It’s hard out there for robot designers. Thanks to movies, television and comic books, we have a convoluted idea of what robots are supposed to do. We expect them to clean our homes, teach our children, lift cars off of dying people, plot our hyperspace journeys and — if there’s any time left — have sex with us.
So it’s no wonder that most of us aren’t excited by robots that fall over playing (ugh) soccer or vacuum three feet of carpet before running out of battery. We want our robots like our cars: flying and, once again, able to have sex with us.
And that is probably why Honda decided it would be a big deal to turn their ASIMO robot into a guest symphony conductor metronome. Coming up next for the Little Robot that Might:
- Pressing a shirt.
- Adding any two numbers.
- Playing a record.
- Vibrating at three speeds. (No, we’re not letting this one go.)
Baby steps, Honda. Let’s work up to a robot that can file my taxes. The future … is now.*
*By “now,” we mean “tomorrow.”**
**Um, the figurative “tomorrow.” Not tomorrow “tomorrow.”