As with computers, increased popularity will lead to lower cost of ownership (Ok, Windows systems excluded) and better performance. I'm thinking that in 20 years, the Roomba & contemporaries won't be recognized by most as the beginning of the Robot Revolution. After all, people today don't recognize all the systems that were out before the IBM PC.
Either way, robots are coming because people will pay almost any price to avoid physical labor. Once there's a truly useful multipurpose robot, they'll buy it.

I do not consider the coffee machine or the X-10 products robotics, that is automation, and that is different. The Roomba is a thinking and adapting processor tied to a specific function. That indeed is a good use of robotic technology, and I did not mean to sound like I thought it was not a good product--it is. My point is from a marketing POV. It is still a gadget--a fairly expensive one. A better robotic vacuum would be one that is half Dyson, half Roomba with the docking station that not only charges, but empties the canaster via a stationary vac to a can outside. It can be a tall unit with a robotic arm that sweeps out to get underneath tables and chairs. It needs to be able to climb and clean stairs as well. Tall order, I know, but hey, we still have time.

If Honda perfects ASIMO to the point that it starts walking and talking like C3PO and costs the same as today's G5, then we are getting that "surprise" factor. I would love to call ASIMO and ask him to check the stove and make sure it is off or call me if it sees anything different in the house that I should know about.

Power to the people: Blogging to inspire social evolution around technology ?
 

Wow, what an interesting thread, lots of inspiring ideas tossed around, don't know how I managed to miss it...

The thoughts expressed by mrchaotica (Post #23, social evolution around technology) seem pretty important to me.

While it remains interesting to speculate how processors will evolve once Moore's law hits the wall of physics (as in "there need to be quite some atoms to make a transistor"), I think we are living a very crucial period of time right now.

The dangers pointed out by mrchaotica clearly exist, but I will adopt an optimistic point of view:

Blogging and associated technologies will enable a lot of people to take part in a real public debate that will reduce the latitude of governments to flat out lie to "the population" and use media influence to get away with it. I am prepared to give examples, but will refrain from doing so unless challenged for the benefit of a non-partisan thread.
Given the ease of use, the few patent kooks already out there to amuse us will be completely diluted in a massive quantity of poeple who care about whatever they choose to blog about and are able to communicate their knowledge to lots of others.
The chinese government is completely right when they fear their regime's days would be numbered if their population was free to inform themselves, let alone blog.
Desktop publishing, cheap books on demand some time ago and real easy online publishing now have about the same liberating potential as did the inventition of the Gutenberg press some 500 years back.

Hopefully, this "distributed common sense" will be able to counterbalance lobby-efforts from industries challenged by the fast evolution of technology such as the content industry with their complete lack of vision. Part of the music- and film-industry as we know it today might survive, but the market will finally favor content in usable formats, unencumbered by DRM.
For a well done, yet entertaining roundup on DRM and how it doesn't fly, see Cory Doctorows http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt .
creativecommons.org will be a significant alternative to classic copyright much like the GNU public license for software that has already been with us quite a while.

Software patents, the digital equivalent of patenting bricks and mortar while still expecting to have a roaring building industry, will not make it in Europe and elsewhere and the US might very well sue themselves out of a now existing leading position simply because a good idea, when pushed way beyond reasonable limits will no longer do what it initially intended: encourage inventions.
Instead, it will exclude smaller corporations without a patent portfolio to cross-license from significant R&D, becaus they can't afford to license all the trivial patents on tabbed menus and whatnotelse.

I'd like to think you're right, but I think the so-called convergence of computers and television is being heavily weighted towards mind-numbing television. Pop-up menus, spam, and even spyware are slowly, if grudgingly, becoming accepted facts of life. I'm afraid that most people will think of their computers more as tvs that can add instead of computers that can entertain.

In Isaac Asimov's robot novels, the robots do so much for humans that eventually, people end up as bed ridden blobs who wouldn't dream of physical exertion. The parallels to today's obesity epidemic are hard to miss, and I'm afraid that over the next twenty years technology will exacerbate the problem far beyond its present girth.

A population that's addicted to entertainment and abhorrent of action is easily manipulated by government, and just as likely, by multi-national corporations that consider themselves beyond the reach of local governments.

:(

Abstaining from "the personal arms race"
 

Do you know what is true status here in Norway**? To not have a cell phone! To be so important that you can afford to be inaccessible. And given that, you have time to think and be creative in accordance with your own rhythm.

In an over-digital world, we’re doomed to miss the essence of life and the essence of our own humanity -- which is non-digital.

There is a lot to be said for an "unplugged" life. There is also a lot to be said for using technology appropriately and sparingly. The way it is now, I venture to say that for most of us, computers and digital technology have become our "personal arms race".


With best regards,
ArcticStones.


** Of course Norway is a country where you would be really hard pressed to find a place where 50 people reside without GSM coverage -- a far cry from dismal coverage in, say, California, where Cingular is "raising the bar".

Heh, yea I work at Brookstone, the leading seller of 'i' prefixed products. Nearly every product in the store begins with 'i' and has a sister product prefixed with 'u'. It's really becoming unoriginal. We haven't sold one of those robot vacuum cleaners in months.
Anywho, back to the game. The robot models look too detailed in comparison to the environment texture. Makes for an ugly combination imo.
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