There is still significant debate about how even to begin to design a machine that might be flexible enough to do many of the things humans do: fold laundry, cook or wash dishes. That will require a breakthrough in software that mimics perception.

Today’s robots can often do one such task in limited circumstances, but researchers describe their skills as “brittle.” They fail if the tiniest change is introduced. Moreover, they must be reprogrammed in a cumbersome fashion to do something else.

– John Markoff, N.Y. Times.

Here’s a video of robots trying to fold laundry. Now I’m in no position to throw stones here because I’m usually content to take my laundry out of the drier then pull clean clothes from the pile as I need them, forgoing the whole folding-and-putting-away process, which I’m also pretty bad at. But I’m like 1000 times better at it than robots:

I’ll amount that those are some pretty frightening machines, and if 20 of them rolled down my street I’d probably be ready to surrender to our new robot overlords. Luckily, now I know I could simply beguile the whole regimen with a handful of dishtowels.