Comment by ben_w
2 years ago
The hard part of androids is the AI, the hardware is already stronger and faster than our bones and muscles.
(On the optimistic side, it will be at least 5-10 years between a level 5 autonomy self-driving car and that same AI fitting into the power envelope of an android, and a human-level fully-general AI is definitely more complex than a human-level cars-only AI).
You might be right that the AI is more difficult, but I disagree on the androids being dangerous.
There are physical limitations to androids that imo make it very difficult that they could be seriously dangerous, let alone invincible, no matter how intelligent: - power (boston dynamics battery lasts how long?), an android has to plug in at some point no matter what - dexterity, or in general agency in real world, seems we’re still a long way from this in the context of a general purpose android
General purpose superhuman robot seems really really difficult.
> let alone invincible
!!
I don't want anyone to think I meant that.
> an android has to plug in at some point no matter what
Sure, and we have to eat; despite this, human actions have killed a lot of people
> - dexterity, or in general agency in real world, seems we’re still a long way from this in the context of a general purpose android
Yes? The 5-10 years thing is about the gap between some AI that doesn't exist yet (level 5 self-driving) moving from car-sized hardware to android-sized hardware; I don't make any particular claim about when the AI will be good enough for cars (delay before the first step), and I don't know how long it will take to go from being good at just cars to good in general (delay after the second step).
Like, there aren't computer-controlled industrial robots that are many many times stronger than humans?!? Wow, and here I thought there were.
> the hardware is already stronger and faster than our bones and muscles.
For 30 minutes until the batteries run down, or for 5 years until the parts wear out.
The ATP in your cells will last about 2 seconds without replacement.
Electricity is also much cheaper than food, even bulk calories like vegetable oil.[0]
And if the android is controlled by a human-level intelligence, one thing it can very obviously do is all the stuff the humans did to make the android in the first place.
[0] £8.25 for 333 servings of 518 kJ - https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/272515844
Equivalent to £0.17/kWh - https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=£8.25+%2F+%28333+*+518k...
UK average consumer price for electricity, £0.27/kWh - https://www.greenmatch.co.uk/average-electricity-cost-uk