And what that potential may be is in the hands of Brendan Cook, student of computing, engineering and mathematics at Western Sydney University.
Baxter and Brendan have been study buddies for much of this year, although it is mostly Brendan doing the studying.
But, who knows, maybe Baxter the Robot will get to the stage of interacting with humans more.
At the moment, Baxter, who hails from the United States, can play games with humans and do typical simple tasks.
He had a tough job back home, working on the assembly line in the “picking and packing” industry.
“His role was to cut down on labour costs in an industry that was competing with markets, such as China, where there is cheap labour,” Mr Cook said.
“Of course, robots will be able to do a lot of menial tasks that are a high cost in countries such as Australia and the US, but that will lead to more jobs in IT and engineering - the jobs of the future.”
As part of his studies, Mr Cook and fellow students are seeing how Baxter can be programmed to do other tasks.
Mr Cook said the biggest growth in robotics was in Japan where robots are seen as domestic companions, whereas in the high-cost west, their potential lies in the labour market.
While excited about the future of a technologically-driven world, Mr Cook feels that people are losing their social capabilities, communicating by smart phones and social media rather than talking direct to each other.
He gives a nod to every geek’s hero Albert Einstein who warned: “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”
I think I detected Baxter giving a sly wink. Or does that show that imagination is still alive?
