Optimus Robot

~ Clarissa

Amazing technology, that’s for sure. I didn’t understand Elon’s vision for the retail uses of the Optimus robot, however. The domestic tasks the video showed Optimus performing are kind of trite.

Optimus as a retail product is aimed at the high-earning, high-achieving people in creative jobs who are over-scheduled and massively into productivity. For such people, simple, mechanical tasks are a necessary counterbalance to intellectually overcharged lives. Taking in the groceries or laying the table are activities of mental hygiene.

The people who do need help unloading the car trunk or pouring a drink are precisely those whose jobs Optimus will destroy. They’ll have all the time in the world to put away groceries and no money or need for a robot.

Great technology, though. Very impressive.

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Published by Clarissa

16 thoughts on “Optimus Robot”

  1. These robots are remotely controlled. There’s nothing impressive about them from a technical point of view.

    They are a great shell to fool the less informed though.

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  2. “I didn’t understand Elon’s vision”

    Most of his vision is mirrors and smoke…. to overuse a cliche, he’s this century’s P.T. Barnum…
    Half of his great public premieres are crap, like when he broke the unbreakable window on his truck (which he designed without taking everyday weather into consideration….).
    He presented a robot that was a human dancing…
    These are remote controlled…
    Some stupid ‘hyperoop’ that was laughably poorly designed (and IIRC not meant to be built it was just to prevent public transport from being built cause he hates public transport)
    He’s great at self-promotion and maybe actually really smart and technologically gifted but….
    He’s a showman first and foremost.
    Though I do agree he’d love to see most jobs eliminated… guy does not like the fact that most people exist.

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  3. For such people, simple, mechanical tasks are a necessary counterbalance to intellectually overcharged lives. Taking in the groceries or laying the table are activities of mental hygiene.

    Interesting. Can you please elaborate? Thanks!

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    1. Simple household tasks are depressing drudgery for people whose brains aren’t very occupied. But for people with intense intellectual lives who operate at a high level of intellectual output, such tasks are a way to get grounded for a bit before resuming flight. The physicality, the tactile nature of the experience, and the undemanding simplicity feel almost as a caress to the parts of the brain that are usually under-utilized in such people’s lives.

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        1. I created a google doc file called Clarissa-isms and added the comment to it. You throw around so much wisdom even in your random comments. Wish I’d done this earlier.

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    1. This is making me nostalgic. I used to love helping my mom with shelling beans. Also sifting through lentils to remove tiny rocks/debris.

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      1. We’re getting to the end of the growing season, and I’m letting the pods brown and dry on the vines, to save the beans for next year’s planting.

        I already have waaaay more than I could possibly need, short of plowing up the whole yard and having a green bean farm. But it’s so fun… whole bowl of beans on the table, waiting for me to find a container for them, and I’ll probably harvest more anyway.

        Am also harvesting roselles, peeling off the calyxes, and drying them in my hot car. That too, is deeply satisfying.

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    2. God, I hate picking up. I feel like my head is permanently bent to the ground in search of things to pick up.

      My mother never had that problem with us because we’d be too terrified to leave as much as an eyelash on any surface. But that’s not a solution.

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