What is going on with technology?
The world is changing rapidly. artificial intelligence is getting a lot of attention, which is important. This is a major component of what we are going to see emerging.
While that gets the publicity, the real game changer are robots.
The reason for this is simple: it is the bridge between the digital and physical world. The reality is that we, while we are in these meatsuits, operate in the physical realm. The world of atoms is not something we can escape.
It is however, a rather slow world. This is nothing like the digital realm. Here is where we see the two converge.
Image generated by Ideogram
The Internet of Robots
Everything is going to be connected.
We are heading towards a world with trillions of sensors in them. This is already underway as everything is online. We have doorbells, appliances, and medical devices. Those with pacemakers, as an example, are connected so the doctors can have the data.
If we are going to compare the two, AI is far outpacing robotics. That said, the industry made remarkable progress during the last couple years.
This puts us in position where we can begin to question where things will be by the end of the decade. How far is this going to advance? It is something worth watching.
All of this feeds into exponentiality.
Robots are not going to operate in isolation. They are connected, enabling for upgrades each time the software is ready.
There is an even more important facet.
A World Of Robot Data
Many are questioning if we run out of data or not. With the appetite of large language models (LLM), it is a viable viewpoint.
Robots can help to eliminate this. Consider all the data that can be created by millions of robots. Suddenly there are devices that are spatial. So far, for the most part, AI is relegated to the digital realm. Robots bring the digital world to life.
Here is where exponentiality enters. We can see how this works in both directions.
The robots software is upgraded regularly, learning from each other. This means that individual tasks are instantly available to all once the software update is complete.
When looking at the manufacturing, the idea of "machines making the machines" comes into play. Like iPhones, we will see the production continually increasing over time.
While we might start with a few hundred thousand being produced, that will quickly move into millions. Could we see a time when there are billions made in a year?
This is where the data grows on an exponential basis. As the software gets more advanced, we can see how real world interaction can keep feeding it into the system.
A World of Abundance
We are heading to a world of abundance.
Naturally, this is a relative term but we can see how things are going to unfold. With robotics bridging the physical and digital, we can see the exponentiality in the latter move into the former.
This is where the techno-optimists believe the world is heading. To be frank, history, especially over the last 40 years, shows this to be the case.
Anywhere the Internet enters, abundance is the result.
Historically, the two ways to increase economic activity is through population growth or technology. While we see fertility issues around the world, we are going to see the same impact due to robotics. In fact, we are going to be able to produce numbers that are greater and quicker than humans.
After all, have a baby today and it is a couple decades before it adds to the economy.
That is not true for robots. As soon as they roll off the assembly line, they can be productive.