Watching the two-handed robot has me thinking that a third hand, perhaps with a different set of capabilities (like a tentacle grip) might make many tasks easier. I realise that more limbs = more problems, but even so, having additional ways to hold and turn things would be a big help.

My thoughts exactly, but to train it you'd need a lot of data with someone manually operating it. With just two hands it's enough to have a lot of footage of humans doing it. Maybe down the line the robots will be able to self-improve or someone will come up with ways to optimize this..

SciFi novel "The Mote in God's Eye." has aliens with three hands.

One "gripping hand" kinda coming out the gut, and two dextrous hands for detail work. Led to abuse of English language with: On the one hand... On the other hand... On the gripping hand...

Anybody who worked on a car knows an extra hand would always be helpful.

aka Rocky (this is a reference to Project Hail Mary). Great descriptions in the book about how the fictional creature can use the arms together or differently and on multiple tasks at the same time.

Yeah, folding sheets requires 4 hands. With a large distance between each pair.

We need Amdahl's law for limbs

tentacle grip.... giggidy giggigdy gooooo