Robotic Nation

Robotic Nation. I saw this article about robots taking over half the jobs in America on Slashdot today (there are some good comments...I love the guy who quotes Russel and Norvig).

I thought the article was ridiculous. Not because I think robots won't take over US jobs (how should I know?), but because of the fundamental mistakes that the author makes.

  1. Equates processor speed with intelligence. These are not related. Today's processors are really fast, but they're no smarter than the 4004. The programs we run on them have not made any fundamental breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.
  2. Assumes Moore's Law will continue to hold true, without any evidence.
  3. Worst of all, he thinks that humaniod robots will be the most useful. I strongly disagree. For controlling any sort of machine, a computer with sensors (sonar, radar, laser rangefinders, and computer vision) would be far more effective than a humanoid robot. For flipping burgers, a self contained food-unit would probably be easier to design and program than programming a humaniod robot to operate machinery.