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Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 9:48 pm
by Yuli Ban
Honda's ASIMO Robot buckling on the stairs | 2006

One of the most infamous moments in robot history. It's also a testament to how difficult bipedal locomotion was for engineers before the 2010s.

It's also telling how stiffly ASIMO falls over. It looks so much like a toy, further demonstrating the vast cliffs of advancement engineers would have to climb before machines could reasonably resemble humans.

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 9:51 pm
by Yuli Ban
1960s Automatic Hamburger Machine - 50 Years Ahead of Its Time!

This is so 1950s-1960s. And it's true, this is absolutely ahead of its time. I can barely trust modern day automation because I know that there are so many potential variables and glitches. In this much more analog era, I'm surprised it even works at all. Just a piece of evidence that mechanical systems are enough to make people excited for automation even though we need advancements in digital computing to make it competent.

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 9:53 pm
by Yuli Ban

From the perspective of a 2021 futurist, it's actually rather sad to view cutting-edge sci-tech from previous decades because I know the ambition far outweighs the capability.

It's why I'm so fascinated by robotics, AI, video games, and whatnot from the 1950s and '60s (and before). It involves a complete illusion, a magic trick even, just to make these things look like they work. Digital IT was so ridiculously, cataclysmically weak that computers from that era come across to me as being electric bricks.

It's still the case in the 1980s. It's melancholic to watch people work on these things with the knowledge that the hardware was far too weak for them to find any real progress. It's just as melancholic to hear the words of futurists eager to see where these tech dreams go, hoping that the true breakthroughs are just around the corner. I can really feel that historical irony and tragedy of the proverbial futurist from 1969 being discouraged by the lack of progress in AI & robotics but confident that general purpose machines are just a decade or two away.

Robots today are actually qualitatively better due to utilizing machine learning, and even that still brings loads of problems and limitations because for as powerful as machine learning is, it's still not powerful enough. We've reached a point where computers are consistently able to match human cognition in specific areas without any tricks, but we're still years away from the point where computers can do a multitude of those tasks without supervision or theatrical preprogramming. Hence why I say robots from the 1980s like this one are basically magic tricks wrapped in plastic.

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 1:40 am
by Yuli Ban

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Mon Oct 04, 2021 10:22 pm
by caltrek
Before Astro, These Were the Robots People Invited Home

by Mitchell Clark
September 30, 2021

https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/30/2270 ... cuums-pets

Extract:
(The Verge) …for this list, we’re going to look at things that are either billed specifically as household robots or are robots that we’d really love to invite into our homes.

HERO
Release year: 1982
What it could do: Teach you what it’s like to build a robot

NINTENDO R.O.B.
Release year: 1985
What it could do: Sell NESs

AIBO
Release year: 1999
What it could do: Fill my heart with warmth

ROBOT VACUUMS
Release year: 2001, first Roomba introduced in 2002
What it can do: Clean your floors and freak out bio-Aibos (dogs)

PARO
Release year: 2004
What it can do: Provide emotional support

PEPPER
Release year: 2014
What it was supposed to do: Understand your emotions

JIBO
Release year: Sold on IndieGoGo in 2014, arrived in 2017
What it could do: Dance

ASUS ZENBO
Release year: Didn’t make it to the US, announced in 2016
What it could do: Control your smart home and basically act like a tablet that can follow you

ANKI VECTOR
Release year: 2018
What it could do: Make faces at you as it explored your desk

FOLDIMATE
Announced year: 2018
What it can do: fold your clothes

LOVOT
Release year: 2020
What it can do: accept your love

UGO
Release year: 2020
What it can do: act as a remote set of arms

MARSCAT
Release year: 2021(?)
What it can do: Be a cat

BOT HANDY
Announced in: 2021
What it’s supposed to do: Decorate my home with flowers

TESLA BOT
Announced in: 2021
What it’s supposed to do: Usher in luxury space communism by replacing labor
See article linked above quote box for a brief discussion and photo of each of these.

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2022 7:40 pm
by citali_
In the 1980s, Max Headroom was a computer generated, artificial intelligence TV character.

[media] [/media]

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2022 4:28 am
by Yuli Ban

Re: History of AI & Robotics

Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2024 12:25 pm
by Yuli Ban