Why robots must fly

Human beings have a highly inflated opinion of themselves. Obviously. We have a ‘thinking’ brain that has, alone among all living creatures, gone past DNA and primal instinct to problem solving, accumulated knowledge and evolution. While we may not have physically evolved very much in the past 50,000 years, we have completely altered our lifestyle – from nomadic hunter gatherers to settled agriculturalists to civilization, exploration and high technology…today when we gaze towards the heavens, it is not out of wonderment anymore, just trying to figure how to get there 🙂

So yes, we are pretty smart. And smug. We even believe God made us in his own image. That is why all our pagan gods are human-like, and if required, with multiple heads, hands, outsize body parts and elemental powers.

Now as we reach for the stars, we want to create artificial intelligence…robots…and we are trying to create them in our own image. All sci-fi movies tend to have humanoid robots – C3PO, Terminator, Bladerunner, iRobot, etc. A lot of robotic technology, apart from trying to make robots look human, is also trying to recreate key physical human abilities – like the use of the hand, walking, upright mobility, etc.

But herein lies the rub. Human beings may have made great advances in science, technology & thought but physically speaking, we remain a mediocre species. Neither strongest, biggest or fastest. The only reason we rule the earth is because of our ability to work in groups and accumulate knowledge. As individuals, human beings are dead meat in a dangerous predatory landscape.

So why on earth do we want to make robots in our image? And why are trying to make them walk and be able to pick up things. What if we remove these two attributes – walking and picking?

Walking is anyway overrated. Flying is much better. Walking anchors you to the ground, places serious limitations on your speed & ability to travel. That is why we had to invent ships, cars & trains. And planes. Because we knew that walking ain’t cutting it. Even our comic book heroes fly or swing. And yet we try to create robots that can walk!

And picking? The human hand is a marvel of evolution. We may see the world with our eyes but we create it with our hands. But the moment you increase the scale of creation, you need heavy machinery. The earth mover is nothing but a giant hydraulic iron hand that digs and lifts at a scale impossible for mere human hands. So hands ain’t cutting it. And yet we try and recreate the delicate human touch!

I guess the moot question is – why are we building robots? Are we trying to make them to feel God-like? Or do we need them for specific purposes, to make our life easier? If the latter, then the whole walking & picking bit becomes redundant.

Rather than try and make an all-purpose robot that tries to replicate a human being, what we need are functional robots, for specific tasks and activities.

And Function must dictate Design. Which is why we must create robots with iron-arms that can fly or have a hundred eyes or whatever…

So what if they look nothing like us…when we finally meet our creator, we’ll realize that either there is no creator or that we look nothing like him.