Say Hello to Our Disappointing Robot Future
This Is Why I’ll Never Have My Own C-3PO
Imagine Star Wars without C-3PO. R2-D2 would still be there, but, without its hyper-verbal foil, R2 would be reduced to a cute, but uninteresting rolling tool box.
The franchise needs the protocol droid for its narrative arc, but also because we can’t imagine more advanced civilizations without their humanoid robots.
Years ago, iRobot CEO Colin Angle told me that we wouldn’t see C-3PO-like robots before 2050. Considered the pace of microprocessor, actuator and AI development, this always sounded pessimistic. Now, though, I think he was being overly generous. To be honest, I’ve all but given up hope on autonomous, people-like droids, especially after Honda pulled the plug on ASIMO, one of the industry’s most interesting and promising people-bots.
Honda spent almost 20 years developing ASIMO, which stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, taking it from a remote-controlled android that embarrassingly failed at stair climbing to one that could navigate stairs on its own, pick up a bottle and pour you a drink, and break into a run so organic that most…
