To be fair, making a robot to fix a specific kind of dishwasher whose internal layout is known and where fixes involve replacing parts already meant to be replaceable is probably a lot easier than one that can fix any dishwasher. Same with sorting trash.

The big point here is that this boosting and potentially servicing mission isn't being pitched by NASA. It's a SpaceX proposal connected to their entirely private program to develop EVA capability for Dragon and to eventually test Starship's ability to support crews in space. Thus for NASA it would likely be cheaper than if they were asking for it.

So the reason we likely won't see a robotic servicing of Hubble (from this) is that it doesn't have as much relevance to SpaceX's goals with Polaris Dawn as just docking, orbit raising and maybe crewed servicing does.

Agreed, technologically you can make a robot that can fix a dishwasher that would be specially designed to be repairable.

But if you can't get dishwasher manufacturers to produce repairable dishwashers, then it's all for naught - we have failed as am industry.

Amd if you can get manufacturers to produce repairable dishwashers, then probably those dishwashers can be repaired by random joe opening a repairshop.

And its not clear why we need a robot.

Thats why our industry is a joke, we were promised robots will deliver our food, but instead robots micromanage indentured servants.

My city removed all plastic recycling bins several years ago in favor of using trash sorting robots after collecting mixed waste.

The robots could pick sort 70% effectively while the population of humans after years of training was stuck at 50%. I imagine the efficiency of the robots may even have increased a bit since then.

Interesting! Which city, and is there a writeup with more details?

You missed crucisl detail- humans were sorting for free, owner of robots is paid.

Another crucial detail: producers of platic packaging engage is deliberate fraud to conflate recycleable and non recycleable plastic. Plastics that say 'commonly recycled' may be unrecycleable anywhere except a leading technology lab.

Another detail: massive fraud in recycling industry:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/18/uk-recyc...

Most european countries stil do separate recycling, and have much higher recycling rates than UK or US, which have mixed recycling.

I can't even get my dishwasher to clean my dishes. This is not the future I was promised.

The trick is let your dog lick them clean.

biological automation is always superior

>Where can you find another non-linear servo-mechanism weighing only 150 pounds and having great adaptability, that can be produced so cheaply by completely unskilled labor?

—Scott Crossfield, US test pilot <https://quoteinvestigator.com/tag/albert-scott-crossfield/>

Yeah, many people think it’s impossible until someone else does it.

The game of Go wasn’t close to being won by a computer until DeepMind came along.

https://www.theverge.com/2016/3/9/11185030/google-deepmind-a...