In the late 20th century baby boomers created the two-car household as a benchmark of suburban success for the middle class. It started as a necessity to allow two working parents but soon became an image race.
As one neighbour parked a new car on the driveway, the rest of the street soon followed suit, rushing to not be caught looking poor or out of touch. And the boomers kept driving change; the type of cars developed lined up with their need (from station wagons, the minivan, the SUV, and the retired gentleman’s convertible), the highway systems, the air travel, hotels, cruise ships ... all adjusted to the demands of the boomer generation.
These boomers, this Silver Tsunami, are still going strong, driving change wherever they are and to ensure their own lifestyle demands. Last decade they drove the development of driverless cars, and now, as their final act to ensure a rich and pampered last couple of years, they have created a new standard of middle-class success: the two-robot household.
The shrinking working-age population, increased life expectancy, and the escalating cost of healthcare left only one solution for the boomers: get robots to do the chores they can’t do themselves or the health services can’t afford to provide. And we aren’t talking about the minute machines whizzing around cleaning your floors or cutting your grass, we are talking about full-fledged bipedal human-like robots who walk and talk like us, who can sit and listen to our stories, share our grief, and offer comfort and empathy when the grandchildren no longer care to visit.
In a funny twist of fate, it was the next generations’ great minds that cashed in on the new demand. Companies founded and run by Gen Xers and millennials drove the bipedal robot industry, using tech savvy engineers that pushed the boundaries of what was possible. The industry kicked off in the early 2020s with Boston Dynamics, Tesla and Figure AI all vying to become the first with a viable, reliable, and affordable multipurpose robot who could take over the jobs that we humans didn’t want, deemed too risky, or just didn’t have the resources to do.
The humanoid robot business grew from research lab experiments to a trillion-dollar industry over the span of a decade, and it is now estimated that the number of robots will double and reach more than 1-billion in the next five years. To put this into perspective, in the mid-2020s, about 140 years after the invention of the automobile, there were only 1.5-billion cars around.
Humanoid multipurpose robots have become the new definition of wealth. They serve pastries at tea parties, they join you on the golf course when you are a player short in your 4-ball, they operate the coffee maker as expertly as you do, they keep your suburban dream home and large lawn in immaculate condition while you are at work, they take care of the kids and help them with homework, and they’ll happily watch your favourite movie with you night after night.
As with the boomers and cars in the 1970s and 1980s, the Gen Xers and millennials can’t help themselves, especially not when Mr Sunhik walks past with the latest model of Tesla’s Butler Jeeves Mk 4 Cryo, which sports a holo-iridium interface in addition to the basic neural bridge command module. Even Ms Sunhik’s poodle, Piffy, loves to be walked by it through the Everglades Golf & Country Estate’s manicured gardens.
The two-robot household is here to stay, and the early investors are cashing in big time.
• This fictional scenario for the future is designed to challenge norms and spark debate, and is one of a series published by Futureworld titled Provocative Scenarios 2024.
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