If my robot only had a brain…

I was all in on robots in the 1980s. 

As an elementary school kid, my mom signed me up for a BASIC computing class and a “build a robot” class at our local community college—clearly, she saw something in me (or maybe just wanted a few quiet mornings). 

Armed with my Tomy Omnibot 2000 and Radio Shack distributed Tomy Armatron, I was convinced the robot revolution was just around the corner. 

Fast-forward to today. I recently got my hands on a copy of The Personal Robot Book by Texe W. Marrs, a book from 1985 that promised a future filled with loyal mechanical assistants. Inside the cover, stamped in big, bold letters: DISCARDED. Seems fitting. The idea of household robots in the ’80s was way ahead of its time. They rode the hype cycle up, then down, waiting for technology to catch up. Just like AI did for decades. Just like the metaverse is doing right now.

Really smart people had great ideas, and Hollywood filled in the gaps. Our mental models of robots came from the silver screen—C-3PO, Johnny 5, and even the humanoid cab-driving robot Johnny Cab from the 1990 film Total Recall (which, let’s be honest, existed solely so Arnold could rip him out of the seat in dramatic fashion). But my imagination didn’t care about Hollywood’s pacing. To me, my robots were alive.

And now? The robots are here. Last weekend, I rode in a Waymo for the first time—a self-driving car, an actual thinking robot that navigates San Francisco like it’s just another day at the office. And the weirdest part? It already seems normal. 

Look closely—Waymo still has a steering wheel. Why? Maybe it’s a security blanket for us humans, a little reassurance that we could take control if needed. And history repeats itself. When the Brooklyn Bridge first opened in 1883, people were terrified to walk across it. So, P.T. Barnum marched 21 elephants across in 1884 to prove it was safe. 

We need time to trust new tech. It takes great ideas too early, failed products that pave the way, and just the right timing for breakthroughs to feel “natural.”

And now, here we are—2025 is being called the year of the agentic, where AI systems that can act autonomously, make decisions, and operate with minimal human input. Based on what I’ve seen with Waymo, at least in San Francisco, that future isn’t coming—it’s already here. Food delivery in hotels, especially Japan. Your dishwasher and washing machine making complex household decisions and doing work for years; yes, robots.

Just don’t expect it to look like exactly like “The Jetsons.” Thanks for that, Hollywood.