* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Monday, October 6, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Opens Up About Portraying a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

    Al Roker Gives Olivia Dean an Unexpected ‘New Job’ on the ‘Today’ Show – Yahoo

    Al Roker Shocks Olivia Dean with an Exciting New Role on the ‘Today’ Show

    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

    Charlie Hunnam Opens Up About Portraying a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    “Reba” cast, then and now: See the stars 24 years later (and who’s reunited for another show) – Yahoo

    Why Taylor Swift Name-Dropped Elizabeth Taylor in Her New Album – Yahoo

    Here’s Why Taylor Swift Dropped Elizabeth Taylor’s Name in Her New Album

    Al Roker Gives Olivia Dean an Unexpected ‘New Job’ on the ‘Today’ Show – Yahoo

    Al Roker Shocks Olivia Dean with an Exciting New Role on the ‘Today’ Show

    Books about the arts and some haunts for a Denton October – Denton Record-Chronicle

    Uncover Artistic Treasures and Spooky Adventures to Experience in Denton This October

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

    Taylor Swift Releases New Album The Life of a Showgirl : Listen and Read the Full Credits – Yahoo

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

    Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

    What the Recent Price Surge Means for Figure Technology Solutions After SEC Settlement – Yahoo Finance

    What the Recent Price Surge Reveals About Figure Technology Solutions Following SEC Settlement

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    MAC Brings iPad Technology to Football Sidelines Across All 13 Member Schools – Sports Video Group

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    Technology Is Becoming More Important Than Humans In CX – No Jitter

    A Tech Expo Shows What China Can Make, but Not Who’ll Buy It All – The New York Times

    Inside China’s Tech Expo: Cutting-Edge Innovations Face Uncertain Demand

    Steampunk Metal Oval Technology Sense Sunglasses Personality Handmade Chain Multicolor Sunglasses UV400 – The San Joaquin Valley Sun

    Steampunk Metal Oval Sunglasses with Handmade Multicolor Chain – Bold UV400 Protection and Unique Style

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

An electric cow, a robot mailman, and other automatons we overestimated

July 16, 2023
in Science
An electric cow, a robot mailman, and other automatons we overestimated
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In Hollywood, robots have come in many shapes and sizes. There’s the classic, corrugated-tubing-limbed Robot from the television series Lost In Space (1965); the clunky C-3PO and cute R2-D2, the Star Wars (1977) duo; the tough Terminator from The Terminator (1984) played by Arnold Schwarzenegger; the mischievous Johnny 5 from Short Circuit (1986); the kind-hearted, ill-fated Sonny in I, Robot (2004); and WALL-E (2008), the endearing trash-collecting robot. Robot-reality, however, still lags behind robot-fiction by quite a bit. Even Elon Musk’s October 2022 debut of Optimus—a distinctly masculine humanoid-frame robot prototype built by Tesla that, for the first time, wobbled along sans cables—failed to wow critics, who compared it to decades-old Japanese robotics and noted that it lacked any differentiating capabilities. 

And yet, automatons—self-propelled machines—are not new. More than two millennia ago, Archytas, an inventor from ancient Greece, built a pulley-activated wooden dove, capable of flapping its wings and flying a very short distance (a puff of air triggered a counterweight that set the bird in motion). Around the 12th century, Al-Jazari, a prolific Muslim inventor, built a panoply of automatons, including a water-powered mechanical orchestra—a harpist, a flutist, and two drummers—that rowed around a lake by means of mechanical oarsmen. Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks are peppered with detailed sketches of various automatons, including a mechanical knight capable of sitting up, waving its arms, and moving its head and purportedly debuted in 1495. But it was Czech playwright Karel Čapek in his 1920 play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), who first coined the phrase “robot” as a distinct category of automaton. Robot comes from the Czech, robota, which means forced labor. As Popular Science editor, Robert E. Martin, wrote in December 1928, a robot is a “working automaton,” built to serve humans. Isaac Asimov enshrined Čapek’s forced-labor concept in his three laws of robotics, which first appeared in 1942 in his short story “Runaround.”

Predicting the future is fraught with peril, especially for the science writer enthralled by the promise of a new technology. But that hasn’t stopped Popular Science writers and editors from trying. Past issues are peppered with stories of robots ready to take the world by storm. And yet, our domestic lives are still relatively robot free. (Factory automation is another story.) That’s because we underestimate just how sophisticated humans can be, taking on menial tasks with ease, like sorting and folding laundry. Even in the 21st century, service and domestic robots disappoint: design-challenged, single-purpose machines, like the pancake-shaped vacuums that knock about our living rooms. Advances in machine learning may finally add some agility and real-world adaptability to the next generation of robots, but until we get there (if we get there), a look back at some of the stranger robotic inventions, shaped by the miscalculations and misguided visions of their human inventors, might inform the future. 

Robots for hire

Robots photoPopular Science August 1940 Issue

Looking for “live” entertainment to punctuate a party, banquet, or convention? Renting out robot entertainers may have roots as far back as 1940, according to a Popular Science story that described the star-studded life of Clarence the robot. Clarence, who resembled a supersized Tinman, could walk, talk, gesture with his arms, and “perform other feats.” More than eight decades later, however, robot entertainers are only slightly more sophisticated than their 1940s ancestor, even if they do have sleeker forms. For instance, Disney deploys talking, arm-waving, wing-flapping robots to animate rides, but they’re still pre-programmed to perform a limited range of activities. Chuck E. Cheese, which made a name for itself decades ago by fusing high-tech entertainment with the dining experience, has been phasing out its once-popular animatronics. Pre-programmed, stiff-gestured animal robots seem to have lost their charm for kiddos. They still can’t dance, twirl, or shake their robot booties. Not until Blade Runner-style androids hit the market will robot entertainment be worth the ticket price.

Animatronics that smoke, drink, and—moo

Robots photoPopular Science May 1933

In May 1933, Popular Science previewed the dawn of animatronics, covering a prototype bound for the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair. The beast in question was not prehistoric, did not stalk its prey, and had no teeth to bare, but it could moo, wink its eyes, chew its cud, and even squirt a glassful of milk. The robotic cow may have been World’s Fair-worthy in 1933, but by 1935, Brooklyn inventor Milton Tenenbaum upped the stakes when he introduced a life-like mechanical dummy that, according to Popular Science, was known for “singing, smoking, drinking, and holding an animated conversation.” Tenenbaum proposed using such robots for “animated movie cartoons.” Although Hollywood was slow to adopt mooing cows and smoking dummies, Tenenbaum may have been crystal-balling the animatronics industry that eventually propelled blockbuster films like Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Aliens. Alas, with the advent of AI-generated movies, like Waymark’s The Frost, released in March 2023, animatronic props may be doomed to extinction.

The robot mailman

Robots photoPopular Science October 1976 Issue

In October 1976, Popular Science saw the automated future of office mail delivery, declaring that the “Mailmobile is catching on.” Mailmobiles were (past tense) automated office mail carts that followed “a fluorescent chemical that can be sprayed without harm on most floor surfaces.” Later models used laser-guidance systems to navigate office floors. Mailmobiles were likely doomed by the advent of email, not to mention the limitations of their singular purpose. But in their heyday they were loved by their human office workers, who bestowed them with nicknames like Ivan, Igor, and Blue-eyes. A Mailmobile even played a cinematic role in the FX series, The Americans. Despite being shuttered in 2016 by their manufacturer, Dematic, (the original manufacturer was Lear Siegler, who also made Lear jets), there’s no denying their impressive four decade run. Of course, the United States Postal Service employs automation to process mail, including computer vision and sophisticated sorting machines, but you’re not likely to see your mail delivered by a self-driving mail mobile anytime soon. 

Lawn chair mowers

Robots photo

Suburban homeowners would probably part with a hefty sum for a lawn-mowing robot that really works. Today’s generation of wireless automated grass-cutters may be a bit easier to operate than the tethered type that Popular Science described in April 1954, but they’re still sub-par when it comes to navigating the average lawn, including steep grades, rough turf, and irregular geometries. In other words, more than a half century after their debut, the heart-stopping price tags on robot lawn mowers are not likely to appeal to most homeowners. Sorry suburbanites—lawn-chair mowing is still a thing of the future.

Teaching robots

Robots photoPopular Science May 1983 Issue

It was in the early 1980s that companies began to roll out what Popular Science dubbed personal robots in the May 1983 issue. With names like B.O.B, HERO, RB5X, and ITSABOX for their nascent machines, the fledgling companies had set their sights on the domestic service market. According to one of the inventors, however, there was a big catch: “Robots can do an enormous number of things. But right now they can’t do things that require a great deal of mechanical or cognitive ability.” That ruled out just about everything on the home front, except, according to the inventors and, by extension, Popular Science, “entertaining guests and teaching children.” Ahem. Teaching children doesn’t require a great deal of cognitive ability? Go tell that to a teacher. Gaffes aside, fast forward four decades and, with the capabilities of large language models demonstrated by applications like Open AI’s ChatGPT, we might be on the cusp of building robots with just enough cognitive ability to somewhat augment the human learning experience (if they ever learn to get the facts right). As for robots that can reliably fold laundry and cook dinner while you’re at work? Don’t hold your breath.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Popular Science – https://www.popsci.com/technology/robot-fails/

Tags: Electricrobotscience
Previous Post

US schools aren’t ready for another pandemic

Next Post

Advance your career in IT with this 13-course CompTIA certification bundle, now only $49.97

Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

Charlie Hunnam Opens Up About Portraying a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

October 6, 2025
Pre-rolls, education and industry optimism: Takeaways from Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit 2025 – Cleveland.com

Pre-rolls, Education, and Industry Optimism: Top Insights from the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit 2025

October 6, 2025
‘Rage’ politics the latest hurdle for GOP to clear; how prior battles made conservatives stronger: Dave Brat – Fox News

How ‘Rage’ Politics Is Transforming the GOP and Fueling Conservative Determination

October 6, 2025
EarthTalk – Why do eco-advocates consider backyard gardens so crucial to conservation? – Kiowa County Press

How Backyard Gardens Are Becoming the Heart of Conservation Efforts

October 5, 2025
Citizen science discovers a rare bird in town | Opinion – Times Record News

Citizen science discovers a rare bird in town | Opinion – Times Record News

October 5, 2025
Millions could be living with hidden smell loss after COVID without knowing – ScienceDaily

Millions Could Be Unknowingly Struggling with Hidden Smell Loss Following COVID

October 5, 2025
How This Influencer Lost 31 Kg By Following These 8 “Weird” Daily Habits – NDTV

How This Influencer Lost 31 Kg By Following These 8 “Weird” Daily Habits – NDTV

October 5, 2025
Forget Cowbells. Cows Wear High-Tech Collars Now. – The New York Times

Ditch the Cowbells: Discover the High-Tech Collars Transforming Cattle Care

October 5, 2025
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Seattle Seahawks NFL game: How to watch, kickoff time, TV channel and more – Yahoo Sports

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Seattle Seahawks: How to Watch, Kickoff Time, TV Channel, and More

October 5, 2025
Magdeleine Vallieres shows off her world championship stripes – EF Pro Cycling

Magdeleine Vallieres shows off her world championship stripes – EF Pro Cycling

October 5, 2025

Categories

Archives

October 2025
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Sep    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (853)
  • Economy (873)
  • Entertainment (21,748)
  • General (17,433)
  • Health (9,916)
  • Lifestyle (886)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (875)
  • Politics (885)
  • Science (16,084)
  • Sports (21,374)
  • Technology (15,855)
  • World (856)

Recent News

Charlie Hunnam Reflects on Playing a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story – Yahoo

Charlie Hunnam Opens Up About Portraying a Serial Killer in Monster: The Ed Gein Story

October 6, 2025
Pre-rolls, education and industry optimism: Takeaways from Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit 2025 – Cleveland.com

Pre-rolls, Education, and Industry Optimism: Top Insights from the Ohio Cannabis Health & Business Summit 2025

October 6, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version