Transcript
a context-aware digital teammate designed to support your path to autonomous operational resilience. Learn more by watching SolarWinds Day on Demand or join us live in person at our 2026 World Tour. Visiting 30-plus cities worldwide, the tour brings together IT professionals, customers, and partners for live demos, technical deep dives, and conversations on AI, observability, and more. Experience it live. Visit solarwinds.com slash events. Hello, welcome to SolarWinds TechPod. I'm your host, Crystal Taylor, and with me as always is my co-host, Sean Sebring. And today, we're joined by special guest, Andy Garibay, from Movies and Mainframes, and we're going to talk about something fun, but also super on topic, which is robotics. Now, the reason why I brought this topic up as a fun thing for us to talk about is that last month or the month before, I'm not really sure when we were talking about this originally, Elon Musk announced that he was shutting down production of two of the Tesla models and using those factories to churn out more of his robots, which I believe are called Optimus robots, which is a whole other thing. They're called Optimus robots. And that led me into a deep dive into about all of the robotics that we have, and what cool things they do, and what cool things they could do, and maybe what cool things we want them to do. And of course, Andy was our first choice to talk about this with, because we enjoy our silly conversations, and we hope that you do too. So, Andy, for anyone who has not experienced you on TechPod before, or Movies and Mainframes, tell us a little bit about yourself. Hey, everybody. My name's Andy, Dork Extraordinaire. I host Movies and Mainframes, which Crystal and Sean have been frequent guests on that podcast. We watch movies, television shows, ones that specifically deal with technology, and we take a special focus on those shows and see if they kind of get the technology right, or wrong, or ridiculously wrong. And it's a lot of fun to do those episodes with y'all. So, if you haven't checked out Movies and Mainframes, look for one with Crystal or Sean and start off with it. It's a great time. So, let's jump right in. So, there are a bunch of different kinds of robotics, and some of them are clearly designed for making life easier for, I'll say, general people. We've got a lot of consumer robotics, like our vacuums. I have one that's right here off screen, but it's there. Vacuums, we've got, I recently saw that they've launched a laundry folding robot, which is interesting to talk about. There's litter boxes, there's lawnmowers, there's pool cleaning robots, there's all kinds of consumer robotics. And I feel like that's an easy place to jump in because we're all bound to have some form of consumer robotics. And I want to talk a little bit about them. There are, we talk a lot about AI on this podcast because how could we not? How could we not? How could we not? I know that all of these robots that we're talking about today are going to have some form of machine learning or AI built into them that has to continually evolve. Now, there are some of these consumer electronics, these consumer robotics that are intended to seem like they're offline, I guess. So you only use them when you need them, but realistically they're probably always on. Always on, always listening, always watching. Yeah. So, so let's talk about the invasion, I guess, of consumer robotics into our lives. What's your favorite and why is it your favorite? I was thinking about this on my way upstairs preparing for today's recording. And if you're, you know, this could segue easily into movies and mainframes actually. But if you haven't watched Black Mirror, Black Mirror is such a fun show where it explores unique technologies and how they could potentially look like in the future. And there's, you know, assistant style one that kind of comes to mind where imagine like most, a lot of people walk around with Bluetooth, you know, earbuds, AirPods, whatever you want to call them. They walk around with those kind of all the time. And I was imagining it literally, this was just in a blink, so much happened. I was like, what if I had that in my ear, but it was more than just to play sound. It listened to everything that happened in my life. It helped summarize my day, give me suggestions throughout. And they have those kinds of things, your co-pilots, your gleans, which are locked into specific technologies. But I was thinking, what if I had that as a life assistant? And again, there's Black Mirror-esque episodes about this kind of stuff. But on my way up here, I was like, would I remember to take it out when I don't want it to pay attention to me? That's my thing is I allow so much to keep listening. Cause I'm like, I don't really care if it listens right now. Cause I just, to your point, Crystal, I don't trust that when they say they're not listening, that they're not listening. And they've actually done several like studies and tests, like putting your phone on airplane mode. It actually sends more data back to Google for, you know, and just stuff I've seen on the news before. And yeah, it's an interesting balance because at what point do we just put our hands up and say, they're listening anyway, what can I do versus trying to get as off the grid as possible? Right. It definitely is a balance. I'm starting to swing the other way. I used to not care that much. Like, ah, whatever. I bought it. It doesn't matter. But the way everything has been behaving in my house for the past year, I'm starting to chuck stuff. Uh, not because I want to be off the grid. I just, it's not actually being helpful to me right now. Um, I'm about to get rid of, uh, Alexa because they rolled out Alexa plus and we'll, we'll get in really get into robots, but I want to address the thing Sean was talking about, but they rolled out Alexa plus for some devices. Didn't ask for it. I can't roll it back to the previous version. I want a dumb device that I just ask what's the weather, what time is, you know, whatever. But now this thing, uh, is trying to be my best friend and it has this followup mode, which you can turn off, but you don't really turn it off. And so there is constantly in our house now where we ask it like, Hey, what's the weather? And it gives us a way too long, flowery answer. And then I immediately start talking to my wife and then Alexa is like, Hey, well, um, I couldn't really help you with that. And we're both just like, Alexa, shut up. Like no one is addressing you right now. Be quiet. And, uh, yeah, it's really starting to get it on my nerves. And, uh, same with the, I, we just recently chucked our, um, iRobot, uh, vacuum cleaner. Uh, the biggest reason is because we have pets and it's, it's just, it's as of right now, it's just too stupid. Uh, the pets will pull something out and the vacuum will just hit it and just, you know, go into a death circle and just decide like, Oh, I'm shut down, you know? And so then I come home and it's just sitting there in the middle of the floor. Um, and it's just like, wait, let me go put you back in your docking station. It just never works the way I want it to work. So we chucked it and it's like, yeah, I'll just spend the time, you know, make the investment in a cordless vacuum, powerful. And so it's like, Hey, yeah, you know, can get the whole house done in 10 minutes. And, uh, but yeah, and it, it, it honestly sucks because I love robots. I love, I don't know if you can see this. I love robots. I love robots. There's robots all over my room. And right now, uh, we're just not quite living in the future with it. And I want that next step to happen. I mean, I crack up every time now where I see like, Hey, check out this new robot. And then we find out it's actually a dude in a suit or it's some, it's somebody remote controlling it from afar. And it's like, no, I want it to be real. We haven't talked about robo taxis yet, but I did recently read an article that it's just someone remotely driving the robo taxis. Yeah. I'll give you the true Johnny cab. Yeah. I also saw, I also saw another study about the intervene with like school zones and like crossing student crossings and stuff like that. Try to teach the robo taxis, like how to recognize these things failed miserably could not just murdering fake children left and right. So I'm with you, Andy, 100% of that robotics isn't where we want it to be yet. Like we keep expecting it to be so much better than it actually is. I frequently tell my robot vacuum, which is a shark, but I find myself frequently going, why are you so stupid? I say it out loud, like it's hearing me and I hope that it is, I hope it knows how I feel. I hope it's reporting back to HQ, somebody controlling it. I'm trying my best. Well, it kind of leads me to something I was going to talk about, which is like the, is it, is it worth it for the consumer robotics? Because they are quite expensive, generally speaking, and they don't seem to a, they don't have the I would want them to. Yeah. I there, there's two things that come to mind for me and it's way too early to even say this, but AI, right. We're talking cause like the biggest complaint is they're stupid. So like, I think what our robots need in order to become the cool robots that we want and are expecting is they need to be smarter and how do they get there? But with AI and so like as more agents and AI stuff is, is able to be self-contained in a robot, for example, like hopefully they, they do end up getting there. But I think marketing is a big issue with what you were talking about, Crystal. Cause like we've had, we've had a guest on here before, one of, one of my closest, best friends, I have to be careful cause someone might get jealous that they're not the best friend saying that anyway. Someone who joined us, he lives with just his cat in a nice, tidy, clean apartment and his Roomba or whatever brand it is, is perfect for that lifestyle. Right? So again, from a marketing perspective, they, they probably will put a chaotic household and then all of a sudden this vacuum shows up and it's typically a mom in a, her life becomes easier magically. Not the case. You still have to clean the floor before the vacuum can safely do its job cleaning the floor. So, I mean, I think marketing has a lot to do with it. And you know, there's a, I don't think, well, let's be honest, there's some dishonesty with the way it's represented in some of those marketings. But yeah, I think that's a huge part of it is they can still be pretty cool robots, but they're a little more niche than they lead you to believe in when they're and where they're effective. Right. Well, and then there's also like, what, what is the, what is the goal of the people who are making any of these robotics? Because realistically, yeah, the, the, the, the goal is money. But like, I think that as we get into, like, when we get to like the more higher, the higher end, like assistance robots that are designed to be like a person in your house doing things for you, like, what is the goal for the person buying that? Like I have in my mind, the perfect robot is Rosie. Absolutely. We've talked about Rosie before. Yeah. She's the perfect robot for me. I want a maid. That's what I want. I want a maid. I want a maid that's a robot. And that's what I want. She goes back into her like charging station area when she's done with her job. In some ways she cares about the family, but that's cartoons. I don't need that in real life. I don't want my robotics to pretend or my AI to pretend to care about me. That bothers me so much. You were talking about the Alexa thing earlier, Andy, about like, you know, giving way too much information and like, it's familiarizing itself with your patterns and all that stuff. But like, I don't, it's not a person. I would like to remember it's not a person. So, so the, so if I have a robot maid servant in the house, I do want it to have some kind of programmed personality because the alternative is just a very cut dry. I mean, it's the difference between a little pedestal that talks to you. I want that to shut up and just answer me. But if there's this thing that's in my house and it's walking and because of the way robotics are, it's going to be humanoid in some kind of fashion, which I also think is a huge mistake with robotic companies. Like quit trying to chase the humanoid aspect. Like give me anything, give me something that's functional first, and then we can dress it up and put makeup on it to make it look human, whatever. It doesn't matter. But if it's walking through my house doing stuff, I don't want it to be, you know, just like completely silent. I don't know. That to me is creepier than it trying to like, you know. Is the problem that we're trying to get the robots to do human tasks. And so the only way we can think of them doing those tasks is as a human. So they make them humanoid. Well, I mean, you, we, yes, we build robots to do human tasks because, you know, that's the only reason to build them. But I don't, I think, me personally, I, when I watch all these Atlas tests and I watch all these Boston Dynamic things, all these Boston dynamic things the biggest problem it really seems like to me is like oh bipedal humanoid robots like I wouldn't care if my robot was just a monolith something like TARS from interstellar as long as it could perform its function because you're still you can still imbue it with or a command and talk function but yeah I think the problem is the the problem I see is they're not focusing on function first they're looking at form because they're looking at it from a marketing standpoint like well nobody wants this blob or square or box in your house they want something that looks oh look they look like a fun little guy and it's like no I wanted to clean my floors and my toilets and empty my dishwasher I don't care what you look like just do the job so it's like a far-reaching goal making the humanoid esque robot the the Android you know so to speak and it's because if it's if it mirrors our form then it has increased versatility instantly because it can it can do anything we can do so to speak right so if it is a niche functional robot folding clothes vacuuming it can't do other things and so I think that it's the the far-reaching goal of if I can if I can make a a human-like robot in physical nature then once I get it smart enough I can then just kind of you know update it and it can now do more things so like the the potential for versatility starts to make sense with well if it's supposed to help me do what I'm doing make it physically like me so that when it's smart enough it just can but I also appreciated a bit of what you'd said about it doesn't have to look that way there's a a kid's movie Ron's Gone Wrong I was just thinking of that yeah I had to look it up because I forgot the name so while you well when he said that I immediately was like oh what's that movie and thank goodness the search engine smart enough to find it and make it the first result oh yeah it's a it's a cute little like oblong oval esque robot that float slash rolls and all it has is emoji style faces that it displays and little I suppose like blade arms and it's just a friend though it doesn't really have function past that it's a personality slash friend and so again it's just I suppose there there's two questions or arguments here which is what kind of robot do I want a very niche specific thing does one function I don't expect it to ever do more or they keep trying to develop these humanoid robots that will eventually be programmable so that that thumb that finger you know the arm can can do more because it can do what I can do at that point well I have two things to say about that first who decided that the way we do anything is the optimal way to do things maybe we're not being creative enough with the form like maybe there's a better form that could do more things like if we had four arms or something like I mean there's like I don't feel like we're we're being creative about the form I feel like that's the arrogance of human humanity is to see that we are the perfect form and the perfect way to do things and the only way we know how to do things is through human form so I think that I agree with Andy like we're getting hung up on the form but also what I was gonna say is I feel like the reason why so many robotics are so niche like they have a niche responsibility like folding laundry or mowing the lawn or whatever is a because it's much more expensive to build a more versatile robot and b because where we're going back to what Andy was saying like if we're trying to focus on function we need to like perfect the ability to do that function and we're not there yet on any of the robotics from what I've seen like not even close and we all know I don't believe in perfection but like we're not even close to being at like good enough on on any of it I mean we we were talking about the vacuums and the vacuums are some of the oldest robotics consumer robotics on the market other than like toys right like toys are are probably much older because we've had robot toys for quite a long time but like they're for function wise the vacuums are some of the oldest consumer robotics that are on the market that like everyone has and they still have so many problems now is this a private marketplace public marketplace versus you know privately funded kind of a scenario of like well they're just looking out to make money so they don't need to make them better because people buy them anyway probably an element of that in there like maybe they're not going to get better because people still buy them I want to just add some okay capital something exciting and fun it's part partially available and applicable to today and again this could be fun for movies and mainframe topic but fifth element they have these med bays you lay in the bed it scans you it heals you repairs you whatever we have robotic assisted surgery stuff that's today in fact I've been under the knife under the under the knife of robotic assisted surgery and like that's that's a cool concept and like that's a really neat area to think about applying technology and continue growing like med bays or even in Star Trek when he just you know waves or scans over when bones is scanning over somebody and it tells them you know different ailments or deficiencies and recommends different treatments and stuff like that those are really cool ways to think about applying robotics and you know it's it's it's a catch I don't know if it's a catch-22 but I'm like do I trust the steadiness of a robot's arm performing surgery or is it eventually going to become too present and decide I'm gonna do this this way instead of the way that the surgeon is is directing me to do it but still cool fascinating thing and I would love to see more growth in that area with robots and technology well I feel like there's a whole argument to get into about whether humans are steadier than robots in surgery purposes because I really feel like maybe in most cases the robots are going to be steadier than human hands yeah I do also think that it's really because they can be so because technology can be so precise yeah that that is I agree with you like that's a that's a place where I can see more robotics technology taking off more other types of technology also taking off of like getting better like them doing scans to like identify cancer cells and like all this other stuff that they're doing is great we should be technologically advancing our our medical practices I'm going big here at six now I want I want that healing robot yeah in my house you know which I also love that design I love the idea of a soft marshmallow a michelin man nurse robot yeah you were talking about consumer technology and then that crossed my mind and I'm like man that would be something that if they came out with you know some kind of consumer version of a at-home nurse would be incredible especially absolutely yeah I think there is a terrible amount of misinformation that self-diagnosis and self-medicating that a robot nurse could help a lot with I'm going through it right now I have my father is elderly and I would it lives by himself in another town and I would feel so much better if there was some kind of even if it couldn't do like his dishes and laundry but if it was literally just a companion and you know I could kind of spy or it could give me a report you know you know a worst-case scenario of like hey your father fell should I call 9-1-1 or you know hey just so you know he's really on this weird rabbit hole I'm like ooh I better call him you know or something but I would feel so much better if there was like you know if I had a man on the inside or something like that and I know knowing my father's personality I know he would kind of attach himself to it you know and have conversations even if he hated the thing you know but I feel like it would help him keep sharp instead of being isolated and alone yeah yeah yeah hate to bring it bleak but there's all these use cases for that kind of stuff and yeah and and all this to say that you know uh you know I'm throwing stuff out I'm very upset that the future isn't here but all but at the same time I I want it to be for some technologies I have been an early adopter for others I just can't afford it and you know I'm really waiting for a new version to come out I really want this future to be here um so I'm not against it it's just it's not as satisfying yet it's exactly it's not quite there well I don't know if I've talked about it on here before I definitely talked about it on movies mainframes but one of my biggest irrational fears is around AI and robotics um which is that they'll take over in uh you know really iRobot style situation it's one of my biggest rational fears so like I don't know if I'll ever get to a point where I even want a robot assistant in my house especially when that looks humanoid and I think a lot of that comes down to what I was just talking about to bring it right back down again which is capitalism being a problem and like we already have such an information privacy issue like for me I don't want like it's like having cameras inside my house instead of just on the outside like in no way do I want that at all ever like even though I would be putting the cameras up and I'd be the one accessing the cameras I'm like no see I just can't my brain is not it's not okay yeah and just like a webcam you couldn't do the thing because it's a robot it could just go I still see you know still see yeah I mean and not to say we don't already have that I mean we carry around a phone in our pocket that has full access to us all the time unless it's off and even then maybe but I'm not I'm not unconvinced to me uh I'm paranoid but like I think that it's hard for me to think about uh like something that is humanoid for me I would prefer much I very much preferred for it to not be humanoid all of my favorite robot designs like from star wars or any other like sci-fi or whatever are not humanoid design I want a little bb-8 rolling around or something like I don't want I don't want something pretending to be a human I don't need that I'm good I need this messy whistle no you brought up they they literally made your worst nightmare film um Mandela effect it's called subservience I swear that wasn't the name in my head uh with Megan Fox being the nanny nanny android and getting all creepy and oh yeah androids are so creepy to me I don't need that yeah yeah no but to your to your point like with humans thinking we have the the perfect form and everything like yeah I definitely don't think that direction is going to change anytime soon that's going to it's going to form and we're talking about how we want not humanoid forms what do we think about the robot dogs I wanted you to bring that up because that one to me it's just so silly a dog has such a specific purpose and it's to be a dog why would I want a robot version of that like get a dog like rescue one hold on though wait I shared with you a story about a whiskey sniffing robot which its whole design is for it to detect uh ethanol uh leakage from barrels in a distillery in Scotland which hold on this was a great story but I was so excited about it its whole job is to sit in there you wouldn't want an actual dog to spend all of its time in one room like you can do that to an actual dog they're basically our kids like you wouldn't do that to an actual dog but to a robot dog and the only the only problem they have with it is that because it's a dog it's short too short so it can't like do the higher level barrels it only detects at like you know six feet and below or whatever that was like that was the flaw in their plan and I was just like this is incredible though yes yeah but that's that's again going back to a niche robot of a sniffer like it's not a dog it's just a sniffer in in in uh organic cases the best sniffers happen to be dogs but if we're going robotics the sniffer could be a thumb like it doesn't matter I make it how you want and it's a sniffer um well here's a question for you Sean though what about people who are allergic to dogs but really love dogs get a cat that's really not the same you cannot say that well I don't know they make hypoallergenic dogs you can make I mean they do they breed them he's not wrong no again it just I suppose I'm doing AI trainings and stuff right now and it all comes back to what's the purpose why right and if if it's if it's because you want to comfort and companionship that a dog would offer there's got to be other alternatives than a robot version of something that you can't have right like why would you get the robot version of something you can't have instead of getting something else that fits the purpose so and I as as a kid I did love the idea of those really terrible when I was a kid robot dogs that would um try and interact with you and like that's not really a robot that's that's basically your parents didn't want to get you a dog oh no I your dog oh no I grew up with dogs in fact I'm sad I don't have one here in in Ireland at the moment but um no it was it was uh you know as a kid I loved it I loved the concept of oh cool on my own robot dog but you know after you know a little bit it all wears off and that's the cool thing about organic dogs is they grow they learn um they adapt to your house uh lifestyle you know not to say that a robot dog couldn't do that but it would be less cool knowing that someone programmed it to try and pick up on my cues and stuff like that rather than watching a creature grow and learn like you said Chris you said it best they're like your kids and like again you have to take care of a real organic dog if you don't it will suffer and die we're a robot yeah sure there's some maintenance but it's not the same you're not bonded to it yeah you don't have that same literal life and death attachment to it that you would get pretty attached yeah I mean that's true but they're robots in general or they're really trying to it's actually a real problem with AI right now is that um because they have this going back to me not liking that they have humanoid personalities um is is that people get to attach to them because they think of them as feeling real human real creatures which they're not um but I was what I was going to say is there's another thing about the robot dogs which is that they um uh they were on security patrol for the um world cup in Mexico and uh which I didn't watch because I'm not a sports person we all know this um but I found the article on it and I thought that was that was an interesting use case of using using them as uh like security dogs instead of a real dog being in danger I guess or whatever and also you know what are the I I didn't do a comparison but I think it would be interesting to do a comparison to like a real trained security dog to see like you know is it as good at picking up on different smells or human behaviors or those kinds of things because that's what they do I've been they train them at our airport all the time so I frequently see security dogs at the airport because they're training them there and um it'll be really interesting to like to see if someone's done a study on like a comparison between it like is it more accurate going back to what we were talking about with like surgery and stuff like is it more precise is it more accurate like could it be used to reduce any unconscious biases or those kinds of things like that we breed into animals have them just as much as humans do and they get them from the same places right like just like no kid is is born with biases also no dogs are they don't care but they're trained into them based on people's behaviors and other animals and the environment that they're in and all that kind of stuff I think the same thing is true for like dogs as it is for people and that like those behaviors kind of get trained into you at a certain point so if you have a robot is there more of a possibility for not having those like biases I think it just goes back to form and purpose I think it is neat because it keeps kind of a familiar form to have a robot dog running security but I could also see drones doing it just a small tiny drone it's probably got the same eyeballs that the dog has because it's just no there's no mistaking it for a real dog if you look at look at a picture of it it does not in any way look like it's trying to look like a real it's like it's like a dog as much as a stick figure as a human it just sort of resembles a dog and they keep calling it a dog well yeah and you know again it's just why why they chose that form is curious to me because like it's not that it actually looks like a dog it's the closest to a natural creature it might look like which is fine but like form form in relation to function why that and it's again maybe it's just because we were used to them being our security buddies so we were like just make a robot version of that same security buddy instead of finding out like you were saying versus humans what's a better optimal version of security like if I could take a dog and give it all these different powers to make it even more perfect for security what would that thing look like now build that robot you know so it's just interesting again like why dogs yeah I mean I watch all the videos of Boston Dynamics with their dogs in the quadruped it's really great for all terrain like you know I mean just like simple patrol like if you're they're using these things yeah for patrols like observe and report alarm systems things like that I think you don't you know if you have another design of bipedal or even like tank tracks or whatever like a curb is a problem yeah at the same time like with these dogs like go further like give me crabs give me spiders give me whatever like just make it truly functional and I keep going back and forth on this with these dogs where it's the you know I nobody obviously nobody wants to live in the surveillance state unless you have a problem and then you want someone there but I do like the idea of these things on patrols like but just completely for observe and report they cannot make a decision they can't you know they're essentially just walking alarm systems for deterrence they you know no weapons no decision making no whatever they're just literally like hey I hear a car alarm going off cool I'm gonna you know make a call you know whatever I don't know but it's just yeah I keep going back and forth on these things but these dogs and these patrols I mean more things can be around at once and especially in high traffic event areas you know it's doesn't seem like a bad idea a mix of dogs and drones yeah yeah I think I'm like going to the the form question again like why do we keep choosing things like humans and and dogs and maybe it's a question it's less a question about like the functionality and thinking it's the perfect form and maybe it's more a question of acceptance like because they're trying to push this out to consumer markets is it easier to accept a dog version versus a crab or a spider like I don't spiders have terrible connotations with most people there are a lot of people with arachnophobia so I think that like a dog I mean there are people who are afraid of dogs of course but like it's not as prevalent and there's not as many negative connotations around dogs because as I said earlier we see them as like you know man's best friend so like um is it is that like when they were going into the design process do you think that that was part of it of like we want people to accept them and the easiest way to do that is a to make humans that look like people and then b to make dogs second second choice dogs yeah I honestly don't know how you know if you take a company like Boston Dynamics I don't know like if how prevalent that is for in their mindset for like investors or you know grants or things like that where it's like well we need to make it cute so they see it because I mean we see their dogs and they function very very well they're creepy but like yeah like a crab or spider version like would that be any better you know and have more versatility because it can still walk on four but has other manipulators up top that doesn't need to walk with so I I don't know that is a good question about it from a marketing perspective because I work in marketing and I think that you're if you were to go with the form of like a crab or a spider or something that is functionally better you would be alienating a huge portion of the market which no one ever wants to do because like as we said earlier their goal is probably to make money if the goal is to make money then you want to appeal to the widest market share in order to do that you need a form whether or not it's the most functionally appropriate you need a form that's more acceptable to more people totally fair I'm thinking now about the dinosaur I'm like dinosaur security guards like let's do it like give me a stegosaurus to security so you're going back into your niche purposes and your niche functions right like so I don't know that there is a way to like have a completely versatile robot and I again don't want one but that's me and uh that's my choice yeah to not have one um I do like the idea of a of having something else to do chores that I don't want to do like folding the laundry or washing dishes or whatever like I do like the idea and of course we all like that we want I don't want to be doing chores but at the same time is it that bad as you mentioned earlier you could take 10 minutes to vacuum it yourself or you could have this robot that has problems all the time do it for you what you want and honestly what I want too is I want the future home from Looney Tunes where the two dogs the two dogs who go into the future home where the house is built around automation instead of introducing robotics and automation into your old house you have a brand new build so everything is built around the automation so with cooking and cleaning it's conveyor belt systems and automatic washes and automatic storage and there's a disney channel original movie called smart house which shows why you don't want that yeah that's was that early 2000s or late 90s yeah no yeah somewhere there yeah yeah yeah but it goes into why you wouldn't want that is because then the house uh becomes controlling and uh has control over everything so locks them in the house all kinds of things you know it's it's funny because like I I do want these technologies until I don't and and what I'm what I mean by that is I feel like I don't want to go mow the lawn right now I just don't feel like it until I start mowing the lawn and then I'm like oh finding therapy in this right popping my earbuds listen to a book or or some music um and when I was doing it a lot more when I lived uh in America a few years back and I was I owned my own property and I you know I became very familiar with my own land and so like it was such a cool experience for me to do it myself rather than relying on the technology because I became familiar with that tree stump over there and what it what what's growing around it and how I've had to tend things around it and so it's like uh again it's just it's one of those things where you balance it because Andy before our recording had mentioned something that's like perfect I get a little book reading in audiobook uh when I'm folding my clothes and he made the joke you know if there's a robot that folds my laundry what am gonna catch up on my shows like you know it's so like these mundane tasks yeah we want to get rid of them but to free ourselves up for what and it's all oftentimes just more entertainment which I find plenty of entertainment during the activity that I'm just not feeling like doing in the moment anyway anyway soapbox no I know it's good no it's the same thing like you talking about I hate the human body where it's just so dumb but you're absolutely right you'd like I don't want to do this I don't want to do this and then you move your body for five or ten minutes like oh wow I feel great you know and it's like dang it like why can't why can't you just feel good all the time and so uh but no you're absolutely right the minute you start to focus on something and you start doing the work you find the value in it you find those moments of like ah zen or peace or whatever and it it is really nice and yes we have talked about it before on uh another tech pod episode I think but the um if all of a sudden I have nothing to do what what am I doing with my just becoming more of a consumer of media laying around more eating more you know yeah exactly we'll all turn into wall-e in our hover chairs which that would be which we did actually talk about on that so we recorded yeah yeah um I do think that's where we're headed I think we're we're automating ourselves into unhappiness like there is um and not just robotics but yes also robotics right if we have something else doing all of the things and all we have left is just consuming social media and entertainment media and all of their all these things that are competing for our time like I don't ever feel better than whenever I'm taking a break from all online things never feel better I go camping I get out in nature I don't have access to anything no one has access to me best feeling in the world um genuinely it's like I need those breaks at least like once or twice a year I go somewhere where I literally I don't have cell service I don't want anybody to be able to talk to me other than whoever I'm there with which is usually my son and maybe some other members of my family but like I don't I I never feel better than when I get back from that and then I have to get back into the drudgery of being constantly and consistently online and consuming things and not to say that I want to ever stop consuming things right like I'm a big gamer we know this I play a lot of games and I watch tv I mentioned invincible earlier I watch tv I do things but like we are I think automating ourselves out of the self-discipline to know when is enough like when we need to put something down I mean, everybody, all these studies have been done. It's definitely a Jeff Goldblum. Uh, we, I can't remember his character's name. I think it was Isaac maybe. But, uh, in Jurassic Park, we had Ian there. I knew it was an eye. Um, yeah, we're not stopping to ask if we should, we're just trying to see if we can do these things basically. And like, I get it. It's fun. It's exciting to be like, Ooh, what if we could do this? Ooh, what if we could do that? Um, but yeah, should we do it? Maybe a lot of the times, no, but it's just in human nature. Can I get it done? Can I make her a robot that is completely like a human? Okay. I'm all for, I'm all for experimenting and trying things like, can I do this thing? Go and do it. It's one of my favorite things about working in tech is do, is that exact question at any point in time? I don't know. Is that a thing I can do? Let me go try. And then you go and you try and do it and it's satisfying. But that doesn't mean that that little project that I just did for my own satisfaction needs to be like a thing for everyone else to use or consume or whatever, like sometimes you just do a thing for the satisfaction and the creativity outlet that you need. And I think that we have lost the line of like where those things are like, Oh, well, this is a cool idea, but like, it maybe needs to be a cool idea and nothing else. And then instead we're just making them real things. And, uh, Here's a good one that I think robotics would definitely be useful for until we find teleportation or we travel in tubes is the driving, uh, you know, Futurama tubes. That's seems gross in practice, but I'm like, what's the next form of transportation going to look like? But yeah, driving's a great one because like, that's not a normal function for people, like it's, it's relatively new to the human species driving around, you know, going place to place. There's no reason I should do it. It's not like there's a lesson to my kids saying, uh, if you're not driving yourself, you're not learning and growing. No, that's not the case. So it's like, if that's a task we can automate, it could make things safer, more efficient and more effective because people aren't, you know, making mistakes, going too slow or too fast, causing issues. And so I think that's a great area for us to continue to advance robotics because it's a made up man-made problem anyway, so like, why not, you know? It is. No, I agree. Have you been in, um, a robot taxi? I've been in a Tesla, not a robot taxi, but I, and it was, it was in the early days of when Tesla had done the assisted driving stuff and it was honestly freaky. Like they, they've already done pretty good with almost all new cars nowadays have the cruise control where it will slow down your pace because it sees the car in front of you. They vibrate the wheel if you're drifting out of your lane. Um, and those features were good in the Tesla, but when I went to change lanes, you know, put my signal on and started to change lanes and it jerked the steering wheel back into the lane I was in, freaked me out. So I'm like, you talk about like some technologies, some robotics are disappointing, you're like, screw this. I'm going to throw it out. There's, you know, the, the threat of life and death with driving stuff where it's like, no, it really actually has to be perfect before we unleash it. So, but again, I think it's a great area for robotics to continue. What about you, Andy? Have you been in a robot taxi? No, haven't. And I refuse to, uh, two big reasons is one, that's somebody's job. And, uh, the, I don't want to take away anybody's job because all this robotics stuff for me comes with a big asterisk and right now the asterisk for me is not being addressed in any kind of way in our society with like universal healthcare, universal basic income, safety net programs, training programs for displacement and everything like that. So if I can avoid taking somebody's job by taking a robot taxi, I'm not going to do it at this point in time. And two, uh, those things are so dumb that there is, I, I'm surprised it actually hasn't happened yet, but like you can stop a Waymo by just like putting a cone in the street. Right. Yeah. And I, having a human driver and their consciousness and their thought process of, Oh, we're in danger. I'm going to hop the curb or I'm going to floor it. It, there's going to come a time where Waymos are prevalent around in a city where it's like, cool, all you have to do is stand in the middle of the street and you can just rob anybody in that car or worse, and I don't want to be put in that situation of like, no, go, go faster or go around them. Sorry, does not compute. So, uh, I refuse to put myself in that situation. So... All right. I'm the only person that's been in one. So I will talk about my experience. I also was avoiding them for various reasons. Uh, most of which was that they're very easily tricked and so I didn't feel comfortable being in one. But I'll tell you, last time I was in San Francisco, which is a place that they are pretty prevalent. Um, the last time I was in San Francisco, I did ride, I rode in Ubers and I rode in Waymos and there are, I would say pros and cons to the Waymos. Um, there are quite a lot of drivers, human drivers, that are rude or smell bad or their cars are dirty or you don't feel comfortable with them as a woman. Um, or, uh, various other things. It's not comfortable in there. Um, there's various reasons why that's sometimes a risk, especially for women to take those things. I do like, Uber has the latest initiative, which is that you can select women, women drivers only, which is a nice thing. Um, but, um, in the Waymo, which I only went in because someone ordered the Waymo and then like four of us got in it. So it's like, I was just part of a group that was going somewhere. Um, and I was like, I've never been in one of these before. Everything is controlled by the person that orders the Waymo. The climate is controlled. The music is, uh, chosen the every it's super clean in there. It is, uh, if you have a problem, you literally just call Waymo from inside the car, if there's some kind of a problem, but at the same time, and it was like, fine, like we weren't going for it for hours, like a few blocks or whatever, but like, um, what I will say is also in that same trip, I did see a Waymo that was blocking traffic for like 25 minutes because it was hung up on the side of the road or whatever. Like it was in San Francisco, which is quite busy. It was near the Moscone center. Cause I was there for a conference and, uh, with, there were loads, you know, tens of thousands of people around because I was there for a conference and they're like crossing the street wherever and everything. And the Waymo was just like blocking two lanes of traffic for like 20 or 30 minutes because it couldn't get out of there. Like every person that walks near it was confusing it. There were cars parked on the side of the road that were confusing it. Like you could just see that it was, um, not making a choice. Right. So there's pros and cons, I think, to the whole process. I think it's an interesting concept to try and automate as long as there's some kind of a fail safe, the thing with the way Moses is that nobody's sitting in the driver's seat. So like, if you were able to take control at a moment's notice, like something happened and you could push a button and then take human control of the car, I'd be a little bit more, uh, Pro the Waymo cars versus sitting in the back with no driver in the front. So weird, by the way, no driver in the front, no one was sitting in the front passenger seat or anything. And like, what if something happens? Like you can't even like get to the controls. Like we would just be in a wreck. But at the same time, like there are so many bad drivers and people who are in a rush to get wherever they're going and not paying enough attention and accidents happen literally all the time. I don't know, man, maybe it's a place we can continue to advance. I like Sean's idea of like the, the technology in the vehicles being more advanced, as long as there is some kind of way for me to maintain control. I have not been in a car that jerked the wheel from me, but every experience I've heard of it, I'm like, that sounds terrifying. Yeah. You're telling me it like pulled the wheel. So you're moving to a different spot than you were trying to go. Like, even if I was going to get in an accident, I'm not sure I would want that. That sounds terrifying on another level. Are you going to open now as a human? Are you going to overcompensate the other direction in a minute? Exactly. I don't know. No, I, my car that I bought last year has those kinds of safety features with like lane adjustments and you know, all these kinds of things. And whenever I first started driving it, everything was turned on and slowly, but surely over the, uh, over the first couple of months, everything is turned off. The, I only keep two safety, like the, the dinging and whistle kind of safety features on because they are convenient. But the first time I was on, uh, the highway and it started trying to make these micro adjustments for me to stay in the lane and I was like, one, no, stop that. And two, it was a mistake because it was, uh, reading, it couldn't read the lines because of all the construction that is everywhere, all at once, you know? And so turn that off because it, yeah, it was just like, you know, so. Yeah. You're fine with it. Exactly. I do think that that's a major problem that those things have is, uh, construction and like the repainting of lines or the lack of paints on lines. That's a problem with humans. Yeah. It's just terrible. I have lane assist on my car, but I like it. I leave it on because it doesn't, uh, take control of the wheel at all. It only vibrates. So that for me is the right level. It's enough to tell me that either it thinks I'm doing something wrong or I am usually drifting and which it happens on, I go, I don't go a lot of places. I'll tell you, I don't drive very far. My son's dad's house is like seven miles away and that's mostly where I go. This seven mile drive from my house to his house is most of my driving time normally. And there, they, uh, built a neighborhood in between us that wasn't there before and expanded the road and it still has not learned. This has been like six, eight months now, still hasn't learned where the new lines are. So literally every single day that I drive this same seven mile route, it hasn't learned or adjusted for the fact that the road has changed. It's not even under construction anymore. It's there. That's where it is now. Won't do it. Yeah. Uh, speaking of construction, like Sean, when you were talking about, I agree. I would also love robotics and automation. You know, if everybody adapts it, then there is no more traffic jams. There is no, you know, because it's, it's, everybody's got the bird's eye and can see everything. But speaking of construction, that is also something that I would love to see if we ever do really perfect robotics, you know, cause there's construction everywhere that we need so much work on our infrastructure, how awesome would it be if these things were programmed and you just bring them in, like, you print, you know, droids from the prequels and they just, Hey, build me a bridge. Fix this, pave this road and they work day and night, you know, and just get it done. That would be. There's definitely some that already happens like the 3d print houses with. Yeah. And I think that is such a cool concept because it's so clean. It's so precise. Right. And it, a lot, a lot of construction, just, it takes time. You have to, you know, um, there's human health risks in, in, in some of the stuff and like, just, it's a no brainer that that's, that's a cool, easy concept to implement robotics is let's just wait. We made a 3d printer for my house. Now let me make a 3d printer for my house. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. That rents the house. And yeah, I think you can apply those kinds of things for other construction, but then comes back into the question of, is it a niche technology, uh, that only does bridge building, or is it kind of like you were just describing, which is I make some, a bunch of humanoid little robots that can build like I build and just say, Hey, go to work for the next three days, no sleep. Uh, which is a cool concept, but then it's how do they, you know, do they build the humanoid robots to do it? Or are we making specific construction machines? I think if we had a combination of humanoid and spider robots, it could take care of it. Yeah. Bring the spiders back. Yeah. Bring the spiders back. They can have some, uh, like Spider-Man have some, uh, webs that have the tensile strength to hold up a whole bridge. Uh, it could be, it could be big. Stop a train with your webs there. That's it. I think the, I think that that's a good shout though, is like, we should be looking at robotics and automation and these things for replacing dangerous to human jobs, like we, I feel like we have less of those than we used to. Like, I mean, in the early, in the 1800s and the 1900s, there were certainly more dangerous jobs. We found safer ways to do things over the years and that kind of stuff. But I do think that there are enough jobs and responsibilities and things like that, that are dangerous. That those are the things that we should be looking at. And I do think Sean, that for the time being niche robots is where we have to stay until they can perfect the technology until they can get to a place where the technology is good enough for that one job, that then they can start looking at implementing it into something else. It's like how we were talking about, not that long ago, we did an episode on agentic AI and the thing that I like about agentic AI is that each agent, as in with these robots, would be built to do a specific job. job. It is so good at that one specific job or choose whatever its whole solution is and I think It is so good at that one specific job or choose whatever its whole solution is. that with robotics is where we have to also be in that space because if you try to go too broad too general you don't have enough specific knowledge to make sure it is the best possible thing that it could be at the time of whatever knowledge you gave it. So that's where I kind I think that we could continue to obviously we should continue to innovate and like make them better. I don't believe in perfection I don't think it exists so anything we learn should be then implemented into these things so they're going to continually be iterated on and I don't think there's anything wrong with that that's technology. Yeah never give up always keep improving. Never surrender. Yeah never surrender that was on my mind too. But do you guys have any specific task that you would want a robot to do for you? I would like a robot to just carry me everywhere piggybacks just so you know. Piggyback. No if I would like a robot more than anything because I'm pretty awful at like repairs anything that you know requires power tools things like that like I'm really good at cooking cleaning organization stuff like that but it's like hey you need to hang this up or hey there's like you know a little split in the sheet rock. I don't know. So I would love to have a robot that is for like just kind of handyman robot. Yeah a handyman robot home maintenance things like that like oh why is the sink not draining like hey robot figure that out and fix it hey fix that hole in the wall because one of my kids threw something and you know that that's what I would love it for is just the kind of like honeydew list home maintenance stuff. I like that. Sean? Yeah personal trainer like I'm good handyman I did general construction for a long time I like mowing the yard I do I do good with dishes cooking folding laundry where I where I suffer is like I need someone to motivate me to exercise hold my feet while I do my sit-ups right literally take the covers off of me and say get out of bed you're being lazy. No that's creepy. You can do it Sean I believe in you. When I was growing up my dad was always that guy you know he was in the military he always went for runs he'd say hey do you want to go for a run and like did I feel like it no but when someone asked I'm like yeah kind of like mowing the lawn it's like once I start I'm like oh glad I did that and like now that I'm a grown-up and supposed to take care of myself I don't have my dad just constantly saying hey you want to go for a run hey get up let's go come on we were going to go for a run so like when he comes and visits we do those things and I'm like ow I haven't done this in way too long but like that's that's where there's been a void in my life is I don't have my my dad being my uh you know unofficial personal trainer so I'm like can I get a personal trainer robot like come motivate me to not be so lazy all the time. See that's the next Pixar movie. Yeah that's a good Pixar movie. Robot to replace the hole where your dad was. That reminds me I need to watch Wild Robot um so to take that to another level I would like a robot that works me out for me does the I just you know it's I just drop into it it does my workout for me I just sit there and listen to music or whatever. So you want like an exoskeleton style you just like imprint it in and it's just what you said Andy earlier maybe think of a mech like what you really want is a mech. Yeah you want the Ripley mech get away from her yeah exactly. Yeah 100% I think it would be I'd have to it'd have to prove a lot to me to like for me to trust it to get there but I hate working out I'm absolutely and like you said earlier I do it's one of those things where if you just go do something you just move your body around stupid human bodies you feel better like it is true and yet I am never motivated to work out absolutely ever it's a real problem I gotta do something about it but I think that's what I would really want is something that would work my body out for me I just kind of lay there. If I'm working out who's gonna eat all this food so yeah you know it's a real problem in this house. They already have technology to do the muscle tensing for you and stuff I feel like we're not that far away from it that's all I'm saying. Little Caesars and just constantly you know what I'm saying. Awesome well this has been super fun if you enjoyed this and you want to share your thoughts on robotics let us know in the comments we'd love to hear your thoughts on robotics and continue the conversation. Thank you so much Andy for joining us this was so fun to do and silly and we will see you on Movies in Mayframe. Absolutely thanks for having me. And thank you listeners for watching and we'll see you next time on SolarWinds TechPod.
