A few Sundays ago, I was watching a tech segment on one of the national morning shows. The guest was explaining, with great confidence that we are facing the greatest change in how we live, that AI was going to change all our lives—our work, our homes, and perhaps even our sense of purpose. I remember leaning back in my chair and thinking: “Whose life are you talking about? It sure doesn’t include most of the people I know.” That moment crystallized something I’ve been noticing for a while. The people on TV, in blogs, and on podcasts—call them the talking heads—project their own experience onto everyone else. They assume we all went to college, that we all live on our phones, and that we…

Support Systems, Ethics, & the Road to Real Help Let’s say your robot vacuum bumps into a chair, backs up, spins, and navigates around it. Smooth, right? Maybe. But who taught it how to handle that chair? And what if the chair has a new leg design tomorrow? Will it still figure it out—or will it call for help? That’s the crux of today’s domestic robot reality. The robots may be visible, but the infrastructure behind them—the people, the data, the design choices—is still mostly hidden. In this final part of the series, we pull back the curtain to look at the invisible scaffolding that keeps robots upright, working, and (mostly) useful. Many of today’s robot devices are partly self-learning. A Roomba, for instance, remembers…

But Can They Make You a Sandwich? The Real Limits of Domestic Robots Today Let’s start with a confession: we’ve all been impressed by videos of robots backflipping, breakdancing, or hauling crates like over-caffeinated warehouse workers. The humanoid revolution, it seems, is not just coming — it’s here! Or is it? Despite the PR sizzle reels and billion-dollar funding rounds, domestic robots are still a long way from doing the one thing most of us actually want: being useful in our homes. Why? Because while it’s relatively easy to get a robot to move, it’s incredibly hard to get one to do something useful with its hands. Moravec’s Paradox in Your Kitchen Hans Moravec, one of the pioneers of robotics, pointed out something surprising decades…

What We Thought vs What We Got Part 1 The Robot in Your Imagination vs. the One in Your Kitchen Say the word “robot” and depending on your age you may get various images that come to mind. For us older folks it could be something that walks, talks, waves its arms, and maybe even flashes a few lights. Rosie from The Jetsons comes to mind—a robot maid with attitude and a full calendar of chores. For those a few decades younger, the image might be something sleeker and more self-aware, like C-3PO or even R2-D2 from Star Wars. And for some, the prevalent images might come straight out of The Terminator. But here in the real world? The closest we’ve come to a household…

Are we finally going to catch up to The Jetsons from 50 or 60 years ago? “Rosie the Robot,” which first aired on September 23, 1962, featured a robot maid who did housework and served as a personal assistant. Fast forward 61 years, and we are inching closer to this futuristic vision with emerging products from Figure AI, 1X Technologies and others. The dream of a fully automated home has captivated science fiction fans and tech enthusiasts for decades. We imagined robot butlers, self-cooking kitchens, and laundry that folds itself with military precision. And while home robots have certainly come a long way, they are still more likely to cause frustration than create utopia. The question remains: how close are we to the true companionable assistant in…

Or Have We Forgotten Our Place Among the Stars? I came across this article at Big Think a newsletter that provides counterintuitive, surprising, and impactful stories from an array of industry, education and research leaders. There is a lot of overlap with my article on interstellar travel and related concepts. This article explores the question of whether we are alone in the universe or if there may actually be other beings out there and if they may be reachable across the vastness of space. That vastness is, in my mind, the essential barrier to ever making contact if there are some other intelligent beings out there. A discussion of “What if we’re alone” is here and I relate it to the Star Gate concept to some…

President Trump’s mentioning Star Gate for his AI research project kicked up quite a bit of conversation on interstellar travel along with aliens and other esoteric topics way beyond the AI objectives. It seems the fascination over Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), now often referred to as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), is intriguing. And the speculation about being visited by aliens from other planets or galaxies is never ending. These topics then get related to whether we have the ability first, for interplanetary travel and eventually, interstellar travel. The recent discussions of the Stargate initiative which represent a significant move in the AI sector where the initial research will be focused on solving problems facing us such as health care (cancer research as a specific) and…

I’ve heard it time and again: ‘Facebook just isn’t for me,’ or ‘What’s so dangerous about Snapchat?’ While these concerns are valid, social media is more than its risks. It can be a powerful tool for connection and learning—if we use it wisely. As a preamble to this discussion, I want to explain that I was an active user of social media starting back three decades ago. I used it extensively for research in professional activities and then to help me grow my online retail store. I mostly stopped when I retired about a decade ago but have recently become more active again, as I’ve seen how valuable it can be for staying connected and informed.” However, when I started the social media users were…

Targeted at Boomers and Gen X but mostly aimed at my wife. As technology evolves, the line between devices blurs, making the choice between a laptop, tablet, or smartphone more about personal usage patterns than ever before. This shift is particularly relevant for those who have tried to evade the technology surge of the last couple of decades – Baby Boomers and Generation X – , who are now increasingly integrating digital solutions into their lifestyles. While this group is not spending time in social media sites watching video or other junk, there are needs for  daily conversations, entertainment, the few remaining tasks like banking and taxes or staying connected while traveling. The Drive Toward Portability and Integration During recent family discussions about an upcoming…

We have all heard the advertisement about 5G but do you know what this really means or what’s in it for you? I will try to expand on this a bit. The 5G stands for the fifth generation of mobile network roll out. Early networks started in the mid-1980s and supported early devices such as the Palm Pilot, car phones and such. Quality was inconsistent and slow. 2G started replacing the first generation in the early 1990s and introduced features such as SMS and basic data services. 3G didn’t come around until 2003 and took a few of years to get fully installed. 4G was introduced in 2009 and 2010 as was a big step up in reliability, speed and services such as video streaming,…

Most of my friends have heard about AI (artificial intelligence and have decided that this is something they do not have to pay much attention to. It is too confusing, too complex and does have much day to day applicability. I would suggest in many cases this is probably true but on the other hand I would suggest that they look into GhatGPT. This is a easy to use AI tool that can provide many opportunities. It can be used as a search alternative to Google. As an example, I asked Google where the SF Giants ranked in home runs yielded and received back a listing or total home runs by team from last year. So I asked that same question to ChatGPT and received…