Boston Dynamics unveils 'nightmare-inducing' hybrid robot | Hacker News Reader

Boston Dynamics unveils 'nightmare-inducing' hybrid robot

theguardian.com

26 pointsbernardmeyer23 comments

there is nothing 'nightmarish' about this robot. I really hate hyped up titles like this.

It doesn't take that much imagination to make it nightmarish, though. Give it a circular saw on the end of one of those arms. The descendants of these things are quite likely to see combat service.

It's still something stupid to be scared of, drones with bombs are significantly more dangerous and significantly more practical at holding people hostage than robots.

How has that worked out?

ISIS has seen some successes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po8bfnvbRyA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRC0mZDnCsA

The US military isn't a totalitarian despot that is willing to kill any and all civilians to maintain power in the middle east. So really it hasn't been tried.

No, but it is plausible that some of its NATO allies are not quite as disciplined or altruistic, and IIRC, the treaty allows dissemination of weapons technology (and associated knowledge) among the allied states.

It's entirely possible to find both of those prospects nightmarish.

It's a means to project power that can be mass produced, and without the impediment of a conscience. This fills my nightmares.

Exactly.

Imagine when it is loaded with guns and other weaponry

Then the only question is who controls the target list.

On the plus side, clickbait title attract a wider audience to the subject. I know lot of people with zero interest in robotics like these 'creepy' robots.

I'm sure coordinating those actuators is a fun problem, but look back at technology from the late 90s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7otewMk9pc

And an actual user's test:

https://youtu.be/MzZMDpnqzY0

I'm impressed.

Waiting for the jump upgrade for the iBot.

See also discussion from 17 hours ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13748023 (110 comments)

This isn't anywhere near as horrific as the first Big Dog video. The movements are much more graceful and no one was kicking anyone.

I'd go as far as to call it a Gobot (after the Bluth, not the cartoon franchise).

Direct link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7xvqQeoA8c

The Terminator franchise took an unexpected Horsey turn.

Wasn't Google supposed to sell the division last year? What happened to that idea? Or has it decided to break its promise and become a military contractor?

What promise are you referring to? Boston Dynamics has been funded by DARPA for 10+ years.

http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/03/24/Google-rejects-m...

> Google, having recently acquired Boston Dynamics and Schaft, has rejected military money for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, remaining in the competition under their own funding.

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/185570-google-finally-pr...

> On the other hand, Google has been very open about its feelings on military funding: it doesn’t want any. Keeping the Google team working to win the DARPA challenge would have meant receiving indirect funding from the Pentagon and (hopefully) prize money, too. DARPA, of course, hates this analysis, since its whole strategy with the Grand Challenge has been to claim that totally non-violent civilian applications are the one and only aim of this competition. This is supposed to be about building robots that can burst into burning American homes to save American lives; any resemblance these actions may bear to the sorts of military maneuvers that are DARPA’s actual raison d’être are purely coincidental.

The infamous hockey stick makes an appearance at 0:58

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