Robo-Ferret and Things I Actually Wanted Out of the Future

The robot vacuum people have come up with a robot MOP. Impressive.

But how long before even the janitors are let go?

An article in the May Scientific American discusses the design of new pseudo-neural circuitry that rather brilliant copies natures ability to dedicate neurons to their specific tasks - adopted, this would greatly speed up the attempt to replicate human intelligence. The study in question replicates the neural pathways governing ferret vision.

And then...? It's reasonable to ask whether there is any likely outcome, in our economy, that would actually benefit most human beings.