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Do You Love Me? [video]

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Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#261

Post by atmosx »

fermienrico wrote: post #196
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s all very cool looking. However when I watched this video my first thought was “my god they’re going to bring the drone wars to the ground.” I am a robotics engineer and have been focused on robotics my whole life. I worked at Google X on a robotics team with some great ex-Boston Dynamics people, and some of my friends have since gone to work for them. So I do understand what they have achieved. It’s fantastic fr…

It's weird to pick one point in the abstraction chain of human technological progress and create a threshold of unethical behavior. Technological progress will gaurantee this scenario of military use. If not BD, it will be another company. If not now, it will. If not the US, it will be someone else - China, Russia, etc. I don't see anypoint in feeling sad about just some geeks making robots as much as we didn't becom…

“I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.“ - J. Robert Oppenheimer

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#262

Post by brushfoot »

mabbo wrote: post #162
6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #65

So what's the main barrier to using these industrially? Is it reliability? Did this video a zillion takes? Is it manufacturing? Maybe it's hard to scale them up? Is it battery life? Maybe it can power itself for just a few minutes? Is it object manipulation or sensing/world understanding? Maybe it can't apply the right forces to a soft thing or a flexible thing or know what it can step on vs over or what will move or…

> So what's the main barrier to using these industrially? In an industrial setting, a purpose-built robot will outdo these robots, or a human, at nearly all tasks. And whatever these things are doing, likely a human can do it better with a little bit of training- that's low capital cost compared to these robots. Carrying things around? Conveyor belts. Picking things up? Robot arms. Going up and down stairs? Elevators…

> The only real purpose I can see for these things is being able to travel quickly in rough terrain

This reminds me of the (alleged) Tom Watson quote: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

These robots will be everywhere in twenty years. The cost and the software aren't there yet, but it's only a matter of time. Flexibility and time to market will beat purpose-built robots in many cases once the cost comes down. Many purpose-built factories will disappear. Local, distributed generalist factories will spring up, staffed by robots. Drones and autonomous vehicles will deliver "hand-crafted" products directly to customers.

With autonomous vehicles poised to replace the most common job in the majority of U.S. states -- truck driver -- we're on the verge of massive systemic changes. That's at best. At worst, with economic and political tensions already high, we'll get violence and bloodshed on a global scale.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#263

Post by c22 »

gamegoblin wrote: post #12
CommieBobDole wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go further than that and say that it's obviously CGI, though I don't know if that actually means it is CGI - it could be, as you mentioned, some sort of post-processing. Or maybe it's greenscreened and composited together? More than the smoothness, there just seems to be something off about the weight and momentum that you tend to see in high-end, big-budget-movie CGI, but it's hard to put a definite finger o…

There's a similar effect in old movies when a super-strong character picks up a massive boulder that is actually made of styrofoam or something. You can tell that the mass is wrong based on the way it moves. I think this is a similar effect but in reverse -- we know the limbs are heavy and aren't made of styrofoam, so the fact that they are moving like they are is uncanny. Our brains aren't used to motorized and hydr…

I see this frequently even in newer movies/tv--when actors are drinking out of empty coffee cups.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#264

Post by gamegoblin »

c22 wrote: post #263
gamegoblin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a similar effect in old movies when a super-strong character picks up a massive boulder that is actually made of styrofoam or something. You can tell that the mass is wrong based on the way it moves. I think this is a similar effect but in reverse -- we know the limbs are heavy and aren't made of styrofoam, so the fact that they are moving like they are is uncanny. Our brains aren't used to motorized and hydr…

I see this frequently even in newer movies/tv--when actors are drinking out of empty coffee cups.

That's a great example. I wonder how much of that is due to the (lack of) the weight of the coffee, vs. not having to compensate for sloshing liquid that could spill if you aren't careful.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#265

Post by TeMPOraL »

Gravityloss wrote: post #150
gamegoblin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a similar effect in old movies when a super-strong character picks up a massive boulder that is actually made of styrofoam or something. You can tell that the mass is wrong based on the way it moves. I think this is a similar effect but in reverse -- we know the limbs are heavy and aren't made of styrofoam, so the fact that they are moving like they are is uncanny. Our brains aren't used to motorized and hydr…

Could it be slightly sped up? The robots do make jumps so one could calculate it from that.

At 0:57 the camera pans to a position where you can see people on the upper floor walking by in the distance. You can see them move as the robot dance, which shows the video is not sped up. You could claim they were composited in (a suicidal move for BD, if they ever tried that), but if you look closely at the windows below, you can see the the camera crew in the reflection, who also move at the correct pace - and that shot would've been hell of a work to fake. In conclusion: this is real-time.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#266

Post by mech422 »

la6471 wrote: post #252
bozzcl wrote: post #87

I love how there were people in the upper floor just walking by without even looking. "Oh, the robots are dancing again." 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. It makes me a little sad more people are not aware of the ridiculously…

Did you read the comments on the YouTube video itself? Outside this techie HN bubble the real world people think of these robots dancing on their jobs anr lifeless bodies. Forget your home countries , but this is how most people in USA thinks about the technological progress as well. And on top of that I am wondering when AI will be parsing these YouTube comments in another 10 years it will just interpret the massive…

>>Forget your home countries , but this is how most people in USA thinks about the technological progress as well.

I was going to comment on your willingness to speak for most people in the US, but tbh - I'm still laughing at the idea of YouTube annihilating people (in self defense, of course). I can just see general M. Mouse commanding the forces with all the strategy and tactics he learned at the Walt Disney Military College. I believe '303:annihilate all the humans' was right in-between '101: manipulating copyright law for fun and profit' and '404: the nuclear option - Copyright for mass destruction'

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#268

Post by triangleman »

fartcannon wrote: post #156
ve55 wrote: post #138

It's hard to believe that they were acquired for 'only' 1.1B, given the valuations we have seen of many other companies recently.

Bipedal robots will replace human labour and the first person to make them inexpensive will become unfathomably wealthy. How much did slack go for? 30 billion? For a shiny chat client with fewer features than the 25 year old tech they ape.

If the video is any indication, the 4-legged robots will take over first.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#269

Post by drdavid »

reportingsjr wrote: post #222
joe_the_user wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Bos…

> you can realize they're just large puppets. We've had dancing puppets like Walt Disney's Small World. This is hugely understating just how difficult it is for a biped/quadruped robot to move around in the world without continuously falling, getting stuck, etc. Like seriously, seriously underestimates it. Watch this video to see spot walk over some terrain that even people struggle with: https://www.youtube.com/watc…

The robotics field has been moving at a crazy speed for decades.

I think people, probably not yourself, underestimate the complexity of things like bipedal movement. This display was really quite impressive.

Re: Do You Love Me? [video]

#270

Post by tehjoker »

fermienrico wrote: post #238
pjc50 wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The great tech leaps of the mid20th century resulted in huge material improvements for huge numbers of people. The worry is that the benefits will no longer spread. And the robots in particular have a century of being hollywood villains to overcome.

What makes you think benefits won’t spread? We’re on track to producing vaccines by the billions, the biggest mobilization and logistical effort in the history of mankind. Good luck buying a vaccine and cutting the line, even if you have $10k to spare. I think the risk that the wealthiest few will rule the world is largely misplaced and overblown. We’ve lifted millions out of poverty and made tremendous progress in l…

WW2 was bigger. The lack of mobilization is the hallmark of this crisis. The vaccines are the only bright point in sight.
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