Do You Love Me? [video]

Not to spoil, this reminds me of a certain Card's Game.

My sister used live next to the Boston Dynamics facility in Waltham. She'd walk her on the nearby river path and generally disliked the way Boston Dynamics would periodically take over the path and keep her from using.

Part of the reason the robots evoke little excitement is because after a short look, you can realize they're just large puppets. We've had dancing puppets like Walt Disney's Small World. The reason Boston Dynamics takes over paths and shows robots dancing with each other is their robots still generally can't interact with humans or the environment in an unstructured way. Unstructured, "soft" interaction seem pretty easy to us but might actually close to "AI complete" in their potential complexity.

In between the advances in "holographic" displays (not quite as sci-fi as we would want, but they are progressing), commercial space flight, cybernetic prosthetics, CRISPR and this... we are living in the future. It's amazing.

I think your list illustrates how there's a wide variation among technologies in the time from demonstration to implementation. I watched radio controlled boats go around lakes in 1970s. Hobby drones are just now becoming useful, forty years later. Jet packs have been around for a long time but you still can't use them without serious safety precautions and they still aren't a way people would commute.

I am a huge fan of spartan-like no-bullshit brutalist approach towards their marketing/PR:

  - No studio setup, just their lab
  - No artificial lighting
  - No fucks given about hiding the mess
  - Robots going through surgery in the background
  - Song is classy af IMO
  - Can see the camera man
  - Can see the engineers/employees
  - Framing/cinematography isn't as polished (this is a feature, not a bug)
  - Chipped paint, beaten up fairings

Generally, I love BD Branding/Marketing/PR:

  - Logo is on point. It's Da Vinci level stuff. Humanist 
    It is totally opposite of what they build, such an amazing contrast and deeply thought out [1]
  - One or two videos per year
  - No twitter drama like a lot of SV companies (Hey, Elon)
  - No excessive trying to get their word out. Their products speak for themselves
  - No purple/gradient bullshit and design trends
  - Their job descriptions actually make sense of what they need from you
  - Their CEO, Marc Raibert, exudes wisdom, calm and has a persona of composure (seriously, watch his interviews) [2]
  - No AI hype

Literally the opposite of Silicon Valley. May be I've had too much coffee and making lofty generalizations, but this is what I see! I also see the DNA of East coast/MIT/Boston rigor vs Silicon Valley cowboys - thoughts? :-) I live and work in SV btw.

I can't get over how amazing this video is. I hope it takes over the top spot on Youtube. It's got everything - music/tech/memes. The people behind BD marketing are geniuses IMO, although building an explosively-cool tech that appeals to all humans helps a lot. Outstanding.

[1] https://www.bostondynamics.com/

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiNSPRKHyvo

Isn't the big wheeled robot used in some warehouses today? Maybe I just remember watching another BD marketing video about it...

This is cute, but I still hope they fired that asshole who was pushing bots over with a hockey stick.