This video showing a very speedy recycling robot has surfaced:
(AI and robotics gets you to fast recycling, all right)
However, there is still stuff left on that conveyor belt; who's going to sort that stuff? Humans, that's who, relying on what Harry Harrison in his 1956 short story The Velvet Glove called human object recognition.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/1/2017)
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Illustrating Classic Heinlein With AI
'Stasis, cold sleep, hibernation, hypothermia, reduced metabolism, call it what you will - the logistics-medicine research teams had found a way to stack people like cordwood and use them when needed.'
Deflector Plasma Screen For Drones ala Star Wars
'If the enemy persists in attacking or even intensifies their power, the density of the plasma in space will suddenly increase, causing it to reflect most of the incoming energy like a mirror.'