WEBVTT - TechStuff Gets Domestic . . . Robots 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.160 Get in touch with technology with Text Stuff from Householst. 0:00:12.280 --> 0:00:15.000 Hey there, everyone, and welcome to Text Stuff. My name 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:18.759 is Javin Strickland. I host the show along with someone else, 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:22.200 and that someone else is Lauren Boglebom right, and today 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.200 we wanted to talk to you about domestic robots. This 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.319 is a topic that a listener of ours wanted to 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:31.680 hear more about. So we thought, hey, we haven't really 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:34.960 covered domestic robots, so yeah, let's let's do that crazy 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:37.720 thing you. Yeah, and when people think of domestic robots, 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.200 I think that the image that immediately pops into most 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.080 people's minds is Rosie, the robot from the Jetsons. Yeah, 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:46.199 the documentary series for the documentary series from the sixties 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.400 of what the Future Will be like? This was This 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.479 was created in three seven sixty two. By the way, 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.240 if you didn't know that, So we've we've got some 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.400 cracking to get on. Yeah. I think it's okay because 0:00:57.440 --> 0:01:00.600 their vision of the future did not incorporate a pretty 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.080 amazing technologies that we have at our disposal right now. 0:01:03.160 --> 0:01:05.480 That's fair, that's fair. But they did have this giant 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.679 robotic human, life size humanoid made that could you know, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:12.040 sit around and drink milkshakes with you and have a 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.320 conversation and and raise your kids for your kids for you. 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.240 You're too busy space parents, right. So Yeah, anyway, Rosie 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.200 the robot kind of kind of was this idea of 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.360 like the robot made or the robot butler that could 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.640 take care of all the menial chores that most of 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:31.560 us do not like to do. Like it, it just 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:33.720 seems like it's one of those things that takes up 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.000 valuable time that you could spend fragging people on halo 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.600 floor doing literally anything else other than washing dishes again, 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:48.720 the folding laundry, cleaning windows. These are these these chores 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.400 that that take up time that uh, you know, we 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.320 just wish someone else would take care of that every 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.160 now and then, and sometimes we hire people for that, 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:59.280 which is in fact probably enormously cheaper and easier than 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.360 building a robot to do it, because a lot of 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:03.920 these things are actually really hard to do. But we'll 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:06.200 talk about that later. Yeah, So let's start off by 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.079 talking about where the word robot comes from. And I'm 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.560 sure a lot of you out there already know this story, 0:02:11.600 --> 0:02:14.440 but there was a check writer, as in someone who 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:19.200 was from Czechoslovakia his name or the Czech Republic at 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:23.639 the time, but now the Czech Republic. Uh. Carol Kpek, 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:27.000 who wrote a play called Are You Are? And Are 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:33.040 You Are stands for Rossom's Universal Robots, and this was yeah. 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.959 And the word robot comes from the check word robota, 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:41.640 which means forced labor or servitude, and that word, in 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:46.079 fact comes from another word rob r a b. That 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:51.000 word means slave. So now, in the original form that 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:55.000 did not necessarily mean an artificial life form of any type. 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.359 It could a robot could be a person. It could 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:00.360 be someone who has been forced to conform to a 0:03:00.480 --> 0:03:05.280 very specific set of behaviors and to perform those behaviors 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.480 for the benefit of some larger entity and this company, sure, sure, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:10.960 this was kind of the crux of the play. It 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.040 was exploring whether or not it was okay for machines 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:17.560 to be used the way that we use people and yeah. So, 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:22.799 so eventually the term robot became more about a device, 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:27.400 a mechanism that can perform functions in an automated way, 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:32.520 and perhaps even in an autonomous way, autonomous and automated 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:34.520 being two different things. Autonomous means that it can do 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.840 it under its own direction, doesn't need someone there to 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:41.760 press a button for it to to be able to 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.160 do whatever it does, right, which is why we don't call, 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.120 for example, our dishwashers, or our toaster robins, or our 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:51.360 washing machines robots, even though technically they are robotic. Yeah, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.320 they have they have features that are common to robots, 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.720 though they themselves are not a robot. Kind of like 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:00.600 how I have features that are similar to a human 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.800 being and yet defy explanation. I'm gonna I'm gonna leave 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.520 that one right there. All right, that's fair enough. So 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:12.720 before we get into the whole domestic robot history and 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.320 and the sort of things that have developed over the 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:17.920 years in in the field of domestic robots, and where 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:20.240 we are today and where we expect to go, I 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.080 thought it'd be interesting to talk a little bit about 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.880 a survey that was conducted a few years ago by 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.800 a company called Persuadable Research. This was the last one 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.719 that I saw, was from two thousand twelves. Yeah, that 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.480 was the most recent one. The this survey was to 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.520 ask people, Hey, if you had the opportunity to purchase 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.880 a robotic device that would perform your chores for you, 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.400 would that be of interest to you? And sixty of 0:04:47.440 --> 0:04:50.720 the people surveyed said, why, yes, it would. I would 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:52.760 love to have a robot that could do things like 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:56.200 clean windows or do laundry. Also, I would like a 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:59.440 robot that could move heavy stuff from one place to 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:01.719 another so that I don't have to do it, or 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.400 provide better home security, personal assistant duties. I think we're 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.680 high on the health monitoring was up there too. Uh yeah, 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:12.080 and and a lot of them. I thought that this 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:15.120 sort of robot would be a very useful device, and 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:17.560 and in most cases, I think they were thinking of 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:22.520 a single robot capable of doing multiple things, not not 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:25.159 not a whole bunch of different robots that are specialized, 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:29.360 but more of a general purpose robot. Now that that 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:33.640 was interesting enough, but also they were asking more questions 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:36.560 like what form would you want this robot to be in? 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.400 And it seemed like most people wanted to have a 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:44.559 humanoid robot. So we're talking about robots that have arms 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:46.640 and legs and a head, you know, things that we 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.760 would generally associate with the human form. And they also 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:54.440 did not want their robots to necessarily have a gender, 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.560 so the voice needed to be neither male nor female. Right, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.680 so kind of that that stereo, yes, the one, the 0:06:02.920 --> 0:06:05.400 one that we all have. We all have a robot 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:07.560 I think we all have a robot voice, and we 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.200 all have an Internet comments voice, like we have a 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.599 voice that we use when we describe Internet comments. People 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:16.080 like you guys were awful, you are your show was 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.279 bad and you should feel bad. That's my Internet voice. 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.599 That's not that's not a very kind Internet voice, Johnathan. 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.279 I'm not saying that everyone on the Internet leaves comments 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.680 sounds like that. I'm saying the people who leave those 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.800 kind of comments sound like that. It's fair. That's entirely 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:33.080 If they can insult me, then I can insult them. 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:34.960 You can, Yes, right, I have a I have a 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.720 medium eye for an eye. It's a harsh podcast landscape. 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.880 Guys like Donkey Kong, But no, that that that they want. 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:45.960 That's my Internet voice. But my robot voice is you know, 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.120 of course, like how can I help you? That's sort 0:06:49.160 --> 0:06:51.920 of that's that's I actually do not possess a robot voice. 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.440 I don't think. I'm sorry. I'll work on one next time. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.680 Next time, we must get vogel bound a robot voice. 0:06:58.720 --> 0:07:01.320 Don't really do voices. This is about it. Okay, Well 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.920 we'll we'll break you of that habit sooner or later. 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:09.440 So yeah, And also that the people of responded said 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.680 they would be willing to pay fifteen th dollars or 0:07:11.760 --> 0:07:17.480 more for a comprehensive robotic assistant. That's a lot of money. Well, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:18.960 I mean when you when you think about it, that's 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:23.560 you know, that's that's the mid range for a decent car, right, Yeah, 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:26.720 you're talking about it, and you're talking that's that's running 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.200 around your house and doing everything you do. But if 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:31.920 it's a robot that's folding laundry, you're like, how much 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.800 is is the fact that I don't have to fold 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.080 laundry worth fifteen grand? I guess it all depends on 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.080 how much you hate laundry. Most people said that they 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:46.080 were their their limit was like anything that was a 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:48.960 thousand dollars or more was kind of outside the range. 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.720 I think that's interesting because there are robots on the 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:56.320 market right now, domestic robots that have very specific uses, 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.480 like they don't do things outside of whatever it is 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.320 they were meant four that are more expensive than that, 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:04.960 But there there are pool robots and we'll talk about 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.640 those in a bit that are so, this is so, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.560 this is perhaps unrealistic of people to expect that sort 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:14.280 of price point. And as you were mentioning before, it 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:17.160 would end up being cheaper to hire someone to come 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:19.640 and do this work for you, at least over a 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.520 certain period of time. Maybe you could eventually find like, 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.600 how many years would it take for a robot to 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.880 make financial sense compared to hiring a human being? Somebody 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:30.720 go do that math for us. I do not feel 0:08:30.720 --> 0:08:32.760 like doing it at all. Well, also, we don't have 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.120 all the variables, right because because you would need to 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.840 know what is the what's the average life span for 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.000 domestic robot? So without that knowledge, we can't really say, like, well, 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:46.800 if if you if you build in maintenance costs and 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:49.920 repair costs, then that adds to it, right, You don't 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.040 necessarily have to repair someone who comes in and cleans 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:56.360 your stuff. You just hire someone else because you know 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:58.720 you're a heartless person. I mean, I'm just talking about 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.760 me here, lear my perspective. I'm like, wow, it's really 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:06.719 sad that that my my, the people I hired to 0:09:06.760 --> 0:09:09.680 come in and clean my windows broke their legs, Thank goodness, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.080 there's this other cleaning service I can hire instead. I 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.000 can just leave those first guys right there on the 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:15.880 sidewalk and just keep going. This is turning into a 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:19.440 really terrible, really terrible discussion. Well, you should see the 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.160 piles of people outside my home. You think this is bad. 0:09:22.520 --> 0:09:25.000 You should really take a look at them. But anyway, 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.920 so the takeaway that I got from this Persuadable Research 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:31.600 Corporation survey was that what people want from their domestic 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:35.040 robots is that they want them to be really cute 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.800 humanoid mobile PCs about in the price range, because a 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.240 thousand dollars is about what you would pay for a 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.200 for a really good PC, for for a decent PC. 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:47.400 And um Bill Gates actually in two thousand and six 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:50.280 wrote an essay called a Robot in Every Home that 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.560 was basically saying the same thing he said, If I 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:55.840 can quote, he said, we may be on the verge 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:57.800 of a new era when the PC will get up 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.360 off the desktop and allow us to see, here, touch, 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:03.360 and manipulate objects in places where we are not physically present. 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.319 And this was kind of his vision for the future 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.960 that that we would have. If you guys have seen 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:10.640 far Escape sort of like the d r D s 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.400 more so than Rosie the Rosie the Robot. Yeah, I 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:15.319 don't know what a d r D and d r 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:20.160 D was. It stands for Diagnostic Repair Drones. And these 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.200 were these kind of little little bug shaped, little trilobyte 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.640 looking critters that would run around far Escape and do 0:10:26.760 --> 0:10:30.040 minor repair work and play the Symphony of eighteen twelve 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.160 and etcetera, etcetera as you needed them to. Okay, I 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:37.600 can see the pressing need for the twelve over when 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.560 I'm when I'm talking to a muppet. Look, it depends 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.240 on how crazy you get while you're lost in space. Okay, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.720 lost in space now, I can talk about that show, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.440 but that had a different robot. Anyway, I'm getting off track. 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:52.439 So it's interesting that you say that this whole trilobyte idea, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:56.040 because in fact, the very first domestic robot that I 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:58.520 could come up that I came across my research as 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.240 far as on the consumer level goes. So the first 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.440 robot that the average person could go out and buy 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:07.080 for their home was a very specific use robot. It 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:10.640 was the electro Lux Trilobyte, and it was a robot 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.040 that looked kind of like a trilobyte, and it was 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.200 a vacuum robot. And you've probably seen different vacuum robots. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.320 We will talk about a very famous one in a 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.960 little bit, but the electro Lux Trilobyte was the first 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:25.079 robotic vacuum cleaner and it hit the market in two 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.599 thousand one. And the original model used ultrasonic sensors to 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.680 navigate through an environment. So essentially it's it's shooting out 0:11:33.120 --> 0:11:36.240 ultrasonic sounds. So this is these are signals that we 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:39.640 cannot detect, their outside the range of human hearing, and 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.400 the signal would emit from the robot and if it 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.920 if it encountered anything, it would bounce back like a 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:50.800 vacuum bat. Yeah, it was a vacuum bat. It was 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.320 kind of like what Batman would be if he were 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.680 a domestic cleaning person as opposed to a crime fighter. 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:01.400 He would dress up as a bat and clean the robot. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:02.640 What it would do is it would send out the 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:05.160 signal would the single would reflect back, and that's how 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:07.840 we wouldn't know how far away it was from some 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.960 other object. So when you have it set down to 0:12:10.960 --> 0:12:13.040 clean your living room and you've got all this furniture 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.680 there as it would approach the furniture, the signal would 0:12:15.760 --> 0:12:18.520 go out bounce back. The robot would know, all right, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:20.679 I have to stop in three inches or I'm going 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:24.319 to run into something like couch or whatever. And uh 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:28.000 So the earliest model had these ultrasonic sensors and that 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:29.960 was pretty much it. You could you could lay down 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.839 these magnetic strips along the borders of your room so 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.720 that it would not go to cross which is important if, 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.960 for instance, you happen to have a staircase and you 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.040 don't want your extremely expensive trilobyte robot to go take 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:46.360 a tumble down the stairs. Yes, I imagine that those 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.800 first ones were not at all inexpensive. I'm sure they 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.600 were quite expensive. Yes, and uh, I think that it's 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.120 still fairly expensive to get most of these sort of 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.440 robots because as the years go on, the technology gets 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.920 more sophisticated, so each model that comes out has more features. 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:06.440 Uh The second round of the electro Luxtralobite also included 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:10.240 infrared sensors, so it made it a little easier for 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.520 the robot to sense its environment because one of the 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:15.640 problems with the ultrasonic ones was that if it came across, uh, 0:13:15.760 --> 0:13:18.240 something that was like a really sharp curve or whatever, 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.000 the ultra the ultrasonic responses wouldn't be accurate enough for it. 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.000 So that was the first one. And it also had 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:30.400 a base unit that it could automatically find, again using 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.680 ultrasonic sensors. The base unit, you know, it sends a signal. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:35.840 Based unit picks it up, it sends a signal. The 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:38.480 robot hones in on that signal so that it can 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.000 plug back in in charge exactly. So uh, I've seen 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:45.760 uses of this in toys as well. So for example, 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.360 there was uh. Lego has a series of robots that 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.960 you can build yourself in robot kits, right, and the 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:59.359 robot kits come with a programmable base and the programmable 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.480 bass actually really cool and lets you plug and play 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:07.280 robot commands into your robots. So essentially it's like it's 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:12.120 like if then commands, if this robot encounters this situation, 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.280 then the robot should behave this way. And one of 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:17.000 the things you can do is you can buy different 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:19.760 types of sensors to be on your Lego robot, and 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.160 one of them is the ultrasonic sensor, which allows a 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.960 robot to really zero in on objects and here at 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:32.440 how stuff works. For our big holiday party of we 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:34.400 had some of we had someone come in with these 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:36.760 robots and show them off. And one of the robots 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.360 had just simple infrared sensors that would allow it to 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:41.800 detect when it was coming close to the edge of 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.480 the play field right and it would turn around and 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:47.200 come back in. The other robot had the infrared sensors 0:14:47.240 --> 0:14:50.080 and the ultrasonic which allowed it to zero in on 0:14:50.160 --> 0:14:53.760 the its opponent so it could go right after the 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.320 other robot. Uh. Clearly in the domestic situation here we're 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:01.040 talking more about the robot just avoiding damn image, also 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:05.680 avoid damaging other stuff in the environment, like your furniture. Um. 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.080 I think this is a good time to take a 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:11.680 quick break and thank our sponsor and now back to 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.240 the show. Are getting back into domestic robots. There's a 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.920 company that you pretty much have to talk about called 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.480 I Robot, which is kind of funny. I Robot makes 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.000 me think of something else. Yes, yes, yeah, we didn't 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.640 even mention aac asthmov well earlier. I think this is 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.600 a perfect opportunity before we dive into the company. Yeah, 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.520 science fiction writer working in how you might be better 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.280 at this than I am in the sixties, Is that correct? 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.600 And earlier? Yes, and earlier. But um, I've wrote wrote 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.440 the three laws of robotics. Yeah. These were the laws 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:47.840 that that in within the Asimov stories guided the robots 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:53.680 behavior so that they would try and follow ethical programming. Uh. 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:56.560 The idea being that the basic three rules, I don't 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.720 have them written in front of me, so I apologize 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:00.320 for the fact that I'm going to get the out 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.440 of order and that I'm paraphrasing. But that the robot 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.280 could not do anything to harm itself unless it would 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:10.480 mean that it would allow others to come to harm. So, 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.000 in other words, first, robot couldn't harm itself. A robot 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:17.880 could not harm other people. Uh. And there was another one. 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.800 I think it's property that robots can't hurt. But anyway, 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.400 the most important rule of all of them was that 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.240 a robot could not allow could not hurt a person 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:28.440 or allow a person to be hurt to come to 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.760 damage yes through inaction uh. And that overruled all other 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:35.400 robotic rules. So if it meant that the robot would 0:16:35.480 --> 0:16:38.120 end up being damaged in the process of preventing a 0:16:38.160 --> 0:16:41.000 living thing from being hurt, the robot would go ahead 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.760 and override that rule and allow itself to be damaged 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:47.400 so that could save the person. Uh. Most of Asimov's 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:52.760 stories involving robots had had stuff to do with unintended 0:16:52.800 --> 0:16:56.720 consequences of these what what appeared to be ironclad rules, 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:02.000 because when you give a logical set to a very 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.440 sophistic computer, it may or may not find ways around 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.800 right and and it's not necessarily that the computer is 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:13.400 trying to behave in a in a a malevolent way. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:16.439 For example, here's another example. This is one of those 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.840 things about the robot apocalypse that you always, you know, 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:23.520 hear science fiction writers talk about, and some futurists as well. Uh. 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.400 Let's say that you have a super intelligent computer robot, 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.760 and you tell the robot, uh I want you to 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.200 make humankind. Uh I want I want you to bring 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.199 about world peace. You know you're you are smarter than 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.600 we are bring about world peace. It's possible that the 0:17:39.640 --> 0:17:41.719 robot could come to the conclusion that the reason why 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:44.000 there's not world peace is because there are people, all 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:46.399 of those pesky humans running around causing wars. So you 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:51.920 kill all humans and then you've got peace. So Yeah, 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.800 that's that's that's the the classic example. But so you 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.040 don't have to worry about your domestic vacuum robot doing that. 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.080 Probably not. I've I've known I've known an I Robot rumba, 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.760 and it did not seem malevolent, very very malevolent to me. 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.600 My dog was not too share But the dog might 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.320 have a completely different opinion about the intentions of the 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.679 I Robot roomba. All right, well to talk about I 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.520 robot before we we talked about the roomba. What's interesting 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.000 to me is that it's a company that was formed 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:25.840 in nineteen by three m I T associates. Uh. Those 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:29.040 three m I T associates were Rod Brooks, Colin Engle, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:34.800 and Helen Grinder, and they wanted to bring robots out 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:39.440 of the realm of academ and an industry. Those were 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.879 the two places where you would find a robot pretty 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.320 much before nineteen ninety. With some exceptions. There were some 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:49.400 toys that were I had a very annoying robot toy 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:52.280 when I was a young child, all of all of 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.480 the noises. My my aunt, who didn't have kids yet, 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.120 got it for me. Of course, that's always the relative 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.760 who does that. Yeah, so there were toys and like 0:19:01.840 --> 0:19:05.199 hobbyists had some access to some robotics, and a lot 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.400 of people were doing d I y stuff, but much 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.760 like the field of early computers, most people were just 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.520 kind of going like, what is this thing good for? Yeah, 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:14.280 so what can we do with it? Consumers didn't have 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:19.520 an option as of yet. This is way back in purchase. First, 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.680 they well, first their company was called I S Robotics, 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.240 but they would change that further down the line, and 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:29.119 they originally built their business plan on the idea of 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:34.840 space exploration robots. So their first designs were for NASA 0:19:35.200 --> 0:19:38.879 and UH. They created some robots that were meant for 0:19:39.000 --> 0:19:45.080 things like lunar exploration and UH spaceship robot type creations 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:51.439 and planetary exploration robots, and these designs allowed them to 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.200 get some contracts with the government. And the whole point 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:56.840 of them making these designs, besides the fact that this 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.639 was like they were genuinely interested in, was that it 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.600 would allow them to gain the capital they would need 0:20:02.640 --> 0:20:06.600 to invest in a consumer robot, because that's not a 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:09.280 small undertaking. Remember this is a decade before we see 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:13.119 the first consumer robot on shelves, so it's as Lauren 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:17.600 was saying before. It's not the most efficient or economically 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:21.280 feasible way for you to take care of minor chores 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:23.360 around the house. It could be a very expensive thing. 0:20:23.480 --> 0:20:26.600 So they needed to raise some capital first before they 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.320 could start getting into consumer robots. You know, they couldn't 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.800 just hit the ground running doing that, So first they 0:20:31.800 --> 0:20:36.320 started working on robots for space exploration missions. They developed 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:41.479 a robot called the I Robot five Tin PackBot, and 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.440 this was a search and rescue and bomb disposal robots. 0:20:45.440 --> 0:20:47.119 I was used by the military, and they still do 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.040 a bunch of military work. I believe they do. So, yeah, 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:52.119 you've got to hope that your room bud does not 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:57.000 get mixed up with the PackBot five ten yes, fingers 0:20:57.040 --> 0:20:59.800 crossed to be fair. Of the five tin pac bots 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:02.000 not it's not a military robot in the sense of 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:06.600 one's weaponized. Most of these are in fact going on 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.119 reconmissions or to defuse bombs where so that you know, 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.879 or or possibly to uh, like I said, search and rescues. 0:21:14.920 --> 0:21:17.239 So for first responders, they might send a robot if 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.320 there's a building, for example, that's been the target of 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:23.040 a bomb, then sending a robot in to look for 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:28.159 survivors could mean saving the lives of first responders. You know. 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:29.719 It's it's one of those things where you think, well, 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:31.840 this is a really expensive robot, but compared to a 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:37.080 human life, it is negligible. So uh, I Robot began 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.240 to make those as well, and again this helped I 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:41.800 Robot gain the capital they needed to go into the 0:21:41.800 --> 0:21:45.560 consumer market. And one of the other big projects they 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.160 did before they got into consumer robots was called Auto Cleaner. 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.960 An auto Cleaner was meant for sc Johnson wax and 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:59.280 as an industrial cleaning robot. Uh. And this this is 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.480 kind of the project that inspired a couple of the 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:05.439