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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 12, 2022

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For the purposes of this discussion a raccoon is not that different from a human, it's a series of minor allometric changes really. (Raccoon body plan is also affected by reproductive needs, of course). And I suspect that making a raccoon-like plumber is about as hard as making a humanoid plumber (or even harder, because sometimes you need a ton of power in this line of work, and actuators we can produce cheaply and at scale are weak per unit of mass, compared to muscles; we could make a hydraulic raccoon with external power, but...) All creatures with such capabilities will be comparably hard to make. One additional aspect is that we have already made lots of specialized tools adapted for our hand grip and arm strength; it's probably much cheaper to make a robot who can wield them than reinvent the hand and all it holds.

(In the long run though, I agree, our infrastructure will change and so will robots who serve it. Probably a lot more cramped spaces, if nothing else).

Reproductively advantageus traits tend to also be helpful for general survival and capability, or rather, beneficial traits get reinforced by sexual selection (see koinophilia); exceptions are so striking exactly because they violate our intuitions about natural selection.

In the long run though, I agree, our infrastructure will change and so will robots who serve it. Probably a lot more cramped spaces, if nothing else

Then I think we're largely in agreement. I would however say that the primary difference is not that evolution has had more time to work on the 3d space problem so much that there is a massive amount momentum in the infrastructure that physical jobs interface with that is much more difficult to replace/adapt than the fairly infrastructure light world of art. It's certainly harder to prototype, test and iterate on a buildings designed to automatically need no human maintenance than it is to prototype, test and iterate on art that needs no artist. And even if it wasn't it would still take a long time to get that design out in a world where most people are content living in multi-decade old buildings that need occasional maintenance.

I do feel like the next step is going to be claiming that, yes machines are faster, stronger, more energy efficient and have better articulation but they can't compete with humans in having all those things while being made out of meat. Technology has been driving human physical laborers into progressively tighter niches since the wheel.