Andrija Milojevic

TL;DR

We should do more of knowledge creation, since we are uniquely equipped to do so (LLMs are not there yet). More of knowledge creation leads to greater progress (e.g. it can lead us to the future we are reading about in many sci-fi stories, and looking back in history we did develop a lot of things from many sci-fi stories). Thus, anything that help us (like technology/automation/robotics) to do more of knowledge creation (e.g. freeing our time, among other things) brings enormous value to us. Thus, robotics is really important as it enable us to dedicate our time to more of knowledge creation activities. Robotics enable us to do more of what we are best at and no other tool can yet do, knowledge creation.

Why robotics and automating tasks are important for us?

Each technology that is created is created to serve a human purpose. Technology always serves some human purpose, and it is the same with robotics. But what is that purpose?

If you ask a random person (or even someone from the automation/robotics space), you will likely get a utilitarian answer: “Robots help automate dull, dirty, and mundane tasks.”

While true, this answer is unsatisfyingly shallow—for me, at least. It tells us what robots do, but not why it matters for us. If we simply automate chores, have we succeeded? Or is there a deeper imperative at work?

The standard narrative is that automation saves time. But we must ask: Time for what? If we automate the washing of dishes only to spend that time scrolling through social media, the net gain for humanity is negligible. We need a better framework for understanding the division of labor between humans and machines.

We are Universal Explainers (to use D. Deutsch’s term). Unlike any other entity we know of (including current AI), humans possess the unique capability to explain anything in the universe. We are engines of problem-solving. We are knowledge creators.

• Robots are excellent at repetition, precision, and the execution of known variables (non-knowledge creation activities).
• Humans are excellent at dealing with the unknown, generating new explanations, and solving problems that have never been solved before.

This is why robotics is crucial. It is not about laziness; it is about opportunity cost.

Every hour a human spends screwing a cap onto a toothpaste tube or moving a box from Shelf A to Shelf B is an hour not spent curing a disease, or finding better ways to do things (e.g. technology creation). When we force “Universal Explainers” to perform tasks that do not require explanation or creativity, it is not only unfulfilling; we are wasting the most precious resource in the universe: human cognitive potential.

I believe that the ultimate promise of robotics is to free humanity to do what only humanity can do. By offloading the physical, repetitive, and algorithmic tasks to machines, we clear the runway for a massive acceleration in knowledge creation. The goal is to allow us to advance ourselves, both individually and collectively, pushing the boundaries of what is possible.

Let the robots handle the known world, so we can get busy discovering the unknown.