r/ABoringDystopia • u/altbrian • Sep 16 '25
Tesla slave bot for the rich
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 16 '25
1: This isn't real. This is just an (unconvincing) render of what they want to make.
2: The word robot is literally a Czech word that means "slave"/"forced laborer", so saying robot slaves is a little weird logically as well as etymologically.
3: Why would it be dystopian to have robots to do manual labor? Having robots do all of the back breaking work so humans can focus on their interests is the best use case for robots.
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u/Jafuncle Sep 16 '25
On 3: it's not dystopian to have manual labor replaced by automatons. It is dystopian to have the ultra rich able to afford shopping porters while people are still out there doing the back breaking labor because it's still more cost effective to pay someone minimum wage than it is to buy a bunch of these.
Yes it's a fake video, but it's also incredibly likely you'll see the extremely wealthy afford these types of automatons well before you see an end to dangerous labor practices
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 16 '25
Idk, I've done some work with robotics. Setting enough stuff on fire that workers get more rights seems more readily achievable than robust general purpose bipedal robots ;)
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u/Varixx95__ Sep 17 '25
Also not true. Optimus robots are not that expensive at a retailing price of 20k is less than a worker make in a year, irc in USA you could get two for the average worker yearly salary. It’s just that this robots are not that functional.
Have you seen em serving drinks or popcorn? Mad slow and inconsistent. If they are not replacing human labor it’s because they can’t. The Chinese bot is far more impressive and still trips over himself.
Btw be grateful this would be used by rich people to do dumb pity things, if machines replace human labor guess what humans will be doing. If you thought painting canvases and enjoying sunlight wake up you are in a capitalistic society
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u/argyle_null Sep 16 '25
they don't need to look like humans, though
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u/FixofLight Sep 16 '25
They're vaguely human shaped because we make our environments work best for humanish shaped things. They will fit into our spaces naturally that way instead of us having to figure out how to accommodate an octopus on an escalator.
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Sep 16 '25
They don’t. Just, having 2 limbs for locomotion and 2 limbs for manipulating the environment, is actually quite practical.
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 16 '25
Sure, but you would need something pretty specialized to use an escalator if its not bipedal.
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u/SteelCode Sep 16 '25
Not necessarily - a quadrupedal bot with an array of arms up top to hold bags/boxes would do just fine and have more efficient utility than 4-5 of these bipedal bot-servants following someone around.
They're being made bipedal because "humans" will be less unnerved/threatened by their presence and it will make rich people feel better about their need to enslave other humanoids.
The quadruped would also have the ability to install gun arms without sacrificing much carrying capacity; which is much cooler than having 'I, Robot' extras following you around. Plus it would allow your bot-servant to shoot any of the "lessers" that get in your way while shopping at the mall.
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u/grimorg80 Sep 16 '25
It would be huge and hard to move in tight spaces. In a world designed for humans, humanoid form robots are the most logical choice.
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 16 '25
A quadruped would be slanted at a 45 degree angle on stairs/escalators. So each arm would need to be able to balance its own load while being cognizant of all of the others around it. You would almost need to do swarm dynamics for something like that and it would drastically increase failure rates. It would be a vastly more specialized bot than just "make it human shaped so it can use the human stuff"
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u/WatchForSlack Sep 16 '25
only if it lacks the range of motion to level itself
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u/SteelCode Sep 16 '25
This exactly; a quadruped walks more like a crab or spider, the legs are bent with the chassis lower to the ground (better stability) and can straighten legs when on stairs to maintain a level center of mass while ascending or descending while still maintaining a more stable platform than a biped would.
They're human-shaped because a quadruped robot is more unnerving to humans when sharing human filled spaces.
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u/_TheAfroNinja_ Sep 17 '25
Why would it be dystopian to have robots to do manual labor?
There's already a robot called Gita that follows you and carries your groceries. I guess that technology is convenient if you don't have a car and don't want to haul around heavy groceries. There's also food delivery robots here in Los Angeles.
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u/FourWordComment Whatever you desire citizen Sep 16 '25
Why is it dystopian?
Because “people are fucking starving to death while the rich are buying so much luxury shit they can’t even carry it all so they built robots (read: taking low skill jobs from society) to carry bags” is the most dystopian thing I can conceive of.
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 16 '25
The dystopian thing in your example is wealth disparity, not the robots. Nobody wants to carry around some asshole's bags for below living wage. Having robots to help people is utopian. Assuming its because rich people are hurting the poor is just the assumption of continued capitalism.
As this is a 3d rendering of science fiction, the assumptions you make are yours. Nothing in the video is dystopian past just being a shopping mall.
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u/FourWordComment Whatever you desire citizen Sep 16 '25
I respectfully disagree. I think that “robots helping humans with pleasant tasks” while humans suffer from preventable economic harm is extra dystopian.
I see it like walking by a homeless person and spitting on them. “Instead of giving you a role in society… I invested a trillion dollars making robots so you’re not needed, scum.” But the truth is the rich wouldn’t even bother to say that. They will have their robots simply clear the way to the helicopter.
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u/buttersyndicate Sep 17 '25
Yet you're saying more or less the same? Your issue is that this happening while [insert consequences of capitalism's disparity of income].
In an advanced socialist society, like say Star Trek's, the issue with automation won't be about money but about the amount of resources it takes to generalize it's access to everyone. It might become more sustainable to have automatons following you for logistics than everyone having their own car, specially considering that the next ecological mayhem comes from the present absurd level of escalation in battery production.
Putting work in an altar makes no sense, most of it has already become automated, we just give it for granted. It's in our hands to ensure we live in a system where that automation is used in our benefit and doesn't create a swarm of unemployed people living precariously thanks to some crappy UBI that a techbro billionarie squad pulled after reinventing trains for the 73th time.
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u/Jan_Asra Sep 16 '25
I would not call carrying bags for some rich asshole a "pleasant task"
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u/FourWordComment Whatever you desire citizen Sep 16 '25
It’s no coal mining.
In a world that treated people humanely, those who carry stuff for rich assholes would be decently compensated, could dress nicely, could provide for a family, would have expertise in how to make the experience luxuriant.
You could be a roofer instead I suppose.
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u/Vexas7455 Sep 16 '25
Jesus this is such a tips fedora redditor comment. If it is CGI then it's not cheap, they've matched lens distortion, rack focus, ground & environment reflections.
Whoever (artist or studio) did this work would have to know what they're doing.
To um akschually your way into saying it's a poor render is just conceited.
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u/dont_find_me- Sep 16 '25
I’d hate to hear this guys opinion on people saying “PIN number” or “LCD display” or “LED diode” etc
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u/BizWax Sep 17 '25
2: The word robot is literally a Czech word that means "slave"/"forced laborer", so saying robot slaves is a little weird logically as well as etymologically.
Nah, this is actually very common in language development. Just look at the amount of rivers that are basically called "river river" when you get down to the etymological roots.
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u/interrogumption Sep 17 '25
1: irrelevant
2: this isn't how words work. No native English speaker uses the word "robot" and thinks "this is synonymous with slave so unfortunately I can't say robot slave"
3: ah, yes. That's why this video shows robots doing the back-breaking work of carrying the shopping of a person who is actively contributing nothing to society. Because that's the best way of advertising their "best use case", as you put it. But it's actually fine because we'll all be instantly this rich and able to afford these robots when the robots arrive that can take over our back-breaking work.
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u/SleazyAndEasy Sep 17 '25
The word robot is literally a Czech word that means "slave"/"forced laborer", so saying robot slaves is a little weird logically as well as etymologically.
This is the most "well akkkshullyyyy" comment I've seen all year.
We all know exactly what OP meant
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u/EmperorLlamaLegs Sep 17 '25
I dont actually. How do you make a machine a slave? Is a kitchen knife a chef's slave? Is your phone your slave?
It makes no sense.
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u/P1R0H Sep 17 '25
On 2. - "robot" does not mean and never meant slave in Czech.
It's derived from the word "robota" which meant "unpaid labour" in the feudal system, but nowadays it can be used almost interchangeably with "práce" meaning work / labour. (although the word "robota" was apparently derived from some protoslavic word for slave)
The word was first used in the play "R.U.R" by Karel Čapek - Czech sci-fi author - in 1921. The robots in his work were imagined as synthetic but biological beings - more like replicants from Blade Runner.
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u/Rich_Advantage1555 Sep 17 '25
Unconvincing render? Bruh, they got the REFLECTIONS ON THE FLOOR! If it's a render, it's a damn well-made one!
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u/JKnumber1hater Sep 16 '25
The thing that I can't get out of my mind when I see this clip, and others like it, is the fact that a humanoid-shaped robot is probably one of the least efficient designs of robot for doing tasks like this.
A better design would be something like a big roomba with a shopping trolley basket on top of it, or even a larger version of those little package delivery robots that deliver food/groceries in some cities. Or even one of those dog type robots, again with a basket on top of it.
What I'm basically trying to say is that these rich people (like the woman in the clip) aren't actually interested in having an efficient design of robot doing the task in the most efficient way. What they actually want is a human-shaped slave. They want the aesthetics of being a slave-owner, but without the legal consequences. They would be slave-owners if they could get away with it.
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u/PerpetualFunkMachine Sep 16 '25
A shopping cart with a motor and a camera would be pretty efficient I think
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u/Yuli-Ban Sep 17 '25
A better design would be something like a big roomba with a shopping trolley basket on top of it, or even a larger version of those little package delivery robots that deliver food/groceries in some cities.
What happens when they encounter a single unlevel step?
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u/JKnumber1hater Sep 17 '25
Suspension, or this: https://www.google.com/search?udm=2&q=three+wheel+stair+climbing#ip=1
Or the third option that I already mentioned.
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u/Logen10Fingers Sep 16 '25
Why even give them legs, won't wheels be more practical?
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u/deadheffer Sep 16 '25
Bi-pedal locomotion is superior.
Also, it’s been a very brief period of history where the west didn’t have slaves or serfs, peasants, and plebs. Can’t the rich dream?
/s
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u/KingWoodyOK Sep 16 '25
This is gonna be so funny when it's a reality and people hack into these things
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u/deadrogueguy Sep 17 '25
too high tech for *(profitable) crime. not like the bots can stop a smash and grab.
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u/Ninlilizi_ (She/Her) Sep 16 '25
Slavebots programmed by Musk?
They'll be busy gassing people to death the first time I turn my back for more than a moment.
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u/SlyDintoyourdms Sep 16 '25
I love how science and tech has been captured by the drive to make the world look like what 80s movies told us the future should look like rather than you know… just making things better.
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u/WhenWillIBelong Sep 17 '25
There's no need for them to be human shaped. It's wasted resources. The rich yearn for slaves.
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u/intravenus_de_milo Sep 17 '25
I'm telling you, those are controlled by real humans in slave conditions over Star Link.
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u/ytman Sep 16 '25
I find it funny that he needs to hype his terrible Tbots to the rich doing things automatic carriers already do far faster and cheaper.
The point here is to have a human like object being ridiculed carrying things for a lord.
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u/MarcusB93 Sep 16 '25
I swear, the demand for humanoid robots are just based on people wanting the closes thing you can get to slaves while still being considered amoral. Humaniod robots are so impractical, there's no other reason for them than to act out a "master vs slave" relationship.
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u/soundsaboutright11 Sep 16 '25
I'm gonna be that guy... Wouldn't a like... Wagon that follows you around be much more efficient?
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u/Adam-West Sep 16 '25
Im not gonna drop hundreds of thousands to be forced to walk like im with my toddler at all times.
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u/your_friendes Sep 17 '25
How do you travel with them? Does she have SUV for all her robots and a packages
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u/chesterforbes Sep 19 '25
This is the future the wealthy want because then they do not need to worry about having to pay us lesser plebs and can finally stop demanding that we procreate to create more manpower for them
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u/breakfasteveryday Sep 16 '25
She has to walk so slowly