There are certain myths that have been peddled for decades. A kind of urbanised future myth. One of these was fifty years ago when I was at school. No. Really. Some of us are that decrepit! And they said "Aye Bruce ... in ten years time robotic integration will mean more leisure time for all. Household automatons doing the cleaning. The hoovering. The dusting. The driving. We shall have more free space once we have populated the Moon." That was five decades ago. I laughed at the concept then as much as I do now.
One thing I can quite assure you is that although the technology is getting there. The practicality and global integration will never happen. AI is similar. Ghost In The Shell style Blade Runner simulants with Terminator Cyberdyne takeovers are and always will be the stuff of fantasy. It could happen. But. It's not. Enjoy the hype. The studies and the 'projects'. And relax. You won't be selling your car any time soon. You won't be meeting David from AI. And the most you'll ever experience with any kind of autonomy is your mobile phone apps, your supermarket loyalty card and banking system.
Hang on a minute what about Iron Man you say. He's real enough looking isn't he? No. He's a movie character. Well,how about the Batmobile? It has self driving capability and accountability for its actions hasn't it? Er. No. If you check further you'll find it's not actually real. Fine. So how do you explain KITT made by Knight Industries. Just like Iron Man who was made by none other than Stark Industries? Now look here. I keep trying to tell you. That was a Marvel Universe thing. It doesn't exist in real life. Honestly, readers. Some people, eh?
Having said all that. You would reasonably expect at least one of these super heroes to make an appearance at some time to help out with world problems wouldn't you? Wouldn't you? Ok the Batmobile might not be fully operational and that but maybe Spider-Man or even Tom Holland has a something in his garage he could allow to be dismantled and utilised by the government or if The Avengers could maybe get Nick Fury to help out or Morgan Freeman - he's still working for Wayne Enterprises isn't he. Couldn't he leak out some of the technology secrets to help Apple here? And Robocop he had a motorbike and Judge Dredd .. sorry, Karl Urban. His one actually spoke. Yeah! Oh no. What am I saying. Even I'm getting confused with fantasy and reality. They're all fictional characters aren't they? Aren't they? Just like the self driving concept. Yeah. It might work. But reality keeps rearing its ugly head. Nice idea in theory, mind.
But in our Facebook/social media society non-visual interaction can be a drawback. I remember when I once went for a job interview and the bloke said "So tell me. What's one of your bad points?" "I find it difficult to tell the difference between fantasy and reality", I replied. "So then", he said. "Do you have any particularly strong abilities" "Yes, sir. I'm Superman!", I answered.
Oddly. I never got the job. But that was my gain. And the Daily Planets's loss I reckon.
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Right. That's it. Security! Get this idiot out of this topic thread immediately"- Perry White)
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"Wait. Hang on a minute..you're not real!"
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The hell I'm not real. Now get this guy from my office before I fire you all!"-P.W.)
the irony of how much your own statements actually contradict what you are trying to say.
currently i CAN(and have) gotten a device that does my "hoovering" for me. i have two automated Vacuums/brooms at my house, sure they are not the best around corners, but I've cut 95% of the time i WOULD have spent sweeping out of my life. i come home, and instead of spending 15-30 minutes sweeping my house( two stories, across 4 rooms with hardwood flooring and 2 rooms with tile) i come home and almost all of it has been handled throughout the day, and i can pick up a small broom, grab the few corners that my device doesn't fit into and cant get *yet* and overall spend maybe 3 minutes of what used to take 30 minute.
that right there gives me an extra 27 minutes of free time.
and thats just 1 single example. ironic that you say our shopping loyalty cards? what loyalty cards? I've had my groceries ordered through an APP, and delivered fresh to my house for well over 3 years now. that 1-2 hours i used to spend shopping every tuesday on my day off? now its about 15 minutes of making a list and putting in my payment info, AND i get the benefit of not being tempted by ever impulse by or getting the "just grabbing milk" syndrome most people do in grocery stores.
so far thats 2:27 I've saved that would NOT even be remotely possible 50 years ago. but wait, theres MORE.
lets add all the other autonomous concepts i use on a daily basis right?
i have a 2 entire rooms of my house, used or the breeding/raising of exotic animals being almost completely run through technology from my smart phone, all autonomously.
of the 47 light fixtures in the two rooms? i do not turn on or off a single one.
i have a program that runs itself, turning each light on or off, depending on that specific animals natural needs. each one on a cycle.
i also have each tank fitted with a Automated "monsoon" system, again run without my daily intervention, to again run on cycles fit for that animals needs.
the program will even determine and tell me when a light goes out, or a water source is empty and needs refilling, and it does so with a text directly to my phone.
so what used to be a Daily task(twice daily for the lights turning on and turning off, and twice daily for misting and water bowl refilling) is now a once weekly walk through to check the health and temperaments of each animal. the only thing that i dont have fully automated with them is feeding them, but thats also simply because i enjoy the time i spend feeding each one individually.
but that example iOS unique to my profession and business, so lets go back to what a "normal" person would benefit from right?
maybe a normal person would have a normal pet like a cat or dog?
we now have automated food and water bowls. they will drop a preset amount of food, on a set schedule, or refill the water from a larger reservoir, every few hours. taking the normal task(one you would have been doing 50 years ago) that would be atleast 1 a day, and making one refill for the set up, once a week or two.
there are even automated litter boxes and automated poop scooping machines for your backyard, should you find them worth the price. literally saving you potentially an hour or two every week, of having to do that yourself, instead of 10-15 minutes of cleaning poop, you take less then 1 minute to throw out the bag its in.
and these are literally just a few of the innovations that have happened in the past few decades.
even one as simple as starting my car from my phone. no more going out in the middle of winter and starting my car and leaving it running inside with he heat/AC on to get it to the optimal temperature. (even back in the 90's we had this but you had to get a very pricey kit. and have it installed to use the remote start on it, and even then, all it did was start it)
now i can start my car, change the temperature, even set my radio station or morning podcast, and have it all qued up ready to go for me to just hop in and drive away.
the irony of you saying that its a concept that youve envisioned for 50 years and never being achievable? 50 years ago it was just that a "concept". but today? i see ATLEAST 3 different self driving testing vehicles on my way to work. every. single. day. sure its a slow developing technology, but thats because its a very expensive technology to create AND there are literally peoples lives on the line should the tech fail,
but what you say is a "concept" is in all actuality, now a working object. its gone from a "Concept" to "proto-type" already. sure it may take a while more, but its not "just" a concept. i can imagine if you went back 50 years( 1967) and tried to convince yourself then that we would have literal super computers in our pockets, with cars fitted with RADAR and Laser guided systems, virtual reality you can view through a headset and can watch anything at anytime from your couch by having a tiny box(smaller then most basic TV remotes that came out in the 70's) that can literally stream ANYTHING, then you would probably be called a liar and be told you should look for a future in Sci-fi writing or be hired on by the producers of the Jetsons.
what you are saying, equates to an Old timer back in the 1930's claiming that self flying airplanes being a "concept" that would never see fruition. yet, here we are in 2017 with 90% of your flight being run by a computer and by "auto-pilot"
sure we still have a pilot there, for safety and as a back up and for takeoffs and landings, but for most of your flight, he's kicking back just as much as you are.