>>409923
    To put it another way: robots and robotic fiction were the 
    conceptions, hobbies, fantasies and conceits of the intellectual 
    class, who are always looking for ways to make rote physical tasks 
    easier and more straightforward. That way, they have more time on 
    their hands to use their brains. Since the end of WWII at least, and 
    likely much further beyond that, the lowest common denominator of 
    the world market has determined what gets churned out by our 
    industries. And intellectuals who read Isaac Asimov are far from 
    that. Stupid people are borderline addicts to rote tasks, because it 
    allows them to claim that they're working while alleviating all 
    mental effort. They crave ways to eliminate thinking. And so our 
    robots are not the autonomous hands and legs as envisioned by the 
    mindful class, but rather parasitic brains that latch onto the 
    materialistic class. As far as materialistic (common) people care, 
    the relationship is healthy symbiosis. Things like "how much 
    services charge them" or "will I be arrested today" are already so 
    complicated as to be essentially random and meaningless, so they 
    don't mind, know, understand or care if their smartphone spies on 
    them. At least they never have to remember anything ever again, 
    because the smartphone will remind them. Follow this line of 
    comparison for all technology. Cars were envisioned by the active, 
    exploratory, daring classes as ways to reach further destinations 
    faster - the market has instead produced obesity-enablers so the 
    lazy don't have to walk. Cooking technology markets itself as ways 
    for the gourmet to reach new culinary heights - in practice they 
    constitute swifter ways for a PUFA-laden "burger" to descend down a 
    fatty's gullet. You tell me about advances in romantic technique 
    andt technologies - ways to grant everyone a legendary romance, or 
    cummies for cheaper?