Robots Should do EVERYTHING

I have one over arching goal when it comes to technology: Robots should do everything.  The next time you are mowing your grass think about that.

This belief is not based in a desire to never mow the grass again, in fact, I enjoy mowing the grass.  Rather it is motivated by a desire to be free.  You can mow the grass if you want to, but you don’t have to if you don’t have time.  Or at a larger scale, lets say your yard is 20 acres in size, and you are 70 years old.  All of a sudden, a robotic lawn mower becomes not a tool to get out of work, but a key requirement of your housing freedom.

On a less robotic scale, this mentality applies to all aspects of life.  If you need creativity to solve a problem once, develop a process to solve this same problem when it happens again.  This new process frees up the creative to do other things, and solve other problems, without becoming bogged down in repetitive execution.  For example, if you work at the post office and half the people coming in just want to buy stamps, then an automated stamp vending machine, has just freed you to be more productive and useful, without the repetitive dolling out of stamps.

Every time I see manual labor, I can't help but think: how can a robot do that same job?  Take for example home construction projects.  A CAD file is created by the architect, this is printed in 2D for the general contractor, it is interpreted and explained to specialists who cut boards, frame walls, hang drywall, finish drywall, paint.  Its difficult if not impossible to create a robot with the versatility of a human, but it is completely possible to supplement the specialty laborers with specialty robots.  You might not be able to create a roofing robot, but how about a robot that can place shingles,  and a different robot that can nail them in place.  One robot might not be able to build a house, but a group of robots could build a subdivision.