Just in case you missed it in the description, here's the link to Henson Shaving: hensonshaving.com - and enter "JOESCOTT" at checkout to get 100 free blades with your purchase.

I'm elderly, almost 70 yo, and I'm developing mobility issues. I may be naive, but I dare say that an intelligent, agile robot would be a godsend to me and be preferable to a human assistant. I live in terror of my bathroom and once a week or so, I manage to bathe myself with the help of a hand rail and chair that sits in the tub. Fortunately for me, I don't perspire much or go out much more than once every four or five days. A robot wouldn't have any emotional reaction to the horror show of my naked body. Getting out of bed can be a challenge for me, but a chair that I've placed by my bed helps me roll out of bed using gravity to get myself up into a vertical position. A robot could help me get in and out of my bathtub/shower combo, fetch my mail, help me up the steps to my door (my house is on a raised 3 foot foundation), clean my cats' litter box (if I lower myself to the floor, getting up may be a considerable undertaking), carry heavy stuff, or help me to my feet, if I fall. By now, you can see where this is going. I like technology. I'm a retired engineering electronics technician. As to the robot's appearance, I'd accept many different forms. A cartoonish face would amuse me (Marvin the Martian? Some anime face?), but I think that I'd really like my putative robo-assistant to look like a handsome young guy in his late twenties. I know, I'm only dreaming, but I hope that someone like myself, ten or twenty years down the line, can realise my dream.

From Asimov: The humanoid form allows robots to do everything in a society designed for humans--piloting their vehicles, using their tools, fitting through their structures, climbing their stairs (unlike CL4P-TP), etc.

Just a nitpick: The robot Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still didn't rebel against its creators. It was designed (along with its siblings) to enforce peace among the worlds in the interstellar coalition. Any world that threatened to make war on other worlds would be obliterated by these robots, thus ensuring that no interstellar war could be carried out. They protected the coalition from threats to peace both internal and external. The humanoid that came along with the robot was a diplomat assigned to let humanity know its options, now that it had developed the capacity for nuclear weaponry *and* space travel: either put aside those technologies, put aside war, or be exterminated. Klaatu did exactly what he was designed to do. He couldn't rebel against humanity, because he was always a weapon of mass destruction pointed *at* humanity.

When I was 13 years old, I wanted to build a robot that could learn. I drew up silly plans for how it could "gather information" from the world using cameras and microphones etc... I wrote a letter to Microsoft asking them to sponsor me. Obviously I never got any sort of response but I've always wanted to make that dream a reality. Now, 18 years later its interesting seeing things like this in the news.

When Joe was talking about the robots battery I immediately associated it with my childhood remote control car 15 minutes of play time 2 hours of charge time it was on the charger far more than being played with.

At the hospital I work at in Norway, we already use automated robots to move stuff like clothes and bed sheets etc between different wings and floors of the building. Those jerks hijack the elevators all the time

"Lift 45 lbs., walk at 5 mph, easy to overpower." Good God! Telsa is making robot Unix system administrators!

Well, after seeing the prototype they announced and showcased, I would say the Tesla Optimus robot is well ahead of everyones expectations.

Actually, the human body is quite unparalleled when it comes to a few things: Long distance running and throwing objects, for example. Our long legs, upright gait and bare skin enable us to outrun even horses, if only the distances get long enough. And our particularly mobile shoulder joints allow us to hurl objects with deadly accuracy like no other animal can.

With those videos of Atlas robot falling down, my first thought was "It... really looks like a human with how it flails around on the way down" Now if they can get it to walk into a room, scratch it's head, and walk back out to ask what it was doing, we'll all be replaceable.

I've actually long rejected the idea of an AI uprising. There is just no reason for the robots utilized for menial labor to be sentient. Functionally executing those tasks is not the kind of problem solving that requires consciousness and something like our emotions. Even if there was a reason to employ an actual sentient consciousness in those tasks, it wouldn't need to be present or experience the "fatigue" experienced by those hundreds or thousands of individual platforms. For some reason we always imagine creating an entire "race" of fully sentient beings and then treating them like slaves, but the practical issues surrounding full automation of things like agriculture and shipping, just don't require that sort of thing at all.

That robot on 7:44 making me act up. Bruh. Imagine if we succeed and make em with cat ears. Catgirl robots, a success for humanity.

One of my favorite Robot movies is "Robot and Frank" which is a really well done. (Spoiler Alert) The grandfather is sidelined by his children who are just too busy to deal with him, so they get him a personal assistant robot. Frank apparently though was a bank robber in his days of misspent youth and decides his robot buddy might make the perfect crime sidekick. It's handled so well though, it's not played for laughs, it's very heartfelt, with this forgotten older man trying to find some way to feel alive and connect with someone, even if it's just a robot. There are those really sort of scary ads about these new robot assistants that are sort of just glorified Siri interfaces. They remind you when to exercise, take your medicine, even do trivia to keep people's minds engaged. But when the senior citizens start talking about how these things are their "friends" it gets sort of creepy. I almost seems like they're designed more to make families feel better about having put grandma into some crappy rest home.

Finally after years of debate and research you solved the ominous question “who let the dogs out”…..robots. It was always:robots

I've only watched the intro but I'd say that the biggest theoretical advantage of humanoid robots is that they'd be able to use our tools without any special compatibility being programmed. Everything we use is designed for human use so naturally it follows that the most general purpose robots would be able to directly imitate hand manipulation in particular.

I know we always concentrate on the robot aspect, but I work in manufacturing and all of our machines are CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) now. So in a sense this is robotic manufacturing. Many of the new machines can make adjustments on their own and even change tools when they've become worn. Automotive welding used to be dangerous and arduous, but now all of that is "automated." Is a drone technically a robot? So many questions... Thanks for covering this and so many of these other cutting-edge subjects.

I only saw the movie once, but that robot has lived in my head rent free since I was a child.

18:50 Okay, so low key disappointed that the inevitable “robot labor revolution” wasn’t about how the robots would inevitably rise up against their oppressive labor conditions…

A lot of neurological conditions can affect the pressure levels needed to hold things well. It's hard to imagine how devastating it is until it happens. Would never have thought it'd make sense to have a Service Dog follow me around to largely just pick up everything I drop. It's shocking how much it can affect a person's quality of life. But yeah, that's an extremely important thing to balance which many take for granted, previously myself included. Cool that you've helped more ppl understand this sort of thing better. ✌️♥️

For a "science explainer" channel, this was amazingly in-depth, Joe. Good job!

I'm not afraid of AI robots. I'm afraid of huge rooms full of banks of AI computers, that monitor & record our every movement & thought.

Personally, I think a robot similar to Auto from the wall-e movie, moving through the house in similar passages that once existed in old houses, and was always connected to electricity with no need to recharge is possibly the best short-term solution to fold your clothes and do other house-keeping tasks.

8:33 You're right, building robots to look cool in their own way is the way to go, not human like. They made the same decisions for the Hero Arms (by the awesome robotic prosthetic company open bionics) and the result is that kids get to show off their "cool mechanical arm" instead of the "weird thing that tries to look human."

Wow 😮 this is the FIRST time that I am actually paying attention to a sponsor announcement. Well done sir, well done!!! If many are left as impressed as me by the level of details explaining how that razor works , Henson is definitely going to see a nice bump in new customers.

They actually are calling it: “Optimus Sub-Prime” 😂

Back in the eighties there were programs that were supposed to take verbal commands. Didn't work too well back then, but today it works pretty well. If the room is quiet and you don't have a cold etc. Still got a ways to go. I think man will be walking on Mars before we see humanoid robots that function well enough to go out in public.

The closer we get to actual human like robots the more scary it seems.

Great discussion and actually really enjoyed the ad at the end, didn't feel annoying, which is truly an ART ... thanks, Joe

I live in Japan, and I spent the last year and a half working with hospital and support staff to care for my wife, after she was diagnosed with ALS. She died in April, and she had opinions that I share. We were presented with robotic options at two stages of her illness. For mobility, there was an offer to trial augmented leggings. She knew of these when it was proposed. She was a dancer, and it's fair to say that she recoiled from the idea in horror. Second was a communication tool as her speech began to fail, with a tiny robot that could bow and make gestures and whatnot. I trialed the interface. Bluntly stated, there wasn't time remaining for her to fuss with learning to animate a toy for this limited purpose. She needed people around her who were willing and able to adapt to her condition, not the other way around. These were minor brushes with tech in the arc of her treatment. Far and away the most critical feature of care for her, and more generally for the aged and the terminally ill was (is) the respect and empathy of medical staff. We severed relations with a doctor that delivered my wife's initial diagnosis because he mechanically recited what were in effect textbook passages and hospital procedures, without regard to the devastating impact of reading her a death sentence. Patient-centered bedside manner requires time, and time demands adequate staffing levels. If there is a nursing shortage, their importance should be recognized by paying them better, treating them better, and providing them with a better working environment. With respect, and bluntly again, the suggestion that robotics are a viable answer to a shortage of healthcare staff is insulting to healthcare professionals and patients alike.

I really enjoy the content you bring us weekly, I look forward to hear your take on topics as well as introducing me to new ones I wouldn’t have looked up. Thank you for all you do for us internet strangers.

Wow this was a good video and its doing well. So is the channel, growing fast. Glad to see it, its been a long time coming.

I think they made a practical turn. So I have a room a which is amazing , a lawn mower and I literally never have to mow my lawn anymore and my tesla lets me relax on the way to work. They are here but just not as we anticipated 40 years ago. And they are very helpful.

Joe, you are one of my favorite KZfaqrs. Your videos are always packed with details and information, but you never lose the funny, and that's why I watch you all the time. My biggest question, is did you find Polar Express as creepy as I did?

Maaan, the pressure thing is amazingly complex. I lost all touch and feeling in my left thumb due to a sawmill accident. I just don't have the same dexterity in the left hand as before. It's sad and fascinating at the same time! I still got my thumb though... I just don't feel it.

"As our population ages there is only going to be more demand for robot caregivers." And, here I am already a caregiver, ready to be turned into a robot. Hurry up, robolution.

I can't believe you missed mentioning Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams...

Thank you Joe, you always do a great job at explaining stuff in a clear, and pretty unbiased way. Obviously you have some biased, but your good at keeping your opinions seperate from the facts. We need more people like you Joe.

I think a huge part of making general purpose household robots successful includes having features that allow users to teach robots how to do things the way the user likes them done.

Okay.. that mini 80s montage featuring stuff I'd completely forgotten about (and I've been down a few 80s rabbit holes before) has made me want to see a Joe Scott series about reminiscing the 70s through 90s!! 😃🤩🙏

You remind me so much of my college computing teacher who I had huge respect for. So I can't help but hang off every word you say. But you present it all very well, great channel and videos

I think the problems the Boston dynamics robot has shows how unlikely it is Tesla has that figured out out of nowhere

I take issue with the comment that humans "intuitively" know how much pressure or force is required to manipulate an object. That is a LEARNED ability, the process of which begins as an infant (think of a baby smacking itself in the face with a toy). Moreover, it's an ability that is subject to constant refinement and retraining, as should be obvious upon contemplation. Professional athletes that use equipment are pristine examples of this. Joe, you also have an excellent point of the foolishness of trying to perfectly replicate the human form, which industrial automation robotics engineers figured out decades ago. Build the robot for the best form to complete its intended tasks, rather than trying to build one that can do a little of everything like humans. As generalists, we have an inherent prejudice favoring other generalists, but when logically evaluating tool development, that prejudice needs to be realized, understood, and immediately discarded.

I remember another "Robot" series from my youth, it was a UK TV series called "Metal Mickey" ran from 1980-1983 (39 episodes)

12:40 funniest bit XD "Next year"

I feel like the TeslaBot was a distraction from some labour controversy but I can't remember which one it was.

I've always thought that Japan would invent the most humanoid robot because Astro Boy and some other famous robots caught the heart of the nation.

One of the things about robots that makes me nervous is the idea of artificial intelligence. The idea of a learning robot with unlimited capacity for intelligence is frightening. One term that has always stuck in my mind is from the Firestar series of books by Michael Flynn. He presents the concept of "Artificial Stupid". Essentially this is a construct that has a finite purpose and excels at it in the extreme. ex. Autopilot, personal assistants, voice recognition. I do believe that artificial stupid has its place in home automation, menial tasks, computation-intensive activities, etc.

there is a Robot at my local VA Hospital. It's around 4 feet tall on wheels and it delivers items to offices around the hospital and will talk to people that are blocking the way.

So glad you mentioned Number “Johnny” 5! My childhood (mid 90’s kid) this was by far my favorite movies. And the creators went and made Tremors!

I'm only 9 minutes in, and I already love this video. Thanks, Joe. Smashing the top-quality content... again!

Hi Joe, I just want to let you know that I purchased a new shaver from Henson Shaving with your link as my old one needs replacing. It hasn't arrived yet but I feel good knowing I am supporting you in a small way after all the fantastic videos your have produced for us over the years. Thanks Joe!

I LOVE that you referenced Red Dwarf!

The '80s are from the future. Even the synthwave music still sounds futuristic.

To be fair there are already Japanese robotic closets that fold your clothes when you put them in 😅 so unless you mean humanoid robots, the folding clothes thing already happened haha

12:55 When I worked for a company I used to do that. I always told my boss, Is going to be ready next week, then next week, then next week. I just kept moving the goal posts. And whenever he tried to set up a date in stone, I said, that's impossible, I can't do that, I literally can't.

It seems like they could install an electronic scale in a robot, so that when it picked up an object, the object would automatically be weighed. The weight could then be fed to a program that would use it to determine the appropriate amount of force.

my dog literally turned and growled at the computer when you mentioned robots caring for dogs.

Looking at Hermes, I wonder if anyone is taking an approach involving a decoupled brain. Evidently, there is enough bandwidth available to make logic decisions and take action with low enough latency to get meaningful results. Having a robot's brain on a server somewhere separate from the sensors/body would help a ton with battery life and weight/size restrictions.

I don’t know if there’s any study on this but imo there’s two types of uncanny valley: 1. Things that look human but aren’t, and 2. Things that don’t look human but act human

Intruder breaking into the house. Security robot: Are you John Connor...

“Big ridiculous and impossible tasks that would probably never work…” I think that’s written somewhere at SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and the boring company. In fact, I think it describes every one of Elon Musk's companies.

When I was a little kid in the 80s, my family built a Heathkit HERO robot. Don't recall it too well other than the fact I was underwhelmed. Once we were done playing with it my father donated it to the high school. I didn't know this until I ran across it in a storage closet as a student there years later. Serious deja-vu-esque feeling.

"Which do you think we'll see first: robots folding our clothes, or people walking on Mars?" My guess: rich people hanging from lamp posts.

LOL, at first I thought you were showing a clip from Chopping Mall!!!!

You forgot to mention the Zuckbot which founded a multibillion-dollar tech company. Shame they didn’t make more of those. Would love to have one for my laundry.

Another interesting episode - thanks. Just got my Henson razor and really like it. Appreciate the 100 blades on you.

Robots folding our clothes long, long before people are walking on Mars.

There's a quite interesting saying about uncanny valley: The fact that uncanny valley exists and triggers us suggests that, during our evolution, there existed a need for us to distinguish something that looks very much like humans, but are not. Which both creeps me out and sounds quite interesting

At age 75, scheduled for my fourth major articular prosthetic, I wouldn’t mind to be rather Neuralinked to an agile Tesla -bot

Really interesting and entertaining video! I was just a tiny bit disappointed that you didn't mention my favorite part of the brain: the cerebellum! It's literally at "the back of our heads," and does an awesome job at finetuning our muscle movements.

Joe says "robots could perform security of some kind" for our house. I'm imagining Arnold the Terminator

People walking on mars. No shot i’m getting my laundry done with a robot in this lifetime. Laundry has been the bane of man’s existence since the realization of clothing.

You dropped the ball on this one Joe. Having assistant robots in our homes has nothing to do with making them as humanoid as possible. If we had robots on wheels that looked like boxes they could still be good household assistants IF they could understand us properly and were general enough to handle any task or learn them. It's all about the OS. If we had mastered that, we would already have robots in our homes. Instead the industry puts a lot of focus on developing the mechanical abilities of robots instead of the overarching OS. Still, I have a lot of hope that personal assistant robots are not too far off. Although fully autonomous cars are still not a thing, there have been stories of tests done where AVs have driven across county. And what is an AV if not a sort of robot, and one that can handle general situations. That sort of technology could be adapted to a robots OS to help it with pattern recognition and evaluating what best action to take. I think it makes perfect sense for Tesla to branch into robotics.

This video shook me to the core, like i was constantly thinking about this and i haven't finished it yet. This one looks already gold to me, thank you!

Development in robot hands will hopefully translate into progressively less depressing replacements for veterans who've lost theirs.

Im pretty sure we will be strolling on Mars first before a robot will be doing my laundry.

11:47 Funny enough, they're not calling optimus prime, it's going to be optimus SUBprime :) Love the vids. Every one feels like a really good lecture!

If Tesla (and other companies) were being honest about the true timeline for their robotics projects, I reckon they would lose a lot of consumer and investor confidence. I know that's how the game is usually played, but it's amazing how this field has managed to play that game for over two decades.

When the US switched over from horse drawn carriages to automobiles, there was a huge displacement of leather workers. It took a few years before this labor force was absorbed into factory work. Other areas already experienced displaced workers or automated operations: ATM’s, self-checkout Walmart, self-serve gas stations,…

The one thing that robots will never master is entropy. What happens when a Tesla running in self driving mode encounters a slippery spot, or a pothole. A sensor failure, tire blowout, etc

There's actually five areas, one you eluded to throughout... intelligence, or rather computation. We need smart AI in order to do most of these things. It's arguably the most important part of all five.

There was a robot torso that could fold clothes (slowly) a few years ago. (2015 or so). But, it was stationary, and could do less than some top of the line cooking robots you can get now. So, to be “that guy”, what, exactly do you mean by a robot that can fold clothes? Do you mean a Rosie the Robot housekeeper, that can do dishes, wash, fold, and put away clothes, as well as vacuum and clean the floors? I think we’re closer than we think… less than 10 years, for at least “ basically adequate” that can do a couple varied tasks. I think Mars is 15-20. I think the moon/Artemis missions is going to teach us a LOT, mainly, that we are nowhere near ready for Mars. I expect we will have a couple fully automated “there & back again” missions to Mars, before we would consider sending humans. Which would be AFTER we gain the needed expertise of humans living on the moon. (My main justification for the upcoming lunar missions is primarily as an exercise is keeping humans alive on the surface of another planet/surface, without needing medical, mechanical or supply missions. 4-5 days for supply or evacuation is a far cry from the multi-month transit to/from Mars. I also think that having humans spend a couple months on the lunar surface, to get an idea of how the body reacts to extended exposure to reduced gravity is essential. Given that we will be lucky to have short term visits to the moon by 2026, I don’t expect longer term lunar missions to happen until 2030-2033. And getting all that lernin’ done, and Martian automated missions done before 2035 is a pipe dream. I’m expecting humans on Mars by… maybe… 2038?

Good video, but seems unfair to completely ignore that FSD is beginning to be able to drive on purely vision. (Also, first advertisement I've ever directly bought something through. I love great engineering, and although the initial price of the razor is a lot, this will save me tons of money over the long run.)

There will be people setting foot on Mars before I let a robot fold my clothes, and I will let a robot fold my clothes before I set foot on Mars, lol.

I somehow just only now, discovered your channel a few months back, and ever since I've binged as much of your content as my consciousness has allowed! I love your delivery your humor along with your introspective musings mixed in with the bare facts and info relating to the most interesting discoverys and knowledge; it's all just 🤌 chefs kiss perfect, for my brain! Thank you and your team, for producing such great content, and I hope it continues for a long time to come! All the best! 😊

As to your question near the end: I think that'll be a tight race. I think the prototypes for low-intensity task robots will be getting ready just as the first colonizers will be en route. However, if you're asking for a General Purpose household bot - no, clear win for the Mars Colony.

how is it creepy that a piece of software mimics back the input that it's given? the fear of robots is like the 2022 ouija board.

Advantage: it could bring me stuff. My cats don’t listen.

20:58 ⁠- I think we'll see people walking on Mars long before we see robots folding our clothes. Joe nailed the reason at 14:35 when he said, "The sensation part is the kicker." In fact, Karel Čapek, the author of R.U.R., and the guys who wrote the screenplay for Blade Runner got it right: biological is better. Their "robots" weren't mechanical. They were meat, artificial life forms. The androids in the Alien films appeared to be at least partly meat, too. Biobots would probably be easier to make. The biggest problem with them is a matter of ethics, not technological feasibility.

I always feel it's important to point out that the future of automation is not android frycooks standing at the frier, it's just a factory-style kitchen that moves ingredients to cooking stations and then to the customer in ways that have nothing to do with how humans would do those tasks. It's not "the robot capable of doing everything a human can do, and then being told to cook french fries," it's just "a system that does not require human intervention to produce french fries."

I feel like I'm going to subscribe to you, and only watch this video and then it's going to be like 2 years later, I'm going to look at another video and click on it and be like, oh wow I'm already subscribed.

So, if it's battery takes two hours to charge and it runs for 1 1/2, that's getting pretty close to being able to work straight off the current in your house. Your vacuum cleaner has a chord. Maybe for some jobs the robot could have a cord. (You could probably save enough weight on the battery if it only needs enough battery to plug itself in if it accidentally pulls it's cord.) It be interesting to see whether generalist or specialist robots end up being more cost effective. Looking around my apartment, if I could automate some things... cleaning the bathroom- there are already self-cleaning public bathrooms, sort of like 'auto-wash' from Fifth Element. Basically nozzles just take care of everything. I heard they run about $25k, but presumably that's because they are still early in the development mass deployment stage. A bidet with a slightly more versatile nozzle could maybe clean it's own insides. A faucet could spray down the sink and shower areas... I've got plants that need watering... a smart drip pipe could probably handle that, and with a little creative construction techniques someone could do that attractively right now. We have Roombas, maybe a little powered cart could move furniture, or maybe the furniture could move itself. It wouldn't be hard to automate a Murphy Bed (it might be hard to trust a powered Murphy Bed, but technologically a Murphy Bed that sensed it was empty using weight sensors and could close itself up to let the Roomba vacuum would be pretty low technology. A dishwasher is probably more practical than a robot that stands there and picks up all the plates and cups and washes them 'by hand' although maybe the generalist robot would load the dishwasher. A smart house could sing your kid a lullaby really easily, and even monitor if your kid brushed their teeth (just a sensor saying 'the kid picked up the toothbrush and toothpaste' could probably solve that for all but the most toothbrush resistant kids.) A vending machine, if you load it correctly, automatically pushes the oldest product forward. Wouldn't be hard to do that with a fridge... maybe combined with QR codes when you scan in the food if you want it to make suggestions- hey fridge, 'I've got 400 calories left on my diet for today. What do I have that will keep me the most full (protein and fiber) for the rest of the day?' A powered stroller? Combine a Segway with a stroller. You'd need a good failsafe to keep it from running off with your baby (beware the Dingo like Boston Dynamics model!) Hybrid washer/driers are already a thing. There are folding machines, but they are pretty bulky for a home, although a laundromat/dry cleaner could probably make good use of them. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eZ1motaJ2dawlYE.html There are delivery machines and drones already. Someone has to load them, but that could change fairly quickly. I'd love automated in windows and blinds that worked with sensors in my house (to make sure they don't let the sun stream in in a room I'm trying to sleep in) but that adjusted light levels with natural light to get light for my plants and to help with heating and to keep my apartment from overheating. Automated blinds are a thing, and I'd think a fairly simple bit of software could control for at least a few variables. I've seen sub-$100 DIY automated blinds and windows. (Check for air quality before opening the window, although that could be as simple as checking NOA reports). So... how many of those things could you automate with very specific robots much easier than with a generalist?

Alexa is arguably a general purpose robot. Albeit an immobile one.

I love my Roomba - named it Rosie. I am hoping that technology keeps bringing in new and interesting ideas. Engineering isn't my cup of tea, I'm more of an analyst lol Glad to have found your channel - rock on!

I'm amazed you didn't have a clip of Stuff Made Here for the "would you trust a robot to cut your hair" line.

To be fair, Gort in 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' did not rebel against humanity, it was running a defensive protocol after humanity attacked Klaatu.

I think specialist robots would be better than generalist robots based on humans, but then you would need 40 different robots, lol.

If they do ever turn on us, I just hope they are sentient enough so at least some of them will actually stick with us. If every robot is an individual I'd be more comfortable.

11:45 Elon called it "Optimus Subprime" aka Project Optimus because"it's not quite prime, yet."