Ken Goldberg

What is it? Oh, yeah, yeah. Moravec. There we go. There we go. Okay. So Moravec was actually at CMU when I was there. He was this very eccentric guy. And he wrote this book and he was saying it's a paradox that what's easy for robots, like lifting a heavy car, is hard for humans. But what's easy for humans, like stacking some blocks, that's hard for robots. And that's still true today.

Yeah. It's very counterintuitive because humans, it's so easy. But we've sort of evolved over millions of years, just like dogs and crows. Crows are able to pick up things amazingly. They can put coins in slots and they can do eight-step problems.

Yeah. It's very counterintuitive because humans, it's so easy. But we've sort of evolved over millions of years, just like dogs and crows. Crows are able to pick up things amazingly. They can put coins in slots and they can do eight-step problems.

Yeah. It's very counterintuitive because humans, it's so easy. But we've sort of evolved over millions of years, just like dogs and crows. Crows are able to pick up things amazingly. They can put coins in slots and they can do eight-step problems.

For sure.

For sure.

For sure.

Exactly. Robots, there's a lot of uncertainty in the environment. And even if you tell a robot to go to one specific spot, because of the motors and levers and gears that are in it, it won't go to that exact spot. You want it to put its jaws or something at a specific point to grasp this cup, it'll be slightly off. And that will cause it to miss, drop the object.

Exactly. Robots, there's a lot of uncertainty in the environment. And even if you tell a robot to go to one specific spot, because of the motors and levers and gears that are in it, it won't go to that exact spot. You want it to put its jaws or something at a specific point to grasp this cup, it'll be slightly off. And that will cause it to miss, drop the object.

Exactly. Robots, there's a lot of uncertainty in the environment. And even if you tell a robot to go to one specific spot, because of the motors and levers and gears that are in it, it won't go to that exact spot. You want it to put its jaws or something at a specific point to grasp this cup, it'll be slightly off. And that will cause it to miss, drop the object.

Exactly, and then the other is sensing. So we can take a high-resolution picture of an environment like this room, but there's no sensor that can give me the depth, the three-dimensional part of this room. What if you used a 3D camera, so you had bilateral? There's errors. There's little noise in those things.

Exactly, and then the other is sensing. So we can take a high-resolution picture of an environment like this room, but there's no sensor that can give me the depth, the three-dimensional part of this room. What if you used a 3D camera, so you had bilateral? There's errors. There's little noise in those things.

Exactly, and then the other is sensing. So we can take a high-resolution picture of an environment like this room, but there's no sensor that can give me the depth, the three-dimensional part of this room. What if you used a 3D camera, so you had bilateral? There's errors. There's little noise in those things.

If you look at the result of that, there'll be a depth map, which is like a 3D camera image, but you'll see there'll be lots of noise and imprecision and mistakes in those. And those are inevitable. There's no camera that really works reliably for 3D.

If you look at the result of that, there'll be a depth map, which is like a 3D camera image, but you'll see there'll be lots of noise and imprecision and mistakes in those. And those are inevitable. There's no camera that really works reliably for 3D.

If you look at the result of that, there'll be a depth map, which is like a 3D camera image, but you'll see there'll be lots of noise and imprecision and mistakes in those. And those are inevitable. There's no camera that really works reliably for 3D.

That's such a good way to put it. And that's exactly right. And so if you look at that history, hundreds of millions of years of evolution to see to mobility and being able to manipulate just the opposable thumb and all of those things. And so all these other things like math is relatively very recent.

That's such a good way to put it. And that's exactly right. And so if you look at that history, hundreds of millions of years of evolution to see to mobility and being able to manipulate just the opposable thumb and all of those things. And so all these other things like math is relatively very recent.

That's such a good way to put it. And that's exactly right. And so if you look at that history, hundreds of millions of years of evolution to see to mobility and being able to manipulate just the opposable thumb and all of those things. And so all these other things like math is relatively very recent.

That I think is helpful for people to understand why we've made all this progress in these, quote, hard problems like playing chess and go.