News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Transformer Transformer: A Unified Model for Motion-Condi... by esjeon on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @02:49AM (#49094167)
I think this kind of automated design process can un-hype humanoids. The point of humanoid robots is one-size-fits-all -- a generalist can readily fit into various scenarios. However, if custom designs are cheap and optimized, there's no reason to stick to inefficient generalist designs.
Re:Transformer Transformer: A Unified Model for Motion-Condi... by spwa4 on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @04:46AM (#49094880)
Let's be honest: people want humanoids because half the world was used to "domestic servants" (ie. slaves) (and even is, middle east, Pakistan, India, large parts of Africa) and they can't have that because colonialism "took that from them".

What people keep forgetting is that colonialism, and with it the large-scale disappearance of slavery, and so the disappearance of domestic servants/slaves, lasted easily into the 1990s. You don't have to be very old to remember having that (or you cheat, ie. rich middle eastern countries, and still have that in 2026, just called slightly different)

Re:Transformer Transformer: A Unified Model for Motion-Condi... by ben_w on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @06:27AM (#49095583)
"Domestic servant" is much broader than slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_worker#Varieties_of_d...

Everything from baby monitors to roombas (and the lawn equivalents) to frozen pizzas to self-driving cars to mobility scooters (replacing palanquins) to dishwashers and washing machines and tumble driers, have been chipping away at the list of tasks for which domestic servants used to be hired.

People want humanoids for the same reason they want flying cars: sci-fi made them look cooler than they would be in real life.

("I want a flying car!" / "We have a flying car at home" / The flying car at home: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter; vs "I want Brent Spiner's Data" -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvbiU_usQfE)

Re:Transformer Transformer: A Unified Model for Motion-Condi... by spwa4 on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @07:25AM (#49096022)
Looking at that last video, I have to say: what happened to humans in the matrix universe is entirely justified.
Re:Transformer Transformer: A Unified Model for Motion-Condi... by ben_w on Wednesday July 29, 2026 @08:15AM (#49096464)
"The Second Renaissance" in The Animatrix justifies it rather better.

However, honestly, what happened to humans in The Matrix universe is a kindness: humanity may not know the real world, but the people still get to live out their lives as if the apocalypse (of our own doing) had never happened. The machines could've given humanity hell, not the peak of their civilisation.