What does a robot look like?

This is a question I often ask my students. Typically they say a robot looks like this:

Or this:

Broadly human, but mostly metal.

Occasionally, I get non anthropocentric answers like this mule:

Or even something stark and industrial like this:

One is experimental, the other is rarely seen in day-to-day life.

The truth is, we're surrounded by robots. This is what a robot looks like:

Terence Eden is on Mastodon

@edent

The robots are coming for your jobs.

People think robots looks like C-3PO. That's an inefficient design, driven by anthrocentric thinking.

🤖 > 👨 pic.x.com/q38nub90nd

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Each of these robots has "stolen" a job from a human. Multiple humans, probably.

I'm old enough to remember when a tea lady would push a trolley around an office and sell the workers snacks and hot drinks. Nowadays, there's a machine to pour out a coffee and another one to dispense chocolates.

You see them every day and you treat them as part of the furniture.

Just as a car is not a horseless carriage, robots are not metal men.