No doubt some of you are still wondering whether the prediction from Elon Musk that we’ll have robots in our homes within ten years will really become true. With the expense of such a thing, it seems unlikely to me the majority of America will have a bot doing household tasks. The likeliest before ten years is bots taking over many physical labor jobs here, and worldwide. But then you have to look at the reality of what those bots are really capable of doing in the least amount of time.

Based on the videos I’ve seen of the Tesla robots, and others from around the world, it seems that many of them work in a deliberately slow way. Now, some may use the old gastronomical adage of “do you want it fast, or good?” as a way toward giving excuse to have a robot do your laundry (or cooking). The reality may be, a human can do those tasks much faster if given the will.

What is that will, though? Well, you could say we’ll regret not doing our own household tasks if a robot takes them all over. We could lose any drive toward life progression, making us just stagnant beings with no real purpose. The thought of losing this might scare people once they see it actually happening. With me, anyway, it’s a chilling scenario. A recent prediction that we could initially rebel against this out of reflex is probably more than right.

Eventually, we’d be panicked enough where going back to the way we’re living life now is more meaningful. And, out of panic, we’d remember life’s purpose and do a lot of tasks in faster and more efficient ways.

This brings us to the point of this first part in The Human Project. What tasks would humans do better compared to how a humanoid robot would do them? It’s time to take a look at household and on-site work tasks to see how fast we’d really be next to Mr. Optimus.

Doing Laundry, Taking Out the Garbage, Loading Your Refrigerator, etc…

It’s still frustrating to see headlines on places like X stating “It’s so over!” when seeing potential household robots folding our laundry, taking out our garbage, or loading refrigerators with groceries. Have you noticed how slow those bots really go when doing those tasks? Yes, they mostly do a good job, yet it clearly takes longer than if a dedicated human did it themselves.

I know I could fold laundry at a faster clip, and already do. If you’ve done that enough, you probably have a certain technique to help you get it done in a short amount of time. The same goes with taking out your garbage, whether you put it into an outdoor can, or out to a receptacle in an apartment complex. Then you have the refrigerator loading, something I saw done on video with a home bot. It seemed to take the bot an extra, extra amount of time just to grasp certain items and place them in refrigerator compartments.

Oh, and let’s not forget some of the YouTube influencers out there who’ve posted videos of home robots trying to do cooking on a hot stove. One robot in particular couldn’t handle the skillet while frying up some eggs. The bot knocked the pan on the floor, started slipping on the eggs it spilled on the floor, then was yelled at by the influencer. 

That’s the kind of comedy we need to realize home robots don’t really seem ready yet to let them go at it alone. Also, I just plan to never have a bot like that in the home. I’m far too used to doing household tasks myself and never want to have the feeling of being lazy. Even if it saves time to work on my creative projects at home, it takes away a feeling of life accomplishment before heading to my piano or iPad Pro.

If you’re dedicated to making your life the best it can be, I’d say your mindset would allow you to accomplish all those household tasks better than a robot would.

What About Mundane Tasks in the Workplace?

I’m not necessarily against certain repetitive tasks being taken over by robots in workplaces. That’s already happening many places, and it’s ultimately healthier to avoid carpal issues, or other injuries. Unfortunately, many other physical labor job tasks that are arguably healthy to do will probably be taken away by those same bots.

Those of you who’ve read me here enough know that I’ve worked at Amazon for close to 2 1/2 years. During 2025, the CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassey, said many operations in Amazon facilities will eventually become automated via AI technology. This is already happening in some fulfillment centers, including a massive one built in Woodburn, about 15 miles from the one I work at in Salem, OR.

Most basic consensus from Amazon associates I’ve talked to say that it may be a long while before our facility is even partially automated with AI. Some think it’ll never happen completely at our building, with Amazon supposedly assuring other job roles will become available to humans when the others are bot-taken. 

At this point, it’s really hard to tell what could happen. But one thing I’ve noticed in myself and other colleagues at my Salem facility is that we have a lot more capability in physical function than we think. A lot of this is mental and getting into the right state of mind. Much of this can happen when the pressure is on, or through group efforts where we inspire each other. I already use a Zen method in taking near impossible tasks and making them smaller in my mind.

I’d be willing to take any physical labor test with an AI bot to see who would come out on top in rate count. Based on my performance in the last year, I’d say the odds are good I’d win, if not maybe for everybody. How I’d win would go based on how we train our bodies to move in very efficient ways to get a physical job done at a record-breaking pace. 

I’m talking about tasks that I do regularly, including package sorting, cage/cart loading & unloading, water-spidering, packing, and wrapping as just some examples. This last year, I managed to hit exponentially high rates in Amazon’s Vendor Receive section based simply on how fast I could limber my body to handle a box and load it into a cage. 

While I’m fully expecting all of that will be done by bots in another 10 years, we may end up having to repair the bots just to have a job there. And that’s a shame since it takes away from proving what our brains are really capable of doing.

If we’re really going to win the war between humans vs bots in doing mundane tasks, we need to train ourselves to work better through mind focus. It’d prove to suits that humans can ultimately work faster and just as efficiently as our bot counterparts. 

Will there be a Bot vs. Human Olympics someday to make this case? I plan to make a Chapter 2 on this dystopian idea soon to see what else a human is capable of doing at brisk pace and with incredible strength. In the meantime, we may see more videos of robots continuing to screw up in workplaces—while still being able to keep their jobs. 

In Part 2, I’ll look at AI actors and singers suddenly making breakthroughs in turning their human creators wealthy. With a number of AI artists already on the music charts with supposedly heavenly voices, is it too late to make human singers prove to new audiences that they have more soul?

/End