Boston's new nightmare inducing robot

Izits

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handle.jpg

This is the latest battery powered robot from Boston Dynamics. It's named Handle and right now it goes about 15 miles on a charge with a top speed of 9mph. It is just a little disconcerting to watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giS41utjlbU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7xvqQeoA8c&t=10s

Announcer:
This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare inducing robot, if you're anything like me.

One fear that Handle often instils in people is that automation will take away all the jobs and everyone will become poor and unemployed serfs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Automation has been with us from the very beginning. We used to dig ditches with shovels. Now a single backhoe can do the work of 100 men. Are we better or worse off for it? The answer is we are always better off.

There is only a certain amount of work that needs to be done to meet our basic needs. We need food, shelter, entertainment, raw building materials, etc. When robots make this work smaller, humans have more leisure time. You spend 30 hours a week building a robot instead of 50 hunting for food and gathering firewood. Not that living will ever be free, don't fall into that trap. Everything costs money and in a just world every able bodied person will still need to contribute.

But automation is always a good thing. Don't fear the robots.


A lot of people can also be found speculating on what life will be like when robots like this are used instead of human police to patrol our cities and neighborhoods. And that is a legitimate concern.

Why is it reasonable to assume these robots will eventually replace police? Let's look at government and police behavior thus far:

1) In several states of the USA, the police have instituted maximum IQ ceilings on all new recruits. That right, if you're too intelligent, they don't want you. Unfortunately in some cases the maximum IQ is frightfully low. In the state of Missouri for example, the maximum IQ permitted is 60. This is only marginally higher than that of a person with down-syndrome. While the governments haven't all agreed on what excuse to use, one of them is that less intelligent people will do less independent thinking and more following orders. This is exactly where a robot will have maximum appeal. No compassion, strict adherence.

2) In recent years there has been a trend of militarizing the police. Police are commonly seen wearing helmets and masks and camouflage, carrying automatic weapons and riding in military style mine-resistant armored vehicles. They even use LRADs. Their quick adoption of powerful and overbearing technology makes robots an obvious next choice.

So we know the robots are coming to our streets. But it's not the robots or the technology that is the problem. The fundamental problem is government power. There are very logical reasons why government power will always result in corruption and abuse. But I don't want to write a paper on government, I want to focus on the robots.

The point here is don't fear the robots; fear the government. The only true safety is in keeping the government small.
 
The US military/DARPA has been one of the major funding sources for Boston Dynamics. IIRC their original dog thing is/was available to special forces as an alternative to pack mules, but was often not used because they were powered by loud gas engines which would compromise stealth in operations. Most of their stuff is really cool and obviously used to research and advance the technology, but doesn't (yet?) have direct practical applications.

Robotic mechanization of warfare has already happened in a big way with drones. The US military continues to have a massive drone program which kills at least hundreds of people a year. Last year it was mostly in Somalia, Yemen, and Pakistan. I haven't seen any coverage of it on TV news in a long time though. If there's any robot that should induce nightmares, it's an almost undetectable one that rains sudden explosive obliteration from the sky.
 
Izits said:
The point here is don't fear the robots; fear the government. The only true safety is in keeping the government small.

Ugh, this libertarian crap is just ridiculous. Let's just go back to the halcyon days before "the government" when we were all living in caves, right?

I grew out of the libertarian phase in my early 20's, and so can you!
 
Now I have to think of something to get by "mail" ie a package...

Mail Dog: Robotic Dog 'Spot' Could Deliver Your Next Package:
http://www.livescience.com/58854-robotic-dog-makes-first-delivery.html

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Includes:
"Spot" is a four-legged, canine-like machine created by the Google-owned technology firm Boston Dynamics. The robot was first introduced in a 2015 video on YouTube, in which Spot can be seen running, climbing stairs and maintaining its balance even after it is pushed. Now, Spot can also deliver packages that are strapped to its back, Boston Dynamics founder and CEO Marc Raibert announced at this week's TED2017 conference, Wired UK reported.

:shock:
 
ndavidow said:
The US military/DARPA has been one of the major funding sources for Boston Dynamics.

... and the US military funded that ARPANet thingee...("Advanced Research Projects Agency Network"). Wonder how that turned out...

:wink:
 
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