I always think that when people talk about robots, as though they will save humanity in the future, that it is a foolish idea. When I found out that they were working so hard to come up with a robot, that could do housework , but try and they might they couldn't get the robot to fold clothes. Frankly I was not surprised and I know that most of these efforts at creating the technological future never seem to consult the people, who may end up using it. What does move us along always seems to be a mixture of accident and chance, why Beta-max did not win over VHS for video tape formats for example, pure fluke.
In my life I have met basically two types of techies -- I will always think of them in terms of the woodwork technician and the metalwork technician, that I knew when I was an undergraduate at Trent Polytechnic. The woodwork guy was a skilled carpenter, but his knowledge had made him very rule bound ,when it came to trying to give advice to me, he was the NO techie. The metalwork technician was the opposite, he wanted to solve the problems I presented with an open minded approach, this was also probably because he had been to art school himself, he was the YES techie.
Humanity will move forward when we all appreciate how simply amazing human beings are, we are beautiful , sensitive , skillful creatures, we cannot ever be replaced by bits of metal and plastic, and we can fold clothes, and we need to say yes.
