Boston Dynamics has come out with their newest version of the SpotMini Quadraped Robot and it is seriously creepy. If you’re a robotics lover then this might be right up your alley but for those of us that aren’t into this so much it’s just a little disturbing. In fact it kind of reminds me of the Animatrix, the animated collection of short films that was let out after the Matrix got so popular. Doesn’t it seem to draw a kind of parallel with that film? Mankind is so busy making new robotics and designing new and popular things that can walk and operate either by remote or on their own that they don’t seem to be stopping to think if they should.
I really don’t want to believe that’s true because it if is then the apocalypse has already started to build, albeit slowly and without as much of the dire implications for the years to come, we hope. Experts will likely tell you that there are practical explanations for these creations and I’m sure there are, but one thing I can say is that you don’t generally spend the kind of money that these things probably cost to make and program on something that’s going to a glorified house-cleaning tool. Even if great amounts of money have been dumped into them the fact remains that there is no practical use great enough at this point that a robot would be able to fully replace a human.
The argument of course is that yes, a robot could be designed and programmed to help those that can’t help themselves. Those that need care, or an extra hand to help out in case of emergencies, and so on and so forth could possibly benefit from robots, if they didn’t have anyone else to care for them. But this quadraped does kind of confuse me since aside from military implications I can’t really see what it might be useful for.
People will make allowances for robots when it comes to being useful, of this I’m sure. They’re shiny new toys that are being developed for reasons that many people simply can’t fathom at the moment, and are taking up a great deal of funding that is going towards something that could be the beginning of something great, or a new trend that will eventually be seen to just be another thing for the super-intelligent and rich to spend money on before realizing that the idea is not practical and has no other reason for existing.
Honestly I don’t see things coming to that, but there’s a fine line with robotics it would seem that some people aren’t willing to cross and others tend to tap dance on until they fall on side or the other. In any case this thing looks just creepy, and the fact that it might be able to be programmed to run around on its own is even more disturbing. The wave of the future is coming folks, and if you’re not watching it might sweep you away.
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