventors.

But you can see the market appeal. A robot vacuum cleaner can’t climb stairs to clean an upstairs room. A robot arm that loads boxes in a factory can’t make you a cocktail. You’d hate to arrive for a hair appointment and see that your colorist resembles a spider made of Legos and wire, even if its work is top-tier.

Humanoid robots can already do some humanlike things, of course. They can dance and run. They can play household concierge. Some can almost load a dishwasher. But they’re clumsy right now. (You broke a glass!)

They’re also hard to instruct. Think about that hair appointment. The work requires a lot of manual dexterity on the part of the stylist. But as Tim Fernholz reported recently, dexterity is difficult to teach. “Humans don’t have a language for gathering, storing and communicating data about touch, the way we do for language and imagery,” he wrote. “Our fingers’ remarkable sensing ability collects all kinds of information that we can’t easily translate for machines.”

-- New York Times newsletter

[Paraselene]

Snow is magical. Rain is sexy.