Comment Re:AI has long way to go and so have robotics (Score 1) 1457
I believe that another major challenge to robotics in the future will be a realistic energy source. Marshall Brain points out the amazing technical advances of the 20th Century; a common thread among all these advances, from airplanes to apollo rockets to microprocessors, is that they all use fossil fuels as a base for energy. Our methods for fossil fuel use have remained largely unchanged for thousands of years--create a spark, inefficiently burn some carbon, pollute the atmosphere.
From the mass balance perspective, biological systems utilize energy far more efficiently than any machines humans have devised, thus far. If the fossil fuel consumption of the US and other industrialized nations was not subsidized by the exploitation of natural resources and labor in developing countries, it would be easier for us to realize that 10,000 people use energy a lot more efficiently than 10,000 machines performing the same task.
Unless we discover new, more efficient ways to use energy within the next 40 years, I really find it hard to imagine a world filled with vast legions of humanoid robot service workers.
From the mass balance perspective, biological systems utilize energy far more efficiently than any machines humans have devised, thus far. If the fossil fuel consumption of the US and other industrialized nations was not subsidized by the exploitation of natural resources and labor in developing countries, it would be easier for us to realize that 10,000 people use energy a lot more efficiently than 10,000 machines performing the same task.
Unless we discover new, more efficient ways to use energy within the next 40 years, I really find it hard to imagine a world filled with vast legions of humanoid robot service workers.
