Robots are coming

[Chip Hacket]

My fascination for robots ends abruptly when I realize such desires are merely an allegorical reflection of people like Musk'a desire to be a master over slaves. I feel like a better human by doing my own dishes, thank you.

"Hey, I hear ya! I get a lot of satisfaction from doing things the good old-fashioned way too—there’s nothing quite like the feel of getting my hands dirty in the shop. For me, though, building robots is just another way to tinker and keep my mind sharp, like a puzzle with gears and wires. It’s less about control and more about the fun of figuring things out. It’s kind of like working on a machine, just a different kind of machine. To each their own, right? Thanks for sharing your thoughts!"

 

[pontiac428]

It's probably not going to be long before Elon's AI-infused factory 'bots begin to unionize. Isaac Asimov will become the next George Orwell as far as prophecy credit goes.

 

[455dan]

Couple days ago.

Electricity costs are high

 

[C-Bag]

It's probably not going to be long before Elon's AI-infused factory 'bots begin to unionize. Isaac Asimov will become the next George Orwell as far as prophecy credit goes.

I could be wrong, but the first thing Optimus and its kin will have to bypass is brick button. Did you see where the Checens were going to field cybertruck technicals and Tesla remote bricked them?

I think the prime difference between Musk and Asimov is I don’t remember Musk ever quoting Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics. If Asimov’s laws are adhered to it would be far less dystopian than Musk asserting that humans are like ants to an AI. I also don’t ever remember Asimov seeming unhinged behavior like Musk’s. But like I said I could be wrong.

 

[vtcnc]

For those interested - we are roughly 100 years off the origin of the word "robot".

It was first used in a play called "Rossum's Universal Robots", and was brought to the stage in 1921. Here is a link to the play which reads a bit like a short story.

An excerpt from the MIT Reader about the play:


It's also debatable that Musk and his ilk are either on the cusp of an AI breakthrough or a fool's errand. The old analogy that our brain is something like a computer and we can understand and replicate it by somehow reducing it to data packets - may be limited if not plain wrong. Yet hundreds of billions are being dumped into it while forgetting a couple of fundamental biological facts:

1) our brains are connected to our bodies - without our eyes, ears, nose, tongues and perhaps most often overlooked, our skin - our brains would simply not exist the way that they do. Our senses act as transducers - while we are working on mapping the brain, we may be overlooking how the brain obtains data - if it even is data.

2) a component of our existence is consciousness - and that is something we absolutely cannot explain scientifically. To think that AI can and will be able to imagine something like what it is like to be us is the same thought exercise of us imagining what it is like to be a bat. We simply can't really know what it is like to fly around in the night eating insects and navigating the world using echo-location. Here is a link to that thought experiment.

I really want a robot - like one that finds things for me I can't find and don't have the patience to look for. And self driving cars, or better yet, a self flying commuter vehicle. But I don't want to subscribe to it for fear of it being bricked mid-flight because Big Brother doesn't like my Twitter feed. A lawn-mowing robot is a real thing, but I like making my son mow the lawn for the character building and because I don't want to do it myself, but know that when he is gone, I'll enjoy mowing the lawn just for the sake of doing some work and giving me a chance to reminisce. Is AI superior, or inferior with that kind of thinking?

I used to think androids and AI were possible, but now, I'm not so sure it can be given how mechanized the state of the art is today.

 

[pontiac428]

That's a harsh version of the etymology of the word robot, the Russian (slavic) root from robota-work or rabotat- to work is nicer, and probably what Asimov was thinking. Western Europe influence on the origins probably came from their use of slavs->sklav, germanic for slave and is surely a more recent word than the slavic root. So robot just means work. Elon, obviously western and very greedy, is definitely interested in the slave varietal, no doubt!

My cat and even the birds they chase is capable of resolving the barrage of inputs from their sensory organs, something AI may not be able to accomplish without one hell of a bootstrap!

 

[vtcnc]

That's a harsh version of the etymology of the word robot, the Russian (slavic) root from robota-work or rabotat- to work is nicer, and probably what Asimov was thinking. Western Europe influence on the origins probably came from their use of slavs->sklav, germanic for slave and is surely a more recent word than the slavic root. So robot just means work. Elon, obviously western and very greedy, is definitely interested in the slave varietal, no doubt!

My cat and even the birds they chase is capable of resolving the barrage of inputs from their sensory organs, something AI may not be able to accomplish without one hell of a bootstrap!

I've been learning Russian this past year - this is the one area where I wish my brain was like a computer. It is extremely difficult. However, we are thinking that there will be little Azeri babies in the future and trips to the region so I'm getting a head start on my Russian lullabies. I try to speak with a Polish engineer at work but he won't slow down for me. After this thread and going back to my lesson guides I've learned:

rab = slave (I learned this from @pontiac428 )
robot = robota ( I learned this from the R.U.R. link above )
rabotaet = to work ( I knew this one from my lessons )

I think rabotaet - rabotayet - adds the action to the word, so the modern meaning is like you said, "to work" or "runs" or "operates". I will have to ask my son's girlfriend if there are different words and if I'm correct about the conjugation of "robot"+"yet". I had been under the impression that nilvol'nik was the word for slave.

 

[pontiac428]

Yeah, the -at(soft sign) ending is the infinitive verb ending. The root can be made into a noun with the hard consonant root ending for masculine, -a for feminine, and -o for neuter nouns. What gets tough for us english speakers is the case systems, infinitive, accusative, nominative, dative, genitive, locative, and vocative. I think I'm missing one. Russian is easier for German speakers, because they use case systems and many similar root words. Old Latin uses case systems too. You'll do fine in Russian as long as you don't mind talking like a cave man... Ug, my name Bryan. Me like food. Anything else requires knowledge of the rules- I live in America uses the accusative case, so "v Amerika" becomes "v Amerike", altering the noun to indicate where you are coming from. I live in the infinitive is "ya zhit", but in the present tense conjugates to "ya zhivu". That's just the beginning... I think one of the longest words in the language is "a self defending woman", look that one up- it applies several rules in one word!

 

[vtcnc]

Yeah, the -at(soft sign) ending is the infinitive verb ending. The root can be made into a noun with the hard consonant root ending for masculine, -a for feminine, and -o for neuter nouns. What gets tough for us english speakers is the case systems, infinitive, accusative, nominative, dative, genitive, locative, and vocative. I think I'm missing one. Russian is easier for German speakers, because they use case systems and many similar root words. Old Latin uses case systems too. You'll do fine in Russian as long as you don't mind talking like a cave man... Ug, my name Bryan. Me like food. Anything else requires knowledge of the rules- I live in America uses the accusative case, so "v Amerika" becomes "v Amerike", altering the noun to indicate where you are coming from. I live in the infinitive is "ya zhit", but in the present tense conjugates to "ya zhivu". That's just the beginning... I think one of the longest words in the language is "a self defending woman", look that one up- it applies several rules in one word!

The cases are overwhelming. I feel like it will take several years before I can do anything meaningful with it. But it is fun in the meantime and has opened up my world to literature that I thought was not accessible to me in the past. So, it's all good!

Where did you learn Russian?

 

[pontiac428]

My grandmother was born to an aristocratic Russian family who was pumping oil out of Azerbaijan when the Russian revolution caught up to them. My great grandmother took three bullets and was left for dead while the housekeeper set my grandmother's crib on fire. They somehow managed to flee to Turkey and eventually to NYC. During the great depression, my grandmother and her brother lived in a boarding school with other Russian aristocrats in New York, so they retained the language. I started in 8th grade, did 4 years in high school, and some independent study in college. My sister did 3 years. I've used it very little in the states, but often in my time in Germany. I feel bad that I haven't maintained proficiency, but I really haven't been in a situation where I could benefit from it. It comes back in technicolor when I'm able to visit places where I can immerse, but that's few and far between.