<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2025-10-26</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # AI, Robotics, and Visions of the Future  This world has changed to a truly unimaginable degree in the last 125 years. It's hard to understand, I think, because humans have short lifespans. Some of the change happened before we ever came to be, and it's hard to think of anything that occurred before we were alive as just a short time ago. But at the turn of the century, in 1900, my grandmother would be born just 3 years later. My great-grandmother would have been about 15 years old. I remember them both very fondly. I've spoken to people who remember when human beings hadn't yet devised a way to fly. That in itself is amazing as just 66 years after the legendary first flight of the Wright Brothers we would be landing astronauts on the moon. So my great-grandmother was alive to see the first planes in the sky, and watch men walk on the moon. The world looked entirely different back then. There were no towering skyscrapers, cars on the roads, or even *roads*, at least as we see them today. Roads were sometimes cobblestone, but mostly dirt, and horses were the primary method of transportation, with bicycles becoming more popular. Electric light, radio, telephones... *None* of these staples of modern life even existed. Electricity coming from a grid to power neighbourhoods really only began in the early 1900s with only 10% of rural homes in the US having electricity by 1930. Think about that for a second. Less than 100 years ago, only 10 percent of homes outside of large cities had electricity. The rest had no refrigeration, and no communication outside of the mail service. Think of all that's changed in that time. The major changes all happened before 1950: paved roads, cars and trucks replacing horse-drawn carriages, telephones, televisions, refrigeration, skyscrapers, etc. In 1930 most people were still living off the land, in small houses lit by candles, heated with fireplaces, and outhouses in the back. There was no indoor plumbing for the majority, who were getting their water directly from wells (Even in 1951, only about 60% of urban dwellings had full plumbing, but rural areas were under 20%). Since this time, between the 50s and the early 2000s anyway, not much really changed. Technology improved, televisions were colourised, phone-lines could be used for faxing data, computers were invented, cars got faster and sleeker and cities got bigger, but things stayed relatively the same. Even now, our communications have accelerated, and the way we interact with computers has changed. Search engines and the Internet, coupled with smartphones, have made the world's knowledge accessible to everyone at any time, but the general way we live and work and travel is basically the same. And I believe that we are on the cusp of something that will change the world on the scale of that period of time between the 1930s and the 1950s. ## ChatGPT and AI ChatGPT 3.5 became available for the public to test in 2022. Since that time, just 3 years ago, AI has already replaced traditional search engines for most people, and has opened up possibilities previously inaccessible to the general public. To give a single example, questions previously for lawyers can now be answered by a simple AI prompt. If, for example, you have a small business and need to come up with a legal document for customers to sign, an expensive lawyer can be replaced with a contract drawn up by AI. Personally, I see the ease in saving money via AI everywhere. It is much easier now to use a 10 year old laptop, paying a small fraction of the price than for a new one, just because of how easy it is to get answers to questions about Linux. Difficulties for a particular problem could be extremely frustrating in the past, as you might have to scour help forums to find an answer, and even when found, it might only be for a particular distro, and 10 years out of date. AI can do the search for you and even help execute the solution. I've used AI to help write bash scripts, help me with CSS issues for this blog, and as a thesaurus, among other things. This use of AI doesn't even touch the ease of general research that has been achieved just with the Internet. But when I step outside, the world doesn't really look any different than it did when I was a boy 40 years ago. The next 20 to 30 years, however, are going to change the world, perhaps even more than the drastic changes of the 20s to the 50s. ## Boston Dynamics We've been seeing prototypes of different robots from Boston Dynamics for the last 10 years or so. What started out as extremely clunky, remote-controlled humanoid robots has become well-balanced, autonomous machines capable of traversing rocky terrain, and parkour with backflips! This improvement occurred within a period of only 8 years.  *Boston Dynamics showcases the Atlas robot, 2013*  *Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot: Demonstrating agility and movement, 2021* The Atlas Robot now has gone through a complete redesign, resulting in a lighter, and more human-like appearance while maintaining the agility of the former model. There are other designs as well. "Spot" is a dog-like model that has had great success in traversing areas through which a humanoid robot is incapable.  *Boston Dynamics' Spot Robot employed at a steel plant* There are many more robotics companies too, all racing to be the first to produce a consumer-grade robot that the average middle-class family can own. All this has been progressing over the last decade. Different companies are working on capable robots that can cook, clean, and do other basic chores, with the ultimate goal of a completely autonomous robot that can leave the house to complete a task on its own, like grocery shopping. The implications of something like this are pretty astounding. ## Bringing it All Together Let me posit something to you as a reader here. We can certainly imagine the implications to a job market when humans can be replaced by robots and AI for just about anything. White collar jobs are not safe either at this point. We already have AI that can take the place of lawyers, programmers, and more for simple, entry-level tasks. But let's put that aside for just a moment. Consider for a second that not only will employers have robots to do work for them, but workers will too. Startup companies will have a much easier, and *cheaper* time starting and expanding small businesses. Imagine buying a storefront that you'd like to renovate for use as a small diner or coffee shoppe. You could take measurements and sketch out what you'd imagine for a place. With the help of AI, you could go through some designs, and material selections for how you would like the shop to look. The AI could give you a list of those materials with an approximate price, and CAD files that match your designs. These, then, can be given to another person who has started a construction company. He feeds AI the information and sends his robots to do the work, who do so non-stop (other than an hour or 2 to recharge), 24 hours a day, until the job is done. Then, using a single robot, you have staff to serve, bus tables, do accounting, and even barista and cook, if you want. And getting one could be part of a business loan for the start-up. Another possibility here: If you work in a factory and are able to save for a robot, could your robot do your work for you? Think about it this way: In a world where all menial tasks are done by robots, that leaves very little unskilled jobs for the vast majority of people on the planet who have no post-secondary education. In this case there would have to be some kind of UBI (Universal Basic Income) or the entire economy would collapse. Not enough people would be able to afford the things that robots are creating for these companies to turn a profit. The answer could very well be a tax on companies who use robots in place of people. This tax would fund UBI. So imagine a company who refuses to fire its workforce (or is unable to because of union regulation), but would allow its workers to send their robots to work instead. And in this way the company avoids the tax, but the *worker* now must pay the tax because it's his robot doing the work. Not only that, but if the factory had, say, 8 hour shifts, the worker's robot might be able to work 2 of them, and actually earn more money than he did without paying the taxes and working a single shift himself. This turns menial labour jobs into passive income for everyone, allowing people to experiment and do other work that might bring more enjoyment. Since people will have more free time, the diner/coffee shop example would be very successful as more people will have the time and money to spend at little shoppes. This is obviously a rather optimistic take on what is going to be a very big change in the near future. We can make it whatever we like, but we do have to start thinking about it and taking it seriously. Very big changes are coming, sooner than later. If we're not prepared it could be a disaster, but, if planned accordingly, a very Star Trek TNG-type of society could be right around the corner.