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Technology / Future
Robots
Humans have dreamed of artificial beings for millennia. From ancient myths to
science fiction to the robots walking among us today, the journey is one of
humanity's most fascinating stories.
Where the Idea Came From
- Ancient Greece Hephaestus, god of smiths, created golden automatons. Talos was a bronze giant protecting Crete
- Jewish folklore The Golem - a clay figure brought to life through ritual
- Leonardo da Vinci (1495) Designed a mechanical knight that could sit, wave, and lift its visor
- Automata (1700s) Clockwork figures that could write, draw, and play music
- The word "Robot" Coined in 1920 by Karel Capek in his play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots). From Czech "robota" meaning forced labor
Isaac Asimov's Impact
Isaac Asimov didn't invent the idea of robots, but he shaped how we think about them.
Before Asimov, robot stories were mostly "Frankenstein" tales - creations turning on
their creators. Asimov flipped the script.
- Three Laws of Robotics (1942) Rules hardwired into robot brains to prevent harm
- I, Robot (1950) Short story collection exploring robot ethics
- The Robot Series Novels featuring R. Daneel Olivaw, a robot detective
- Legacy Made robots sympathetic, not scary. Influenced real roboticists
The Three Laws: (1) A robot may not harm a human or allow harm through inaction.
(2) A robot must obey humans except where it conflicts with the First Law.
(3) A robot must protect itself except where it conflicts with the First or Second Laws.
The Reality Today
- Industrial robots 3.5+ million robots in factories worldwide. Welding, assembly, painting
- Boston Dynamics Atlas does parkour, Spot patrols job sites. Walking robots are real
- Tesla Optimus Humanoid robot in development, folding laundry demos in 2024
- Figure AI Backed by OpenAI, building general-purpose humanoids
- Surgical robots Da Vinci system has performed 10+ million surgeries
- Warehouse robots Amazon has 750,000+ robots moving packages
- Self-driving cars Waymo does 100,000+ paid rides per week in 2024
How Close Are We?
Closer than most people realize. The pieces are coming together:
- Hardware Motors, sensors, batteries have improved dramatically
- AI Large language models give robots reasoning and language
- Computer vision Robots can see and understand their environment
- The gap Physical dexterity still lags human capability
- Timeline General-purpose humanoid robots likely within 10-20 years
The limiting factor isn't any single technology - it's integration. Making
everything work together reliably in the messy real world is the hard part.
But we're solving it piece by piece.
What's Actually Here Now
In a way, the robot revolution already happened - we just don't call them robots:
- Roomba 40+ million sold. Robots clean our floors
- Dishwashers Automated dish-cleaning machines in most homes
- Assembly lines Cars are built by robots. So are phones
- Drones Autonomous flying robots deliver packages
- Robotic surgery More precise than human hands
The future is already here - it's just unevenly distributed. And increasingly,
it's being distributed by robots.