Decrepit Old Fool

Bill Gates writes a cover story in January’s Scientific American:

“As mobile peripheral devices become more and more common, it may become increasingly difficult to say exactly what a robot is.  Because the new machines will be so specialized and ubiquitous – and look so little like the two-legged automatons of science fiction – we will probably not even call them robots.  But as these devices become affordable to consumers, they could have just as profound an impact on the way we work, communicate, learn and entertain ourselves as the PC has had over the past 30 years.
(From print edition, sorry, no link yet)

With that in mind, Microsoft has just announced its Microsoft Robotics Toolkit – a programming environment for robots.

(Gee, Bill, I think you’re a great guy and all, but a robot running anything like Windows?  No thanks.  I notice Windows often does not listen to me when I tell it to stop doing something.)

Gates is right about changing the world.  Not with human-looking, wisecracking robots but with special-purpose machines.  Think of the opening scene in the movie, Runaway, where toaster-sized robots are plucking little bugs from soybean plants in a field.  Or think of the security applications (same movie, and about a month from now in Iraq, too).

Many of the proposed applications – folding blankets, delivering medicine to the elderly – can be done just fine by humans.  Robots are great for certain things humans can’t do very well.  Think of the huge ecological problem that will be solved in Australia when someone builds a little robot that can recognize a rabbit and dispense with same.  Not to mention the unlimited supply of Aussie rabbit-fur coats.