Robot Learns to Throw…Humanity Flinches!
Posted by Tony on March 9th, 2013Anyone who’s been following the evolution of Boston Dynamics has been creeped out at one point by their BigDog robot. BigDog is a quadraped robot that has learned a lot of tricks since it was a terrifying little puppy of a machine. It balances itself even when an engineer makes an attempt at cow-tipping it, it ambles over the most diverse terrain ever laid out in front of a robot, follows humans like an obedient pack-mule and even understands what humans are saying to it.
Each stage in BigDog’s learning process has brought with it a level of creepiness.
But BigDog’s newest trick just put the nail in the coffin of humankind’s demise.
BigDog now throws things.
And what it’s throwing isn’t a spitball. It’s not a paper airplane. It’s not throwing Mardi Gras beads. It’s not a fun frisbee.
Nope. Not anything even remotely associated with enjoyable OR fun…
It’s throwing cinder blocks.
30 pound, concrete cinder blocks…
And it’s throwing them easier and more accurately than you could ever hope to throw one.
Which once again goes to prove that we shouldn’t be worried about the robots taking over in the future…
We should be worried about our own fellow humans helping them.
Twitter this