Beyond the Black Rectangle

We've spent fifty years perfecting the art of the screen, and what an incredible journey it's been.

From room-sized computers to the smartphone in your pocket, we've created devices that connect billions of people, democratize information, and generate trillions in economic value. The Device Age—this era of screens, processors, and interfaces—has transformed civilization itself.

And it's far from over. Wearables are getting smarter. Watches will likely replace phones for many tasks. AR/VR will create entirely new categories of experience. The internal combustion engine evolved for over a century; our devices will too.

But the next transformative leap won't be a better screen. It will be technology that shares our physical space.

The Great Convergence

Something remarkable is happening at the intersection of AI, robotics, and manufacturing. Companies like Figure are building humanoids that can work in warehouses. NVIDIA's Project GR00T is creating foundation models for physical intelligence. Physical Intelligence raised $400M to build the "GPT for robotics." Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, Tesla—they're all racing toward the same vision: intelligent machines that move through our world.

This isn't just another product category. It's a fundamental shift in how humans and technology relate.

Why Robotics Changes Everything

The economic impact will dwarf previous technological revolutions. McKinsey estimates physical automation could affect 50% of global work activities—$15 trillion in wages. But that's thinking too small. When intelligence can manifest physically anywhere, we're not just automating tasks—we're multiplying human capability.

Consider the progression:

• Computers multiplied our intellectual capacity
• Internet multiplied our communication capacity
• Smartphones made both mobile
• Robotics will multiply our physical capacity

A single person with robotic assistants could run an entire farm, build a house, or manufacture products. The democratization of physical labor will be as profound as the democratization of information.

The Three Waves of Robotics

Wave 1: Industrial (Now) Specialized robots in controlled environments. Amazon's warehouses, Tesla's factories. Single-purpose, high-efficiency, infrastructure-dependent.

Wave 2: Service (2025-2030) General-purpose robots entering human spaces. Home assistants, healthcare aides, retail workers. Multi-purpose, adaptive, human-safe.

Wave 3: Companion (2030+) Robots as partners, not just tools. Personal assistants that know you, robotic pets that provide companionship, collaborative workers that amplify your abilities.

The Form Factor Revolution

Unlike devices that demand our attention, robots will adapt to our attention. They won't interrupt—they'll assist. They won't isolate—they'll integrate.

This requires entirely new design principles:

• Physical Intelligence: Understanding 3D space, object physics, human movement patterns
• Social Intelligence: Reading human emotions, respecting personal space, appropriate interaction timing
• Adaptive Behavior: Learning individual preferences, household patterns, work styles

The winning robots won't be the most technically impressive—they'll be the ones that feel most natural to have around.

The Personalization Layer

Here's what most robotics companies miss: hardware is only half the equation. The real differentiation comes from personality, behavior, and adaptation. Every home is different. Every human is unique. Robots need to adapt not just functionally but emotionally.

This is where next-generation operating systems become critical. Just as iOS made smartphones accessible to billions, we need operating systems that make robots feel personal, trustworthy, and genuinely helpful. The ability to give your home robot a personality that matches your family, or configure your work robot to complement your style—this personalization layer will determine which robots we actually want to live with.

The Scale of What's Coming

When I think about the magnitude of this shift, my mind struggles to grasp it. Every home could have robotic assistants. Every dangerous job could be made safe. Every person with mobility challenges could regain independence.

The numbers are staggering—billions of homes, hundreds of millions of businesses, countless applications we haven't even imagined. But what excites me isn't the market size. It's the human impact. When my grandmother needed help but was too proud to ask, when my friend's father couldn't work after his injury, when I see parents exhausted from balancing work and childcare—these are the moments that make robotics feel urgent, necessary, inevitable.

Beyond Economic Impact

The societal transformation goes deeper than economics. Robotics will:

• Extend human capability into dangerous environments (deep sea, space, disaster zones)
• Provide companionship for isolated elderly populations
• Enable independence for people with disabilities
• Unlock human creativity by automating mundane physical tasks

We're not replacing humans—we're amplifying human potential.

The Path Forward

The transition from Device Age to Robotics Age won't happen overnight. We'll see:

• 2025-2027: Early adopters in industrial settings
• 2027-2030: Consumer robots reach iPhone moment—capable, affordable, essential
• 2030+: Robots become as common as smartphones

The key enablers are converging:

• AI: Physical intelligence models from companies like Physical Intelligence
• Hardware: Costs dropping 50% every 2 years
• Manufacturing: Figure and Tesla targeting 10,000+ units/month by 2030
• Software: Operating systems that make robots accessible

The Personalization Layer

Here's what I've learned from building MyOrbit: the breakthrough isn't just in hardware or base intelligence—it's in personalization. Every home is different. Every human is unique. Technology needs to adapt not just functionally but personally.

Imagine a home where the family robot knows that Dad prefers direct communication, Mom values emotional check-ins, the teenager needs space but appreciates subtle support, and the youngest loves playful interaction. Not four different robots—one robot that understands four different people.

This same principle applies across every form factor. Your smartwatch should communicate differently than mine. Your AI assistant should match your style, not force you into its paradigm. Whether it's a wearable, a home device, or eventually a robot—the ability to truly personalize interaction is what transforms a tool into a companion.

At MyOrbit, we're building this personalization layer for AI—starting where the need is most urgent (human-AI interaction today) but with an eye toward where it's going (physical presence tomorrow). Because whether intelligence lives in your phone, your glasses, or your home robot, it should understand you as an individual.

The path is clear: perfect personalization in current devices, then extend that understanding to whatever form factors emerge. Not jumping between trends, but building the layer that makes all intelligent devices truly personal.

A New Relationship with Technology

I keep coming back to this image: a child growing up where robots are as natural as trees. Not demanding attention like our devices do, but simply present—helping, supporting, enabling. The Device Age taught us to serve our tools. The Robotics Age will finally reverse this ancient relationship.

This isn't about building better tools. It's about creating partners that share our physical world, understand our needs, and help us become more capable versions of ourselves.

The screens we've been staring at for fifty years gave us superpowers—connection, knowledge, creation. But they asked us to come to them, to translate our needs into their language. Robotics represents technology finally coming to us, speaking our language of movement, space, and presence.

The economic opportunity will be measured in trillions. But the human opportunity—that's what keeps me up at night, excited about what we're building.