How would you use a Humanoid?

Brio

dano said:

Brio said:

Sexbot obviously.

And it only took 3 replies to get to this!

Sorry I was late.

snowblind

digitalscream said:

That's a valid use case, though. There are lots of circumstances where a human-shaped-object is ideal for dealing with a problem, but the job is too dangerous for an actual human to be used.

Of course, that would also require that the human-shaped-object doesn't cost more than the life insurance payout of an actual human...

This presupposes that the people wealthy enough to create the robots actually give a fork about putting real humans at risk. Evidence from the last 10K years of history tends to suggest this isn't the case. What does motivate them however is not having to pay money to other humans. One of the reasons why there is so much automation in German industry is that their employment laws make it so expensive to use people that it works out cheaper to develop automation. Most versions of humanoid robots to date only exist as vehicles to extract money from their fleshy counterparts. 

You only have to look at the myriad sweatshops and dodgy mining operations across the planet to see that as a species we are quite happy to sacrifice other members of our own species in order to make a buck.

Just dress up a gig economy wage slave in a tin suit. Lo and behold, I give you a humanoid robot. Dev costs were minimal and takes a fair amount of abuse before it breaks although it does still suffer from hangovers.

And let's face it, C3PO was bleeding annoying.....

robgilmo

I would name it David , or Bishop, then send it out into space with Sigourney Weaver where it would become evil and try to kill her , several times.

robgilmo

Seriously though, any robots we have made for industrial applications have not been human shaped, they dont have to be and work much better when not, so , this isnt really going to be a thing in my view, we simply do not need human shaped robots. So is it a vanity thing? I think so.

rze99

I can see a need for high quality humanoid care robots. Obviously we are a long way from that.

That's why Japan is investing so heavily. Aging population, minimal immigration, pressing care need.... who's going to care for the infirm?

If a robot was pleasant to be with and took care of critical needs in my infirm state, I'd prefer it to squalor, abuse,  abandonment and freefall decline. 

A loved family member had 10 years of dementia. Luckily she had vast funds (enough to buy a luxury house and all funds now at zero) for very high quality care until she died. It was awful, but dignified and comforting to know how well cared for she was.  It's sad but she wouldn't have noticed if it was a robot or not in the last 5 years. And it could have been better value for money.

GoFish

Knowing my luck, it would spend all day playing the guitar while I was stuck changing the strings.

TeleMaster

robgilmo said:

Seriously though, any robots we have made for industrial applications have not been human shaped, they dont have to be and work much better when not, so , this isnt really going to be a thing in my view, we simply do not need human shaped robots. So is it a vanity thing? I think so.

Tesla and Amazon already use humanoid shaped robots.

thumpingrug

having felt like i was the house dobbie for 30 years, id happily take a bot that did the cooking, cleaning, clothes washing and emptied the fekking cat trays

Winny_Pooh

Brio said:

dano said:

Brio said:

Sexbot obviously.

And it only took 3 replies to get to this!

Sorry I was late.

Better than coming early, then again, we'll program the sexbots to love that too.

Emp_Fab

Oh God....  Imagine being a service engineer for a sex robot.  "Sorry Mr Jones, the splooge reservoir has overflowed again and gummed up the flaptuator.  I can try and clean it all out - but you're really going to have to abide by the 500 fuck service intervals in future or the warranty will be invalidated".

digitalscream

 Emp_Fab said:

Oh God....  Imagine being a service engineer for a sex robot.  "Sorry Mr Jones, the splooge reservoir has overflowed again and gummed up the flaptuator.  I can try and clean it all out - but you're really going to have to abide by the 500 fuck service intervals in future or the warranty will be invalidated".

It's easy, just contact Louis Rossman (NSFW warning on the audio and text):

bertie

this is a robot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68486462

snowblind

But the two most likely to get funded are:



and