And now for something completely different - Dancing Robots

Yup. I hear you. There are many other videos of their various robots. The progress that Boston Dynamics has made in the last few years is astounding. Adam Savage has a "spot" that he takes through its paces in a couple of videos. If I had $75K to burn I'd put one on next year's Christmas list.
 
I think of how fast the technology is moving forward from where we were a very short time ago.
The Wright Brothers flew in 1903, 66 years later we had a man on the moon.
The computer on the Apollo spacecraft was a wimp, compare it to a cell phone a few decades later.
I see these dancing robots with their computer controlled servo motors in real time and todays super fast computers and fiber optics.
We watch movies on our tablets today we could never do because of bandwidth. Look of the speed of our bluetooth devices.
Then we have the hackers diving into our most secure computers. maybe we are moving too fast.
It scares the poop out of me.
 
I fall into the amazed, yet frightened, category. I remember back in the late '60's being told that some laboratory had developed a robot that, given the parts, could reproduce itself. Never tried to verify that, but it looks like today there are robots that can make their own parts to reproduce themselves.

Wouldn't mind being young again, but I don't think I'd want to be young today.

Sheesh.
 
I don't worry about them making copies of themselves out of raw materials, I worry about when they figure out how to take other things apart to make copies of themselves :)
 
Until relatively recently, Boston were owned by Google. At some point, I think Google decided it was truly completing it's transformation into Skynet and sold.

Awesome, aren't they.
 
I have followed Boston Dynamics for years.

They still use the ubiquitous "permanently bent knee" method of assisting keeping the mass centre over the ankle, whereas humans can do a continuous re-balance with other posture moves. Clearly they have mastered the temporary moves through unstable (unsupported) states by body inertia, and just-in-time arrival of a well placed foot. It's awesome!

I suspect the automaton sequence was captured in part from an instrumented exoskeleton strapped to a dancing human. I am unsure if there are yet robots that can wander around of their own volition, but I suppose a bit of Tesla-style Elon Musk software, a GPS, give it a destination, and you could have it strolling off to the next charge point in a Walmart car park, and return with your shopping. Maybe they should also have to wear a mask, even if they don't need it, and set an example.
 
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