I think the major bottleneck is not on the side of robotics per se, but on the side of insufficient compartmentalization. What prevents a greater use of robots is that we insist to bundle simple tasks into complex, anthropocentric “jobs” for social, cultural and inertia-based reasons.
A simple, often used example are Janitors. It is extremely hard to make a robotic Janitor, that could do all the janitorial jobs. General Purpose Robotic Janitor is an order of magnitude harder to create than a robot Lawyer or a robot Driver. But the problem lies not in software or hardware, but our refusal to break down “janitor” into 100 different and simple tasks that a fleet of dumb robots could do. We already have robots that can mop the floor, and drones that could change light bulbs, and bots that could stack chairs, and bots that could unclog toilets etc, but it would be fiendishly hard to make one that can do all of those tasks, and be a “true Janitor”.
The issue is not hardware, or software, its irrationality.
I think the major bottleneck is not on the side of robotics per se, but on the side of insufficient compartmentalization. What prevents a greater use of robots is that we insist to bundle simple tasks into complex, anthropocentric “jobs” for social, cultural and inertia-based reasons.
A simple, often used example are Janitors. It is extremely hard to make a robotic Janitor, that could do all the janitorial jobs. General Purpose Robotic Janitor is an order of magnitude harder to create than a robot Lawyer or a robot Driver. But the problem lies not in software or hardware, but our refusal to break down “janitor” into 100 different and simple tasks that a fleet of dumb robots could do. We already have robots that can mop the floor, and drones that could change light bulbs, and bots that could stack chairs, and bots that could unclog toilets etc, but it would be fiendishly hard to make one that can do all of those tasks, and be a “true Janitor”.
The issue is not hardware, or software, its irrationality.