Free Republic

Boston Dynamics has been teaching its old bots new tricks – Atlas, its humanoid robot that walks on two legs, can now do a surprisingly elegant gymnastics routine, tumbling into a handstand, followed by cartwheels and including a jump twist. This level of athleticism (can a robot express ‘athleticism’?) is incredibly impressive, given that this is a 330 lb robot that could “barely walk” in 2013 when the prototype was first developed. Atlas’ movement in this routine is at once incredibly human-like, and also something beyond human – especially when it turtles in preparation for its first somersault. This isn’t...

Robotics are going to cause changes to the workforce in the next five years, but don't start running with those robot-takeover conspiracy theories just yet. About 5.1 million jobs will be lost by the year 2020 because of "disruptive labour market changes," predicts the World Economic Forum in a new study. Many of the factors driving change are technological, like the Internet, big data and robotics. The types of jobs most negatively affected by market disruptions are office and administrative, manufacturing and production and construction and extraction, according to the study. One of the biggest changes workers can expect to...

In 1939, a robot dog was killed while chasing a car. Really. Sometimes you stumble across a piece of history that is too good not to follow up on. Sparko, the robot dog, is one such piece of history. Prepared for the World's Fair in 1939, he got out of his pen, chased a car, and was killed. No fooling. Androids may dream of electronic sheep, but people have dreamed, for decades, of electronic dogs. Robots, a threatening concept, became much less frightening when put in the form of man's best friend. This relationship turned out quite satisfying for people...