Ask HN: When might we not have to do laundry or fold clothes or cook

We are more likely to have water and food shortages because of resource exhaustion and climate change. Maybe goods shortages because of war or economic depression.

It might not be about robot replacing chore entirely,but redefining them.Like how dishwashers don't eliminate dishes, they just changed the workflow.

I have a washing machine. That automates most of washing clothes, hanging and folding them takes seconds.

I expect robots in unexpected, previously unautomated areas. I don't expect them to look humanoid other than the ones that will look exceptionally humanoid perhaps changing form from time to time.

Why would a super intelligent robot do work for you? No, super intelligent robot will use it's superier intellect to convince YOU to do the dishes and the fold the laundry while it watches tv.

There is some we since many centuries ago that did not have to do laundry and fold clothes nor cook... because they have some meatware "robots" automating this tasks already.

I'd wish we could have robots helping us to produce bionanotextiles4.0 that make folding/ironing optional or obsolete, or microwaves that turn some gunk mix of element in the periodic table an turn them into a salad or a stake, rather than getting a remote controlled clanker harvesting every fart of data I produce.

I'd say the 2050s

You don’t want that. Because it would mean 5 rich dudes own all physical work. What happens to the rest of us when that happens? What economic system can we create that makes sense? (The current one does not make sense in that scenario. Game it out for five minutes like a chess game if you don’t believe me).

We urgently need an answer to that question before it happens. The Elon suggestion is so laughable as to be unworthy of an answer.

I’m not a roboticist but I get the core concepts and challenges (and I’ve been in the room with leaders in the space). And I know a bit about LLMs and the current state of AI systems.

the human-form robots out of China unlocking motion based on copying human motion indicate that generally useful human labor replacement robots should be on the market within five years (probably at a starting price of $40k) and really good within ten. (And market forces might drive the price to $20k in today’s dollars)

And given how long it takes to invent, validate and adopt new economic systems we need to predict the failure mode of what happens when 5 rich dudes own all work and everyone else is homeless and hungry (hint the French Revolution was a mini study on what happens when the top gets too heavy and the bottom stops having it)

Like I said, you don’t want this. Nobody wants this. Hopefully some smart billionaires figure that out and solve it soon enough to save their own skins. (Along with everyone else)

No affiliation, and not sure if it will actually do those things well but startup building for that: https://www.1x.tech/neo

More likely we get to do these chores while AI gets the real jobs done.

Since so many white collar jobs will be lost, the robots will be less likely since now they have to compete with every unemployed dev who is going to be willing to do the physical task just for some bread and water.

I'd rather not have to worry about what to eat for a balanced diet.

very soon :)

You don't have to do it already. You can hire people to clean your room every week or even every day if you have the $$$.

You can also buy food so that you don't have to cook.

I'd definitely live in the office if given the chance -- i.e. my wife divorces me and company allows.

2-3 years. Probably Optimus 4 will be able to do that, but probably not very well - kind of like tesla fsd drives currently.