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  • There's an old saying, "if it works it's not AI". We could make a similar statement: "if it works, it's not robotics". That is, once a robot becomes reliable and efficient enough for everyday use, we no longer consider it a robot we just consider it a machine or tool.
    by wavemode
  • "The utility of a robot is inversely proportional to how much it looks like a robot." -- Buckbee's law.
    by michaelbuckbee
  • But your ordinary traffic light might be called a "robot" by social norm. At least if you live in South Africa.
    by AnonymousPlanet
  • One time I was messing around with the settings for a 3D printer in whatever software I was using to control it, and found a dropdown for "Machine type" or similar that defined my printer as a "3-axis robot." That gave me pause. Is it a robot? Maybe. That printer didn't even have any sensors, apart from the thermistors that fed into the temperature control PID loops. But by someone's definition, it's a robot.

    That was and remains fun to think about. I guess that like the author, I will "be pedantic all day long."

    by monitron
  • I strongly advise the podcast "Robot Or Not". The hosts have very strong opinions on what exactly constitutes a robot, and readers write in with edge cases. It's been going on for a long time, so nowadays they also categorize other things.

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robot-or-not/id9979302...

    https://open.spotify.com/show/4M2AELzmQy77FxaYZMl6e9

    https://pocketcasts.com/podcast/robot-or-not/b911efc0-e2f6-0...

    by bartvk
  • A food processor and stand mixer are robots in French[0]. I suppose this rather supports the claim that "robot" is a social construct as different societies have constructed it differently. N.b. I haven't taken a French class in almost 30 years. Please excuse any nuances in the French use of "robot" in this context that I may have missed.

    ETA: I almost forgot! Our nearby hardware store has a robot that sharpens kitchen knives. It's much less impressive than that sounds, both in appearance and how well it actually sharpens a knife. Nevertheless, I did note to the person operating it that if the robot uprising comes, we may regret the choice to simply give the robots knives.

    [0] https://www.boulanger.com/c/robot

    by mauvehaus
  • Robot etymology is from Czech robota, robotník, robotiti. To work, worker, to do work. I especially like "road works" signs in Poland saying "uwaga roboty drogowe" and translate/visualise it in my mind like "Danger robots on the road"
    by vincnetas
  • I once had a robotics professor who argued any definition of 'robot' broad enough to include roombas and self-driving cars and industrial robot arms (even if made narrow enough to exclude remote-control toy cars, cars with cruise control, CNC mills and washing machines) would inevitably define cruise missiles as robots. Meaning the world had 'killer robots' before we had digital computers.

    Instead, he argued the definition of a robot is "I know it when I see it"

    by michaelt

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