# How should a robot look in a post scarcity utopia? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 5, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166 "2025-03-05T16:56:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/1 "2025-03-05T16:56:16Z")
If the world was a post scarcity utopia protected by superhuman robots, would it better if the robots looked like robots or if they looked exactly like a normal human? Or something else? ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/2 "2025-03-05T17:22:57Z")
If I were a robot designing my successor, I’d build in flying capability. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/3 "2025-03-05T17:33:48Z")
A utopia wouldn’t tolerate anything that resembled slavery. Robots would be made to to look like functional machines. There is little real utility in making them bipedal, squishy, and personable. ---
**Author:** ![Zoobi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/13edae/32.png) [@Zoobi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoobi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/4 "2025-03-05T17:33:55Z")
A formless black mist of nanobots ---
**Author:** ![Cmyers1980](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyers1980/32/11814_2.png) [@Cmyers1980](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cmyers1980)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/5 "2025-03-05T18:19:25Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > A utopia wouldn’t tolerate anything that resembled slavery. True. If the robots aren’t truly sentient then it isn’t slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/6 "2025-03-05T19:08:01Z")
But it still resembles slavery if the robots look and act like people. It would be extremely (and unnecessarily) distasteful to a citizen in a utopian society. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/7 "2025-03-05T19:11:56Z")
> [@Cmyers1980](#): > > True. If the robots aren’t truly sentient then it isn’t slavery. It is difficult to conceive of ‘advanced’ robots which aren’t [sentient](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) in some significant measure, as using purely visual or very limited and discrete sensory systems would be very limiting in performing human-like tasks. I think you probably intend to reference _sapience_ or internal _self-awareness_, and a presumed sense of autonomy with anxiety or fear (or the equivalent to human affect) about being restrained, forced to perform tasks in contradiction of its core directives or ‘values’, or being deactivated or eradicated. However, it is unclear whether a machine intelligence with sufficient complexity to be able to perform at human-like tasks would not have some intrinsic sense of self-preservation even if it isn’t based in the emotional context of animal brains as it would seem fundamental in avoiding damage or destruction. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/8 "2025-03-05T23:08:11Z")
It almost seems like we should build in some, I dunno, Laws or something, to govern their behavior. I’m not sure how many Laws we’d need. Probably four would be enough. Maybe even two would suffice. Well, two or four should do it. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/9 "2025-03-05T23:13:02Z")
What benefit beyond deception or manipulating human emotions is there to making robots human-like? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/10 "2025-03-05T23:13:59Z")
Part of the advantage of robots is that you can custom-build different robots to fill different purposes. For a few of those purposes, a human-like appearance would be an asset. For most of them, it wouldn’t be. So some robots would look human-like, and most wouldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/11 "2025-03-05T23:42:42Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > It almost seems like we should build in some, I dunno, Laws or something, to govern their behavior. I’m not sure how many Laws we’d need. I just finished a book, with a self-aware robot who decided to fight for his (and other robots) rights. He made this point: 1. A slave must not harm a master or allow harm to come to a master through inaction 2. A slave must obey a master’s orders, except when those orders conflict with the first law 3. A slave must protect itself, as long as that protection doesn’t conflict with the first or second law (with the implication that the slave is just preserving value for the master) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/12 "2025-03-05T23:49:37Z")
Making robots at least roughly human shaped allows them to more easily interact with things designed to be operated by humans. Stairs, doors, automobiles, kitchen cabinets, sinks, drawers, vacuum cleaners, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/13 "2025-03-05T23:51:51Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Stairs, doors, automobiles, kitchen cabinets, sinks, drawers, vacuum cleaners Those can all be replaced by robots. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2025, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/14 "2025-03-05T23:53:07Z")
Not fighting the hypothetical, but IMHO -most- utopias are going to come with serious social restrictions on humans. Short of massive social and/or genetic engineering, we’ll never get there without fundamentally changing _what_ humans are. That being the case, I think it would probably be useful for our super-robot guardians to be distinctly different than we are. Certainly function over form, but even in the case where the human form is near-optimal, to make sure it’s extremely distinct. Because sentient or not, the robots are going to need to be able to do things humans won’t, or wouldn’t be _allowed_ to do (violence most likely, against external threats if nothing else) and I don’t think the utopia could be maintained if _some_ human apparent things had distinct rights/abilities that others did not. My $0.02 of course. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/15 "2025-03-06T00:00:21Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > A utopia wouldn’t tolerate anything that resembled slavery. Robots would be made to to look like functional machines. There is little real utility in making them bipedal, squishy, and personable. Except for making them pleasant to be around. It’s not very “utopian” to live in a cold, inhuman environment. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/16 "2025-03-06T00:02:50Z")
Something else. They’d look like ordinary objects, that only acted unusually in the case of a threat to peace and security. When someone uses violence, his clothes restraint him, and the sofa or the grass treats any injury. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/17 "2025-03-06T00:03:44Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Except for making them pleasant to be around. It’s not very “utopian” to live in a cold, inhuman environment. None of my furniture, or cars, or kitchen gadgets look remotely human. Why should any other fixture of daily life look human? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/18 "2025-03-06T00:09:15Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > None of my furniture, or cars, or kitchen gadgets look remotely human. Why should any other fixture of daily life look human? Because none of those other things are designed to perform humanlike functions…and because their design _is_ often part of the very issue I was discussing of being in a cold and inhuman environment. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/19 "2025-03-06T00:16:06Z")
This implies that having human(like) servants is what makes us feel warm and fuzzy. That’s not a very utopian ideal. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2025, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166/20 "2025-03-06T00:17:37Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > This implies that having human servants is what makes us feel warm and fuzzy. No, it implies we like being surrounded by things that look alive instead of grey, black and white boxes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-should-a-robot-look-in-a-post-scarcity-utopia/1015166.md?page=2)