Manopers

Manopers is a term used primarily in speculative writing and niche technical discussions to describe a class of agents that blend human oversight with machine action to perform manual operations in challenging environments. In this sense, a manoper can be understood as a hybrid system in which humans provide judgment, oversight, or tactile control, while machines execute tasks through actuators and autonomous planning.

The word is a portmanteau of manual operation and operator, and its use is not standardized. Different authors attribute slightly different roles to manopers: some emphasize teleoperation or human-in-the-loop control, others imagine semi-autonomous agents capable of interpreting high-level instructions and performing precise manipulation with robotic hands.

Manopers appear mainly in science fiction, thought experiments about automation, and discussions of future labor and safety, rather than as a defined technical standard. In fiction, they are often depicted as workers who can operate in dangerous environments (mines, disaster zones) while keeping human oversight to mitigate risk, or as transitional forms between fully manual labor and autonomous robotics. Critics note that the term can overlap with established concepts such as teleoperation, cobots, or human-in-the-loop systems, which can reduce its usefulness without clearer definitions.

In summary, manopers describe a notion of human-guided machine operators acting in manual tasks, used variably across contexts. Related concepts include human-in-the-loop, teleoperation, cobots, and semi-autonomous robotics.