Hey everyone đ
Another week, another digest on tech you should care about.
This week I am doing things a bit differently, instead of covering the news cycle, I wanted to go over some interesting pieces that all tie into a theme.
I mean, they are still newsworthy, but as usual, the goal is to walk you through various takes I have on these items and then let you think about why you should love or hate em.
As always, if you found something noteworthy - feel free to leave a comment below or reply to the email you got - and we will make a habit of responding to your burning tech curiosities.
Story 1: We now have an Olympics - For Robots
Links to refer to:
Robots race, play football, crash and collapse at China's 'robot Olympics'
Humanoid robots race and tumble at Chinaâs first ârobot Olympicsâ
Man you gotta love China for ostentatious displays when it comes to tech. They just want the world to know that they are on another level.
I mean, holding an âOlympicsâ for humanoid robots - that wasnât on anyoneâs bingo card for 2025, but they did it? Well kinda.
Most of it was a humorous display of how these robots are still a far cry from being what one would consider âproficientâ. But does that even matter?
More than 200 teams were there - and that shows there is great interest in this âproblemâ.
Even we covered it a while back in this article:
See, here are 2 questions that always come to mind whenever someone talks about Robots, especially the oneâs that are meant to look like humans.
1 - Why human shaped? Why not dedicated for use case?
2 - How the heck are we supposed to power them?
While I donât have an answer to support the second question. There is a good reason for 1.
See, the technical fact is, robots arenât something new. We have been using robots for years now in manufacturing, operations, and grand scale projects. Robots that one may refer to as âsingle purposeâ bots. Basically big arms to drag and drop stuff from here to there with superhuman accuracy. Go watch any assembly line video and you will know what I mean.
We have also had Robots already with really good âmachine visionâ as the cool kids call it. Things that can âdetectâ stuff depending on their purpose.
And lastly, kinda in line with the assembly line stuff, we already have ultra precise robots that can do stuff down to scale the naked human eye canât see.
So why bother with clunky human shaped robots?
Ah you see, all the robots we have right now, are ultra âpurpose drivenâ and hence require an environment set up for them. Take them out of their highly calibrated surroundings, and they will just be a metal arm that waves hi.
The reason for push to human shaped robots is simple â infrastructure.
It is far easier to build something that works in an existing infrastructure rather than rebuilding everything to accommodate a robotic future.
And guess what is all the worldâs infra built around? Humans.
Hypothetically speaking - it is far more efficient for a robot to get into any car a human can drive and drive it than to turn all cars auto driveable.
It is far more efficient to have a robot conduct your daily boring tasks, than to have 20 dedicated robots needed to be micromanaged by you.
So on so forth.
The dream here is to have one thing to âdo it allâ rather than having many things that do one thing really well.
And that is why companies love to keep pushing the humanoid robot supremacy.
But is that a reality anytime soon? Oh heavens no.
We canât even get functionating robo vacuums that need to be helped every moment they get stuck on a sock. Not to mention the economics and the big P question (Power).
I donât feel like it is any time soon we will see a functionating humanoid robot that can do âeverythingâ a person can.
But what we will see a lot more off, as hinted by the Olympics event is use of more robots in a bit more diverse environments rather than single purpose.
They might still be hooked up to cables, and they will still be clunky and would require administration. But there are certain tasks, that could be better off left to robots than humans in todayâs time.
Hereâs a cool story on how robots can be used for good -
Japanese robot servers allow staff with disabilities to work in Tokyo cafe
But, like any thing in tech, I am sure the big corpos will figure out a way to ruin it for most of us.
Story 2: But What If You Become a Robot?
Links to refer to:
Hey Saqib, how will I ever keep up with robots in my weak, measly human flesh?
Well, I got news for you - it seems Cyberpunk wasnât just a gameâŠlol.
But seriously, we have 2 really cool stories here, if you didnât bother clicking on the links, here is a short summary:
1 - Basically Homeless (a YouTuber) âbasicallyâ made a way to âenhanceâ his gaming performance using stuff that makes his fingers go brrrttt brtttt. He insists itâs not cheating, but the experiment sparked debate about âhardware dopingâ in esports and how far players will go for performance gains.
2 - We have a hand, that you can control with your mind - no really, go watch the video, itâs freakin dope. MKBHD reviewed Psyonicâs bionic hand, a prosthetic with advanced grip modes and tactile feedback. The demo showed how close prosthetics are getting to natural hand function, blending medical aid with high-tech design.
So on one side we have companies pushing for robots, and on other side we have tech that is enhancing human function.
And one day, they converge, and we are all cyborgs - the end.
But in all seriousness, some of the bionic tech stuff these days is really mind boggling. From Neuralink to prosthetic hardware it seems pretty soon we might have tech infused into us.
And all that for a good reason?
I mean besides the price point, the prosthetic tech stuff is just plain amazing. Restoring human function is a cause I believe everyone can stand behind.
But what about enhancement? Is that something people are interested in? Wear this and now you can see 10x faster, or lift 10x harder - is that what we really want down in the future?
I donât know.
But what I do know there are people that will do anything to get an advantage.
I have recently got into fixing my very bad health, no surprises there as someone who sits all day for their work, and the biggest shock I have seen is the amount of âdopingâ for âaestheticsâ.
I knew roids and stuff were common in competitive scene, but now rejoining the gym after what feels like more than a decade - I hear stories of roid use by the average person?
Even if youâre not into fitness, once you see the table below, you may understand then why:
Source: How Much Muscle Can You Build With & Without Steroids?
So even if you donât train, and you take roids - you gain muscle?
Now roid use has all kinds of nasty side effects and issues. But even people educated with that still are on them because they want to âlook betterâ.
So drawing further on that analogy, if âtechâ one day comes to a point where it enhances you in some way, people are likely to use it.
And thatâs the fear here.
Something that starts as âgoodâ for folks, restoring functionality, making recovery possible - can be stretched to be âbadâ for people pretty quickly.
Do you think this is a fair analogy? Or am I over connecting these big red dots. Lemme know.
I would love to hear from you if you would like topical/theme based issues like this from What the Tech series.
The goal here is to cover new stuff but in a way that is interesting to you - the reader.
One way to make this a better is by leaving feedback below.
If these stories left you curious, confused, or just plain annoyed, send me your questions. Enough of them and weâll spin up a dedicated #AskWTT section every week. Maybe even in video format?
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As always, with or without my help - I wish you the best.