Agribot #1 : The Sci-Fi Demi-Singularity

Silent running draws inexorably closer…

Although these are basically “Carrying Stuff About” bots, which is no bad thing I suppose. At least these ones are actually doing something – there was this ludicrous thing a couple of weeks back where someone made some “concept” thing where hexapods were going to do swarm-gardening… and loads of blogs reported it as though it was fact. Nope. Not fact. Barmy idea. It’s going to be a long time before gardening robots can function in anything other than environments specially designed for them… like these carrying-stuff-about bots. Very controlled environment… flat floors, uniform plant-pots etc etc.

What happens though if a pot falls over? Hmmm? What then? If something out of the ordinary happens?

They lose their minds, that’s what. They’re a long way from being able to weed, and incinerate bugs etc… and by a long way, I mean about 5-10 years. Everything seems to be about 5-10 years away. It’s a kind of permanently receding singularity… which is basically the mid-point of the sci-fi singularity… ie: between now, and the point where technology has become so bizarre we can’t begin to predict what it will be like.

The Sci-Fi Demi-Singularity then. Between the foreseeable and the unforeseeable futures. 5-10 years.

Are we there yet?

No. Nearly though. Nearly there.