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Comment by DrewADesign | Hacker News Reader

>> a humanoid robot that can competently run

> A machine is stronger and faster than a human? Shocking. Next we'll learn that cranes can lift heavy loads faster than a human with ropes and pullys.

It’s funny how absurdly dismissive and condescending tech people can be about difficult problems in other people’s fields that they know absolutely nothing about. Numerous developers, informed by maybe a YouTube video, Reddit thread, or equally misguided explainer post on another developer’s blog, have tried to ‘correct’ me about topics in a field in which I hold a degree and have plenty of professional experience. Other tech people might be impressed because they have matching blind spots in their mental models of the world, but people who actually understand, rather than baselessly assuming they understand, see someone being smug about their own ignorance.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/engineer%27s_disease

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Stop being so proud of your degree. People see the world the way they want to, and your lectures aren't going to change that.

Sorry, your uninformed opinion doesn’t match expertise. Correctness isn’t democratic. Glib bullshit is glib bullshit no matter how vested you are in the ego that it’s stroking.

> It’s funny how absurdly dismissive and condescending tech people can be about difficult problems in other people’s fields that they know absolutely nothing about

"Machines can do stuff humans cannot do" isn't exactly groundbreaking in 2026.

The only interesting part of this story is that this particular machine form factor looks pretty much like a human

It's still not exactly shocking news that it can outrun a human. Of course it can. We're well past John Henry vs the Machine at this point in history

> The only interesting part of this story is that this particular machine form factor looks pretty much like a human

That's the whole goddamn point of this. Fast stable autonomous bipedal locomotion was out of reach of human technology for decades. Since this year it isn't. This was impossible year ago, despite all of the achievements of humanity, cumulative, till the year 2025, included. Now it isn't.

I think tech like this is accelerating us into extinction, So forgive me if I don't exactly celebrate

"That's the whole point" that we don't need humans anymore?

Great. I'm a human. You want me to celebrate? No thanks

It's fine to not be happy about it, but denying what's happening is a completely different thing.

"Being needed" is a poor choice of source of existential happiness and contentment though. Sure, it's an easy and accessible one for the masses with some mental gymnastics around how you view your income generating activities (or by having kids). But it's still dependent on others, as you need them being at hand to impact. See all the needless depression arising from kids moving out, or when people retire and complain about not being needed instead of finding new activities to explore or grow in.

As for the fear of human labour not being needed at scale due to me as most others needing an income, I'm optimistic there for two reasons. First, large unfed masses tend to start revolutions, something both governments and the not-working are interested in avoiding. Second, large amounts of young idle people has tended to result in stupid destructive behaviour at scale. So I'm confident there will be created opportunities for paid work for mostly everyone, and the conditions won't be too poor as there would be no profit motive to push people too far. Rather, the people having both the resources, time, and energy to consume, would still be what props up the system (until we can agree on trying something better now that we have excellent tools for guaranteeing transparency and optimising allocation at scale in real time).

Not that it looks like a human — that it basically is structured like a human skeletal system. It’s an incredible technical accomplishment.

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