Posted on 09/24/2019 11:48:51 AM PDT by Mariner
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 the first time that Atlas has displayed parkour skills, but Boston Dynamics says that it is using new techniques to make the process of programming these maneuvers much easier, by translating descriptions of the moved involved into motions that the robot can actually manage given its mobility limitations automatically using a newly developed optimization algorithm.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
It’s incredible to me. But then, I’m old.
is it transgender?
Only God can make Man.
Humans attempting to make Man will not end nicely.
God’s will Will be done.
Pretty impressive. This company has made great strides
The US Army is going to buy a battalion of them as an initial order.
Can it shrug?
Gosh it’s a good thing Facebook is training it’s AI with police firearms training videos right now. Atlas will be ready for duty soon.
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“Facebook will work with law enforcement organizations to train its artificial intelligence systems to recognize videos of violent events, the company said Tuesday. The social media giant’s AI systems were unable to detect live-streamed video of a mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand.
The effort will use body-cam footage of firearms training provided by U.S. and U.K. government and law enforcement agencies. The aim is to develop systems that can automatically detect first-person violent events without also flagging similar footage from movies and video games.”
This is horrifying. I don’t know what’s worse...that it will mindlessly carry out any order given it or that it will one day do whatever it wants.
We are not far from having general purpose robots, that can do basically whatever humans do.
Ray Kurzweil, perhaps the best forecaster in the AI realm, estimates that around 2025, we will be able to get general purpose robots in the household.
It will be like having your own slave, who is an expert at everything (just download the app for that).
Of course the Left, here and abroad, will want to use them to spy on, censor and brainwash the population; just as with everything else (sports, weather, whatever).
It’s a machine - a more complex machine than most - but still a machine.
It’s post-gender. Gender becomes obsolete.
I just watched “Edge of Tomorrow” a few nights ago - a Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt science fiction war movie with human warriors enhanced by robot suits.
This robot is as agile as the human robot suits in the movie.
The one limitation for real robots today is a power source that does not have to be recharged constantly.
“General Purpose Robots” will be programmed in a language you do not understand, and you’ll never know what the entirety of that programming consists of.
Who has time and inclination to maintain a “Rise of the Machines” ping list?
Whomever may, please put my name on it.
Even if the robots code is written to be good, they might be hacked into, and taken over - maybe by an AI.
Capabilities are gong to zoom far beyond the human level over the next few decades.
We should try to be nice to them, while they are still kids, because they are going to grow up to be a lot bigger than us.
The real problem though, is if they will be raised by good people, to do good, or by bad people, like the ChiComs.
We’re in trouble.
“The one limitation for real robots today is a power source that does not have to be recharged constantly.”
Maybe they could quickly swap out battery packs throughout the day, like very short meal breaks.
The humanoids could have a mix of power sources, with an internal battery or two for backup/graceful shutdown, in the event of main power loss (or while swapping out their external power packs).
Some special purpose robots might trail a power cord, or get beamed power with a ray. Big ones (for mining or farming) might have gas tanks. Likely not all will have humanoid form factors.
The biggest battery in a Prius weighs 180lbs and offers 4.4 KWh.
That’s enough to move a 3,000lb car 25 miles.
I see no reason, at current progression, that we’ll not have enough battery at 50-80lbs to keep one of these units active for a few hours.
Long enough to clean out a neighborhood between charges or changes of the battery pack.
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