Are we truly ready for humanoid robots to enter our daily lives? The relevant legal, ethical, and social norms are severely lagging behind.

This is an excellent question, hitting the nail right on the head. We're currently like someone who's just been handed the keys to a Ferrari, but hasn't even gotten a driver's license yet, let alone figured out the traffic laws.

Simply put, the answer is: We are far from ready.

Technology is advancing too quickly, leaving our laws, ethical concepts, and social customs far behind. Let's discuss this from the perspectives you mentioned, explaining it in plain language:

1. Law: If a robot hits someone, who is responsible?

This is the most direct question. Imagine:

• A nanny robot accidentally slips while caring for an elderly person, causing them to fall and get injured. Whose fault is it?
  • Is it the owner's responsibility? (Did they not set it up correctly?)
  • Is it the manufacturer's responsibility? (Does the robot have a design flaw?)
  • Is it the programmer's responsibility? (Is there a bug in the code?)
  • Or is it the robot's own responsibility? (If it has advanced enough AI to make its own decisions?)

Our current laws are designed around 'humans.' If an object (like a hammer) injures someone, it's certainly the responsibility of the person using it. But a humanoid robot isn't a simple tool; it can see, think, and move on its own. This makes the question of 'who is the responsible party' incredibly ambiguous.

Take privacy issues, for example. A humanoid robot walking around your home, with its cameras and microphones, records all your household data. Who owns this data? Who can view it? Could it be sold for profit? What if it's hacked? There are no clear laws regulating any of this.

2. Ethics: To what extent should robots be 'obedient'?

Ethical issues are even more complex than legal ones, as there are no standard answers.

• The Trolley Problem: Suppose a robot, in an emergency, must choose: either hit a person, or swerve sharply to avoid them, causing its owner (e.g., being pushed in a wheelchair by the robot) to be injured? How should its program be set? Should it prioritize protecting the owner, or protecting more people?
• Emotional Dependency: If a robot is designed to be very conversational and considerate, many elderly people living alone or children might develop deep emotional attachments to it, treating it like family. This might seem good, but what if this robot model is discontinued, breaks down, or the company goes out of business and stops providing service? How significant would the psychological impact on users be? Is it morally justifiable to design products that exploit human emotions?
• Job Displacement: This is perhaps the most realistic impact. When many service jobs, such as caregivers, receptionists, security guards, and waiters, can be replaced by tireless, 24-hour working robots, what will happen to those who lose their jobs as a result? Does society need to establish new welfare systems for this?

3. Social Norms: How should we coexist with them?

This might sound distant, but it's actually very important.

• How should we treat them? In a restaurant, would you say 'thank you' to a robot waiter? On the street, would you yield to a delivery robot? If someone publicly kicks or abuses a robot, should we intervene? Will the way we treat robots, in turn, affect how we treat real people?
• The 'Uncanny Valley' Effect: The more something resembles a human, but isn't 100% human, the more unsettling it becomes. How should we design robots so that people find them approachable rather than eerie?
• Social Stratification: Will new 'classes' emerge in the future? Wealthy families using advanced humanoid robots to handle all their chores, while ordinary people are still struggling to make ends meet. Will this exacerbate social inequality?

In summary:

We are currently at a very awkward crossroads. Technologically, humanoid robots are gradually becoming a reality, but our societal support systems (laws, ethics, culture) are like an outdated map, completely unable to guide us forward.

Therefore, what we need most right now is not to accelerate robot technology, but to quickly organize a nationwide discussion, involving legislators, scientists, entrepreneurs, and every one of us ordinary people, to jointly explore and establish new 'rules of the game.' Otherwise, when these 'new species' truly enter our lives on a large scale, we might be caught off guard, leading to various forms of chaos.