[CyberDildonics]

offloading a subset of complexity-management to robots

Are you calling compilers robots?

[bigbillheck]

I don't see why not.

[CyberDildonics]

Are you still going to use the word software or compiler or do you plan on switching over to calling everything a robot? Is your coffee maker a robot too?

[chihuahua]

A coffee maker is definitely a (simple) robot.

It's a machine that performs a task, just like a welding robot in a car factory or a Roomba.

[InitialLastName]

I have a manual wire-crimping tool that is a machine that performs a specific task. Is that a robot?

[CyberDildonics]

Is a single assembly instruction a robot?

[worik]

Quit pedantic, useless, nitpicking over a casual reference to "robot"

[CyberDildonics]

If people are going to start calling compilers robots, I want to know about it.

[bigbillheck]

I'd be ok calling my coffee maker a robot. It's got a cpu and sensors, and is capable of limited manipulation of its environment (via a heating element).

But to the main point, I read "robots" as a metaphor. Metaphors can be situational, jut because I might call a compiler a "robot" in one context doesn't mean I have to call them that every time.

And it's not as if there isn't long-standing precedent for using "robot" to refer to a piece of software. Have you ever heard of a "robots.txt" file? People complaining about "bots" on various social media sites?

[junon]

Is a car a robot to you? Is a hello world program? Curious where the line is.