# Tasks that no robot will ever be capable of doing.....
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 15, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719 "2015-10-15T14:00:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/1 "2015-10-15T14:00:37Z")
…clearing a paper jam in the copier.
I’m the office champion. :).
What’s your skill which can never be automated or outsourced?
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### Author:  [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/2 "2015-10-15T14:07:08Z")
It’s not my skill, but a robot will never be able to play the guitar with soul.
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### Author:  [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/3 "2015-10-15T14:09:50Z")
Coaching of business managers.
Mentoring.
Consulting.
Psycho-therapy.
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### Author:  [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/4 "2015-10-15T16:02:09Z")
cleaning dirt off of little kids’ faces
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/5 "2015-10-15T16:29:04Z")
Mathematical research. It always starts with a question and I cannot imagine a computer “wondering”.
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### Author:  [@northporlarbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/northporlarbear)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/6 "2015-10-15T17:06:57Z")
“Noticing” something from what’s right there & “assigning” meaning to the perception.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/7 "2015-10-15T17:20:10Z")
I can injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
I can disobey orders given me by human beings even where disobeying such orders could injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
I don’t have to protect my own existence, or I can protect my own existence even if such protection could injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, or be the result of disobeying orders given to me by a human being.
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### Author:  [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/8 "2015-10-15T18:36:45Z")
Given sufficiently advanced robots, none. Unless you define robot in such a way that precludes being capable to do some thing, such as “A robot is a thing that cannot feel emotions”.
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### Author:  [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/9 "2015-10-15T18:48:56Z")
Cooking okra or grits properly.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/10 "2015-10-15T18:49:24Z")
Screw up in the epic ways that I can. 😃
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### Author:  [@Lowdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lowdown)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/11 "2015-10-15T18:55:26Z")
I’m pretty adept at being an asshole. Robots aren’t going to pull that off.
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/12 "2015-10-15T19:03:26Z")
> [@xizor](#):
>
> cleaning dirt off of little kids’ faces
Mom-Bot 9000’s actuators whirred softly as its RealFace[sup]TM[/sup] angled downward towards the boy. Camera-eyes fed into an image interpretation software package that quickly recognized the smudges and categorized them as needing prompt - but not emergency - attention. Tiny motors and rotors turned with infinite precision as Mom-Bot picked up a dish cloth from the counter. Nozzles in its “mouth” spritzed water onto its “tongue”, which extended towards to the cloth and licked it several times. Speech software ran a subroutine to check the language setting, which returned the value “English (American, Contemporary)”, which set off a millisecond cascade resulting in Mom-Bot’s speakers intoning: “C’mere - Let me get that for you.”
The boy froze in horror as the rag was rubbed across his face.
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### Author:  [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/13 "2015-10-15T19:41:48Z")
whine?
guess if I feel like having sex
avoid cooking dinner
the list could go on and on
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### Author:  [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/14 "2015-10-15T21:00:26Z")
Masturbating.
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### Author:  [@kunlun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kunlun)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/15 "2015-10-15T21:36:54Z")
I’ll say art. Anyone can tell the difference between some photobashed piece of concept art and something created by a human from scratch.
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### Author:  [@G0sp3l](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G0sp3l)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/16 "2015-10-15T21:51:37Z")
> [@kunlun](#):
>
> I’ll say art. Anyone can tell the difference between some photobashed piece of concept art and something created by a human from scratch.
People pay good money for paint randomly smeared on canvas buy monkeys (sometimes literally). I’m sure a robot can do that.
I bet a robot will never be able to take the last cup of coffee in the break room then pretend there’s enough left for someone else as an excuse to avoid making another pot.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/17 "2015-10-15T22:06:55Z")
> [@kunlun](#):
>
> I’ll say art. Anyone can tell the difference between some photobashed piece of concept art and something created by a human from scratch.
I’m going to say that I think you’re already wrong about this.
[The Painting Fool](http://www.thepaintingfool.com)
[Iamus, a music composition computer system](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20889644) who’s works have been [performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, among others](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2167661/Roll-Beethoven-London-orchestra-play-piece-written-listening-THIS-human-composers-jobs-quite-.html).
[eDavid, the painting robot](http://www.informatik.uni-konstanz.de/en/edavid/) has [a very impressive gallery](http://www.informatik.uni-konstanz.de/en/edavid/paintings/).
[Amazon has been selling books written by computers for years now](http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/).
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### Author:  [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/18 "2015-10-15T22:14:37Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> I’m going to say that I think you’re already wrong about this.
I built a robot in my garage. I programmed it so that:
it could go down to the quarry and throw stuff in there
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### Author:  [@kunlun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kunlun)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2015, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/19 "2015-10-15T22:15:26Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> I’m going to say that I think you’re already wrong about this.
>
> [The Painting Fool](http://www.thepaintingfool.com)
>
> [Iamus, a music composition computer system](http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-20889644) who’s works have been [performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, among others](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2167661/Roll-Beethoven-London-orchestra-play-piece-written-listening-THIS-human-composers-jobs-quite-.html).
>
> [eDavid, the painting robot](http://www.informatik.uni-konstanz.de/en/edavid/) has [a very impressive gallery](http://www.informatik.uni-konstanz.de/en/edavid/paintings/).
>
> [Amazon has been selling books written by computers for years now](http://singularityhub.com/2012/12/13/patented-book-writing-system-lets-one-professor-create-hundreds-of-thousands-of-amazon-books-and-counting/).
Without human assistance, can eDavid make something like [this](http://www.artble.com/imgs/9/9/4/87801/hylas_and_the_nymphs.jpg)? It looks like you feed him a complex input and he spits an image out. eDavid has no imagination.
The real answer is of course virtually nothing, like Frodo said. But that doesn’t make for a very fun topic.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2015, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tasks-that-no-robot-will-ever-be-capable-of-doing/734719/20 "2015-10-16T22:55:46Z")
I don’t forsee many robo-clergy out there saving souls. Maybe in the year 3000 when the robot devil is out there taking hands and stuff, but not in our times.
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