Why would a super intelligent robot do work for you? No, super intelligent robot will use it's superier intellect to convince YOU to do the dishes and the fold the laundry while it watches tv.
I have a washing machine. That automates most of washing clothes, hanging and folding them takes seconds.
I expect robots in unexpected, previously unautomated areas. I don't expect them to look humanoid other than the ones that will look exceptionally humanoid perhaps changing form from time to time.
The washing machine does. Either this conversation has come full circle or HN, circus of productivity hacks, is exceptionally ineffective at doing laundry.
Are you being serious? My unwashed laundry only smells when you press your nose to it. In the hamper it’s fine for the 1-7 days it generally waits.
Although this thread has hit on an interesting method of distributing folding into daily tiny sessions - especially for the childfree, who produce just a single dirty outfit per day after all.
The method would be that you don’t own any clothes that wrinkle, and wash a load of laundry each week, then you hang up your towel, and just sit the clean basket by the dresser, and each morning before you get dressed, you also fold and put away (or wear) “n” items where “n” is the average number of items you wear each day. At the end of the week you should have an essentially empty “clean” basket and a new dirty basket. If you were very disciplined about this you could just have the basics in rotation at all times, meaning you only own like 8 pairs of underpants, 16 socks, etc. and those simply come out of the clean basket straight onto your body.
This reminds me of a guy who once did that at my office. He was going through some kind of trouble with his wife and would sometimes sleep on a couple of bean bags in our small office (office was maybe like 20x25, with two main rooms). I feel like I stayed at the office super late sometimes, but I don’t think I ever slept there.
Since so many white collar jobs will be lost, the robots will be less likely since now they have to compete with every unemployed dev who is going to be willing to do the physical task just for some bread and water.
A few years ago, I saw a talk that made a point about how prosthetics that mimic original human body parts are often designed from an able-bodied point of view. They look inoffensive and are designed for the wearer to blend into what's considered normal.
However, these prosthetics frequently are not all that useful. Once one starts to rethink from first principles in terms of function and efficiency rather than aesthetics this opens up an entirely new space of solutions that might be much more efficient than the original "solutions" they replace - the most famous example probably being Oscar Pistorius' running blades.
The same applies to digital transformation - and by extension AI and robotics. We don't need faster horses. We need to rethink and replace existing processes entirely.
There is some we since many centuries ago that did not have to do laundry and fold clothes nor cook... because they have some meatware "robots" automating this tasks already.
I'd wish we could have robots helping us to produce bionanotextiles4.0 that make folding/ironing optional or obsolete, or microwaves that turn some gunk mix of element in the periodic table an turn them into a salad or a stake, rather than getting a remote controlled clanker harvesting every fart of data I produce.
We are more likely to have water and food shortages because of resource exhaustion and climate change. Maybe goods shortages because of war or economic depression.
You don’t want that.
Because it would mean 5 rich dudes own all physical work.
What happens to the rest of us when that happens? What economic system can we create that makes sense? (The current one does not make sense in that scenario. Game it out for five minutes like a chess game if you don’t believe me).
We urgently need an answer to that question before it happens. The Elon suggestion is so laughable as to be unworthy of an answer.
I’m not a roboticist but I get the core concepts and challenges (and I’ve been in the room with leaders in the space). And I know a bit about LLMs and the current state of AI systems.
the human-form robots out of China unlocking motion based on copying human motion indicate that generally useful human labor replacement robots should be on the market within five years (probably at a starting price of $40k) and really good within ten. (And market forces might drive the price to $20k in today’s dollars)
And given how long it takes to invent, validate and adopt new economic systems we need to predict the failure mode of what happens when 5 rich dudes own all work and everyone else is homeless and hungry (hint the French Revolution was a mini study on what happens when the top gets too heavy and the bottom stops having it)
Like I said, you don’t want this. Nobody wants this. Hopefully some smart billionaires figure that out and solve it soon enough to save their own skins. (Along with everyone else)
Those 5 billionaire guys do want this- The french revolution probably wouldnt have happened the way it did if they had to deal with an army of terminator robots
But those guys aren’t cartoon villains. Supposing that they did just that, unleashing an army of Terminators to counter a revolution, and wiped out or imprisoned most of humanity. Uhh, what’s the game plan then? Having all the so-called “money” means very little if you obliterate the whole world’s economic system. Even having all the gold or all the chip fabs means very little when there’s no market for any of those things besides your security robot factories.
I think the billionaire class are deeply invested in the world continuing to exist in a reasonable state as opposed to a post-apocalyptic hellscape, and surely they must know this.
Why would a super intelligent robot do work for you? No, super intelligent robot will use it's superier intellect to convince YOU to do the dishes and the fold the laundry while it watches tv.
2-3 years. Probably Optimus 4 will be able to do that, but probably not very well - kind of like tesla fsd drives currently.
I have a washing machine. That automates most of washing clothes, hanging and folding them takes seconds.
I expect robots in unexpected, previously unautomated areas. I don't expect them to look humanoid other than the ones that will look exceptionally humanoid perhaps changing form from time to time.
Hanging and folding does not take seconds blud
A wash per day. In it, a couple of t-shirts, a shirt, a hoodie, a pair of trousers, socks, underwear. At max.
It really shouldn't take more than a handful of seconds to give a good flap and put any one of these on a hangar.
Likewise folding. A couple of seconds. Shirts don't need folding, they stay n the hangar.
I'm struggling to think why it would take longer. Are you new to clothes?
Who has time to do laundry once a day. That sounds crazy if you don't have small kids.
The washing machine does. Either this conversation has come full circle or HN, circus of productivity hacks, is exceptionally ineffective at doing laundry.
Does it not smell and fester when left for days?
Are you being serious? My unwashed laundry only smells when you press your nose to it. In the hamper it’s fine for the 1-7 days it generally waits.
Although this thread has hit on an interesting method of distributing folding into daily tiny sessions - especially for the childfree, who produce just a single dirty outfit per day after all.
The method would be that you don’t own any clothes that wrinkle, and wash a load of laundry each week, then you hang up your towel, and just sit the clean basket by the dresser, and each morning before you get dressed, you also fold and put away (or wear) “n” items where “n” is the average number of items you wear each day. At the end of the week you should have an essentially empty “clean” basket and a new dirty basket. If you were very disciplined about this you could just have the basics in rotation at all times, meaning you only own like 8 pairs of underpants, 16 socks, etc. and those simply come out of the clean basket straight onto your body.
Not to mention ironing and putting away.
You don't have to do it already. You can hire people to clean your room every week or even every day if you have the $$$.
You can also buy food so that you don't have to cook.
I'd definitely live in the office if given the chance -- i.e. my wife divorces me and company allows.
This reminds me of a guy who once did that at my office. He was going through some kind of trouble with his wife and would sometimes sleep on a couple of bean bags in our small office (office was maybe like 20x25, with two main rooms). I feel like I stayed at the office super late sometimes, but I don’t think I ever slept there.
Since so many white collar jobs will be lost, the robots will be less likely since now they have to compete with every unemployed dev who is going to be willing to do the physical task just for some bread and water.
It might not be about robot replacing chore entirely,but redefining them.Like how dishwashers don't eliminate dishes, they just changed the workflow.
Exactly this.
A few years ago, I saw a talk that made a point about how prosthetics that mimic original human body parts are often designed from an able-bodied point of view. They look inoffensive and are designed for the wearer to blend into what's considered normal.
However, these prosthetics frequently are not all that useful. Once one starts to rethink from first principles in terms of function and efficiency rather than aesthetics this opens up an entirely new space of solutions that might be much more efficient than the original "solutions" they replace - the most famous example probably being Oscar Pistorius' running blades.
The same applies to digital transformation - and by extension AI and robotics. We don't need faster horses. We need to rethink and replace existing processes entirely.
There is some we since many centuries ago that did not have to do laundry and fold clothes nor cook... because they have some meatware "robots" automating this tasks already.
I'd wish we could have robots helping us to produce bionanotextiles4.0 that make folding/ironing optional or obsolete, or microwaves that turn some gunk mix of element in the periodic table an turn them into a salad or a stake, rather than getting a remote controlled clanker harvesting every fart of data I produce.
We are more likely to have water and food shortages because of resource exhaustion and climate change. Maybe goods shortages because of war or economic depression.
Data is proving otherwise. While locally shortages do happen, in general there more resources available than ever: http://awealthofcommonsense.com/2023/04/50-ways-the-world-is...
Well, except for water https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166800
No affiliation, and not sure if it will actually do those things well but startup building for that: https://www.1x.tech/neo
I'd rather not have to worry about what to eat for a balanced diet.
More likely we get to do these chores while AI gets the real jobs done.
I'd say the 2050s
very soon :)
You don’t want that. Because it would mean 5 rich dudes own all physical work. What happens to the rest of us when that happens? What economic system can we create that makes sense? (The current one does not make sense in that scenario. Game it out for five minutes like a chess game if you don’t believe me).
We urgently need an answer to that question before it happens. The Elon suggestion is so laughable as to be unworthy of an answer.
I’m not a roboticist but I get the core concepts and challenges (and I’ve been in the room with leaders in the space). And I know a bit about LLMs and the current state of AI systems.
the human-form robots out of China unlocking motion based on copying human motion indicate that generally useful human labor replacement robots should be on the market within five years (probably at a starting price of $40k) and really good within ten. (And market forces might drive the price to $20k in today’s dollars)
And given how long it takes to invent, validate and adopt new economic systems we need to predict the failure mode of what happens when 5 rich dudes own all work and everyone else is homeless and hungry (hint the French Revolution was a mini study on what happens when the top gets too heavy and the bottom stops having it)
Like I said, you don’t want this. Nobody wants this. Hopefully some smart billionaires figure that out and solve it soon enough to save their own skins. (Along with everyone else)
Those 5 billionaire guys do want this- The french revolution probably wouldnt have happened the way it did if they had to deal with an army of terminator robots
But those guys aren’t cartoon villains. Supposing that they did just that, unleashing an army of Terminators to counter a revolution, and wiped out or imprisoned most of humanity. Uhh, what’s the game plan then? Having all the so-called “money” means very little if you obliterate the whole world’s economic system. Even having all the gold or all the chip fabs means very little when there’s no market for any of those things besides your security robot factories.
I think the billionaire class are deeply invested in the world continuing to exist in a reasonable state as opposed to a post-apocalyptic hellscape, and surely they must know this.