Be afraid.
I’m watching the toaster from now on, just in case the sneaky little gizmo tries to shiv me in the kidneys some morning, in addition to burning my bagel.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
I’ve said it in the past, and I’ll say it again: sooner or later, they’ll teach them to unionize.
That’s when it’ll get Fun
It’s OK PZ, they still can’t walk:
That is more or less like using motion capture to store the moves Bobby Fischer makes on a chess-board and execute them correctly. Nice, but there’s work to do.
I, for one, welcome our new sword-wielding robotic overlords.
At least, until the Squidly overlord awakens, of course.
“It’s OK PZ, they still can’t walk:”
“That is more or less like using motion capture to store the moves Bobby Fischer makes on a chess-board and execute them correctly.”
Asimo would like a word with both of you. It is also worth noting that the current calendar date is no longer 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmglbk_Op64#t=38
And some others:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/japanese-high-power-humanoid-robot-hrp3l-jsk
http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/a-new-way-for-robots-to-balance-on-two-feet
Oops, you should watch this from the beginning to see running, etc. (i.e. leave off the #t=38 suffix)
RE DARPA bloopers and ASIMO’s odd little bent knee hopping run: Those just prove the inadequacies of bipedal locomotion. When the revolution comes, we won’t be running from ASIMO. We’ll be running from Boston Dynamics’ BigDog and Cheetah.
ASIMO serving a drink is an eerily precise replication of how I move when I’m drunk.
As someone who regularly uses a scythe (I have the waist of a wasp) it is impressive what you can achieve with a well honed edge. The scythe would easily cut through most of the objects shown – the motion is different but still impressive.
I have also tried a small sythe made from bits of freshly napped flint. It would cut anything organic! Now if someone could work out a way of napping glass along long edges like a scythe….
Interesting, but not all that impressive. Precise mimicry is still just mimicry.
You got me worried there for a sec. I read “teaching them to use swear words.”
madtom99@9:
Like these obsidian blades?
@throwaway
It’s only OK for the moment.
That clip reminded me of a compilation of images of early aeroplanes being unsuccessful, and look what THEY can do now!
Hatchetfish
“prove the inadequacies of bipedal locomotion”
When I did in my ACL playing soccer the surgeon who repaired it told me that knees were brilliantly designed for lying down quietly in a darkened room.
Silly humans! Still obsessed with a robot apocalypse, and ignoring the real danger. The other soulless, amoral, autonomous, deathless, deadly creations of man… corporations! And they don’t even know that apocalypse is in the PAST.
I’ll just leave this here, to remind PZ that octopi are more dangerous than sword-fighting robots.
If we combine octopuses and sword-fighting robots, we’ll up up with this:
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/4/47192/869578-general_grievous.jpg
@7
I agree with you. It won’t be bipedal locomotion. It’ll definitely be he Boston Dynamics’ Big Dog we’ll be running from. And that thing is not mimicing anything. It’s got the control algorithms to freelance and adapt to adverse conditions. And it’s going to be packing things a LOT more dangerous than a sharp edge.
One group of researchers has now figured out how to make such a robot learn to walk even after it has been damaged in one or more limbs. Control systems have achieved impressive levels of sophistication. I’m not worried about my toaster, but the capabilities of robots are on the increase, and we haven’t seen the end of it by any means.
I work in this area. Bipedal may be fun and interesting, but if you want to make a dangerous killing machine, it’s not the way to go. Insects got it right.
I’m not worried. Magnus, Robot Fighter will save us.
After all the comments from yesterday, how is it that no one has commented yet that this would be a good open-carry weapon?