Robotic Household Servants

The Jetsons' robot maid, Rosie, may become reality. As an SF fan, I say it's about time -- Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER predicted this development to occur in 1970. The Figure AI company claims its humanoid robot, Figure 03, will "become the first robot suitable for carrying out domestic chores in the home, as well as all kinds of manual labor":

The Robot in Your Kitchen

The company aspires to the long-elusive achievement of "building a humanoid robot that can navigate the unpredictabilities of the world with the same fluidity as a person." The demo shows a Figure 03 folding laundry, a more complex procedure than it sounds like. The robots have the potential to learn a wide variety of domestic chores, and, according to their creator, are making rapid progress. They're trained by watching videos of people doing the tasks over and over. The automatons have mastered "object permanence," remembering the location of a hidden object. They'll allegedly be able to follow voice commands. The company is programming them with a proprietary version of safety limitations analogous to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics.

The robots in the photos accompanying the article do look humanoid -- two arms, two legs, one head -- but not in the least cute or friendly. Why do they need to be shaped exactly like human beings anyway, though? Instead of only two jointed arms, wouldn't they perform more efficiently with multiple, flexible, tentacle-like appendages? Should they have more than two legs for greater stability? How about eyes encircling the head to give 360-degree vision instead of only two eyes on the front?

In short, do they have to look like Rosie? I'm reminded of a poem by Suzette Haden Elgin about personal care robots for the elderly to which their owners got so attached they refused replacements when the machines became obsolete or unrepairable. Therefore, the next model of robotic companion "looked exactly like a broom." Regardless of how the devices look though, people do tend to anthropomorphize any gadget that seems to have independent volition, including Alexa "personal assistants" and even Roombas. The 2025 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION includes a story about futuristic Alexa-like programs so advanced they possess consciousness -- and, like many fictional artificial-intelligence entities, come to resent being treated as slaves.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Yesterday's Tomorrow

Another glance at some futuristic inventions from fiction that have come into real existence, in this case from the cartoon series THE JETSONS:

5 Things from "The Jetsons" That Actually Exist

While middle-class families still don't have flying cars (much less a two-day work week that counts as full time or homes in cities above the clouds), we've caught up with the Jetsons in several respects. The article lists video calls, flat-screen televisions, robot vacuum cleaners, tanning beds, and ingestible, wireless, pill-shaped cameras. But they don't mention holograms, another technology brought to life in the decades since THE JETSONS.

One of Isaac Asimov's stories predicts pocket calculators, with the intriguing though rather implausible outcome of their omnipresence that even professional mathematicians have lost the skill of performing basic arithmetic on their own. Another story, "The Fun They Had," postulates remote schooling through computers, taught by AI programs instead of human teachers. J. D. Robb's mid-21st-century "In Death" mysteries have featured handheld devices called "links," essentially the same as present-day tablets or smart phones, since the beginning of the long-running series, well before such personal electronics existed in real life. Her flying cars and fully humanoid droid servants, though, seem as distant from practical commercial application as ever. Admittedly, however, some personal care robots currently produced in Japan show droid-like potential. Consider the over-optimism of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. We didn't get commercial shuttle travel to a permanent lunar base in 2001 in the primary-world timeline, and we still aren't there. No HAL-type self-conscious computers, either. Robert Heinlein anticipated video calls on personal computers in STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Yet the world of his HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL combines moon bases and lunar tourism with -- slide rules. And I WILL FEAR NO EVIL pairs subcutaneous contraceptive implants for women with the inconvenience of waiting several days for a pregnancy test report, not necessary even when the book was published. (The waits arose from lab backups, not limitations in the test itself.) Even brilliant science fiction authors can display blind spots as to the possibilities of technological advancement.

It's amusing to notice future-set stories with space-age technology alongside social customs frozen in the time period of their writing. Although office drone George Jetson and his housewife spouse are obviously played for laughs, Heinlein seems quite serious with the 1950s-style drugstore soda fountain in HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.