<story><title>Google Will Become an AI Company</title><url>http://mattmaroon.com/2011/01/03/google-will-become-an-ai-company/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielBMarkham</author><text>This is a great article. Every now and then Matt can really knock one out of the park.&lt;p&gt;Of all the tech that we talk about on here, there are only a few items that really catch my attention. Christmas tree machines are one of them. Auto-drive cars is the other.&lt;p&gt;These two inventions, when complete, will massively change things. Good luck guessing when they&apos;ll be complete, though. Could be a decade. Could be a couple of hundred years.&lt;p&gt;If cars could become more like rooms that automatically go places, instead of complex machines that require constant care and oversight, vast amounts of productivity and leisure opportunities would open up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mquander</author><text>It&apos;s a little strange, because another trend directly competing with automatic cars is telecommunications.  If it were possible and culturally acceptable for all white-collar workers to telecommute full-time, all of a sudden there would be half as many cars on the streets.  If there were efficient, cost-effective, and prompt delivery systems for local goods like groceries, there would be half as many again.  It&apos;s conceivable that there won&apos;t be much private driving for reasons besides pure leisure 15 years from now.&lt;p&gt;So it&apos;s not clear to me whether automatic cars or &quot;rooms that go places&quot; will always remain as useful as they sound today.&lt;p&gt;(Practically speaking, though, I&apos;d bet on it, since cars are pretty ingrained into American culture and since the auto industry is large and very committed to keeping individuals on the road.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Will Become an AI Company</title><url>http://mattmaroon.com/2011/01/03/google-will-become-an-ai-company/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielBMarkham</author><text>This is a great article. Every now and then Matt can really knock one out of the park.&lt;p&gt;Of all the tech that we talk about on here, there are only a few items that really catch my attention. Christmas tree machines are one of them. Auto-drive cars is the other.&lt;p&gt;These two inventions, when complete, will massively change things. Good luck guessing when they&apos;ll be complete, though. Could be a decade. Could be a couple of hundred years.&lt;p&gt;If cars could become more like rooms that automatically go places, instead of complex machines that require constant care and oversight, vast amounts of productivity and leisure opportunities would open up.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tgflynn</author><text>The time-frame for auto driving cars is actually more difficult to predict than that for general adaptive robotics because of the regulatory and social issues involved.  I&apos;m sure it will be decades not centuries though.&lt;p&gt;My prediction is that robotic servants will be common place in homes by the 2020&apos;s and that almost all manual occupations will be replaced with automation during that decade.  I have no idea how society and the economy are going to adapt to that reality however.</text></comment>