Do-Anything Robot: High-end utility spiders are like this – albeit not all the way there – thanks to effectors, self-reshaping “smart tool” nanotechnology, and modular parts.
trope-a-day
In The Future, We Still Have Roombas: There are probably something like 10,000 of these little guys – from literal space-Roombas to the more general purpose utility spider and cogsworth– running about (or fixed in place) performing various mundane tasks for every robot that we might recognize as something like
blogging from a to z
(Alternate words: range, relay, racing, and reinvent. In this case, repair was chosen because it was the only word which was submitted independently twice. With special thanks to Jennifer Linsky on G+, whose article post finally let me break a week-long creative block.) Spiders. Why did it have to be
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Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: All of it. Much of the automation, autofac segments, and other component-type robots are bricks. Utility spiders and other functional motiles are robo-monkeys. More sophisticated robots, like the coordinating members of a pack of utility spiders, are idiot-savant average joe androids. Thinkers and digisapiences are
trope-a-day
Scale of Scientific Sins: All of them. Absolutely all of them. Automation: Of just about everything, as exemplified by the sheer number of cornucopia machines, AI managers and scurrying utility spiders. Unlike most of the people who got this one very badly wrong, however, in this Galaxy, almost no-one is