Comment by overfeed
6 hours ago
> The most impressive think that stuck with me is that humans are incredibly efficient, from an energy perspective, in anything we do, compared to machines.
Humans are efficient, but not across the board. Trivial counterexample: walking is incredibly energy inefficient vs a bicycle or other wheeled conveyances whose primary dissipater is rolling resistance.
We're still pretty efficient while not having wheel shaped limbs. Running like humans works pretty well. So well even that we can chase a lot of animals longer than they can outrun us.
There might be more efficient ways to move but we are pretty well equipped by evolution.
> We're still pretty efficient while not having wheel shaped limbs.
Agreed, but it was gp that brought up the human vs. machine efficiency argument. Machines can have wheels.
That's a strange comparison. Wheels are incredibly limited in the type of surfaces they can be used on.
> That's a strange comparison
It's not strange at all, I was responding to a specific, incorrect claim. I even quoted the wrong claim in my earlier comment , and I'll repeat it again, with added emphasis
>>> humans are incredibly efficient, from an energy perspective, in anything we do, compared to machines
I simply provided contrary evidence to a well-defined, falsifiable claim. How is that strange?
Yes, but walking and moving on wheels is oranges and apples. It would be a relevant comparison if a robot with a movement mechanism based on two feet was more efficient than a human.
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You're not wrong.
But annoyingly pedantic.
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Now compare human on bicycle to human driving a car for energy efficiency.