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Comment by monkeydust | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, late yesterday evening after work I was looking at floor full of toys that my little kids were playing with in yet another lockdown day thinking I wish there was a robot that I could build or buy to tidy this up.

Did some research found this research project, promising but from 2018 and looks like it didn't go anywhere.

https://youtu.be/geub-Nuu-Vw

So now I'm thinking what about the build option.

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Build it. There is a global market of parents who will buy it.

But on the other hand, why not accept the toys on the floor? You are fighting entropy for no reason. You sleep at night, you will work tomorrow during the day, and when you look again, the toys are in an equally dispersed state. Why not let them stay in that state for days until you need to hover?

> Why not let them stay in that state for days until you need to ho[o]ver?

Risk of personal injury. (The Lego-on-the-stairs scenario.)

Also, some people just like a calm visual field at home.

All very reasonable arguments. What I don't understand is cleaning up in the evening. There is no visual field to perceive if you are asleep.

It ain't the sleeping in bed, it's the crusty eyelids in the morning. :-)

It's to make sure that when you walk around half-asleep early in the morning trying to get a diaper, that you don't step on a pointy lego brick.

Do you walk heel or toe first [1]? I would assume that lego bricks only hurt when moving heel first since humans had to deal with stony environments for quite some time. Not that you should stop cleaning up but this could be another technology to deal with the bricks.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1086446 Barefoot Running

Heel first. Interesting idea :)

Perhaps you've not yet reached an age where you frequently need to get up to pee in the night (sometimes several times) and keep the lights off to avoid disturbing a sleeping partner... ;)

I only use my living room in the evening. When else would I want it tidy?

Well, maybe Saturday morning. But starting the day tidying is not great either.

Isn't life just one big fight against entropy?

Technically it isn't. Life needs entropy for variations and evolution. Also, life doesn't fight. It's identities that fight to maintain themselves. Life just keeps on living.

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