Levers, Bicycles, and Robots

Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world

– Archimedes

I’ve spent the better part of my adult life (not much considering I’m 23) trying to figure out how to get robots into peoples lives. Sure, there are technically robotic systems in your house thermostats and the like, but the only “true” robot that has seen large adoption is a little hockey puck that vacuums and/or mops your floors. Why haven’t we seen more robots? Where is R2? Where is Rosey and The Doctor’s K9?

It looks like things are changing. Investment in humanoid is skyrocketing in recent years and a few companies are promising commercial products in a few years. Regardless of whether this pans out, one thing I’ve been thinking about is what the world might look like if, or when, robots get out into the world.

When asked to describe computers, Steve Jobs once called them “A Bicycle for the Mind”. They allowed us to think, learn and communicate, further, faster and more easily than before. I think robots are much more than that. To stretch this metaphor perhaps a bit too thin, I think robots are closer to universal bicycles. They can help people do more, go further, faster and easier than they could before. Robots are levers to let people do things that alone they never could. I think what I like most about this analogy is that bicycles are tools. Vehicles for people to enhance what they could do on foot. There is a world where robots remain tools, but even the best made tools are only as good as their users. One important question is what kind of tools we make? Somethings are easier to abuse than others, some do more good others more harm.

I think bicycles are such a powerful technology because they have been so readily available. There are almost as many bicycles as cars (shoutout Holland). Bicycles provide transport, recreation, and fitness at a fraction of the cost of a car. The comparison to horse-drawn carriages is an even starker contrast. If we want robots to be a positive technology I think we would do well to model them after the Penny-farthing rather than a Rolls-Royce.