Earlier quoted context omitted.
She did an amazing job and is talented for sure. I still absolutely hate those robots. This won't end well.
We need the three laws of robotics now!
Now!
How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
161–170 of 207 posts
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#162To all that are wetting their diapers at the _ridiculous_ thought of robots hunting you down (a rather pompous thought in my opinion — why would anyone expend any resources to kill _you_?): please remain in your bunkers for the sake of society.
The worst part of it is people who imagine robots hunting you would be for some reason 'worse' than horrific humans militia such as SS have done in the past.
Any atrocity has been done by humankind already.. we didn't wait for robots.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
You dont want to be anywhere near heavy powerful moving machinery, thats basic OSH. Glitching robot could snap your neck without skipping a beat (so to speak). There are hundreds of videos on the internet of people being decapitated, torn apart and squished by machinery. Not to mention https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Williams_(robot_fatalit...
Nothing a green screen can't fix
Lack of green screen is what made this video so impactful. Having a human dancing on the other side of a barrier might have worked.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is true that a computer, for example, can be used for good or evil. It is true that a helicopter can be used as a gunship and it can also be used to rescue people from a mountain pass. And if the question arises of how a specific device is going to be used, in what I call an abstract ideal society, then one might very well say one cannot know. > But we live in a concrete society, [and] with concrete social and h…
They're a little unclear about exactly what morality they are advocating for. The nature of weapon technology transforms the way society works. In the era of sword and shield, for example, combat effectiveness is hugely dependent on raw upper body strength. That means that strong healthy men rule all domains, while women, children, any men not in top physical shape are helpless before them. In the modern era of mecha…
Your second paragraph seems rather simplistic to me.
Less-able men with more ability to marshall resources/rewards can convince more-able men to be their proxies by paying them . How would they have the ability to do that? Technology, knowledge, cunning, guile.
How long has it been since the king was the best fighter in the realm? I mean, seriously?
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a parent of small kids who just watched the video, I would say 2–3 year old seems about right, assuming kids who do a lot of running around. 3-year-olds can move with significantly more grace (the motions are more intentional, fluid, subtle, and steady, and seem less scripted) than these robots, but definitely can't do a jump precisely the same 10 times in a row, so it's not really apples to apples. Maybe age isn'…
Probably need to be more specific about 'skill as a dancer' too though - I think you're responding mainly about motor control (?) but try choregraphing a bunch of three year olds to actually perform that routine!
Evaluating robots on whether they do what they're told and whether their timing is good doesn't seem too useful. That's the easy part. Pretty much any robot is going to be more precise/predictable/consistent in their actions than any human, let along a three year-old.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
> or for the benefit of mankind. Unfortunately, I don't know that I can trust any of the organizations that would have the budget to control enough of these robots to make a difference in any direction. Which is sad to me, as I love this from a technological perspective and looking at a best case scenario.
Humanity's goal should be to build AGI and let robots take over - we're doing it, willingly or unwillingly. No need to have blobs of meat hanging around. Intelligence itself is human thing. Whether it needs to have a body / physical metabolic processes to run by injesting cheetos all day, is totally absurd. Evolutionary processes have given us so much unnecessary baggage. Pure abstract intelligence is pretty damn hum…
> Evolutionary processes have given us so much unnecessary baggage
21 years ago, when I started writing a cross-platform digital audio workstation called Ardour, I was convinced that your claim above applied to contemporary mixing consoles. It seemed to be that they had evolved in ways that were deeply constrained by physics/mechanical/electrical engineering, and that there were all kinds of things about their design that was just unnecessary baggage from their crude history.
Two decades later, I understand how that evolutionary process actually instilled those designs with all kinds of subtle knowledge about process, intent, workflow, and even desire. It turns out that the precise placement of knobs, and even their diameter and resistance-to-motion, rather than being arbitrary nonsense derived from the catalog of available parts, rather precisely reflect what needs to be done.
Don't be so quick to dismiss your physical form or the subtle wisdom that evolution can imbue.
There's also the whole "situated action" sub-field of AI, which is centered around the idea that humans build themselves physical environments to embody and maintain knowledge in order to reduce computational load during decision making.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Everyone afraid of this, you ought to be afraid of micro-drones like the Black Hornet Nano >They fly faster than you can run (13 miles per hour), have a 1 mile range, and a 25 minute flight time. And can be trivially defeated by some netting, blinded by bright lights/lasers, and/or knocked out of the sky by leaf blowers and umbrellas. Despite what certain propagandaesque sci-fi "warning" videos would have people be…
I agree, that single nano-drone isn't scary. What of a swarm of hundreds?
Cost and complexity. If you have to send so many to overwhelm and bypass all the countermeasures, the cost and complexity of make it a much less practical and appealing solution than just doing it the old fashioned way. I can't see how brass, lead, and gunpowder will ever be more expensive than light weight plastics/composites, electronics, sensors, motors, batteries, plus the actual lethal component. Add to that the required time/complexity required to configure and deploy, situational considerations such as weather, sensor viability, terrain/environment factors, etc... and we're back to going back to guys with guns. Could there conceivably be a scenario where this might be the best option? I suppose, but in my estimation it would likely be the option of last resort.
If an enemy force has already made up its mind to kill, I don't see this making it any easier/more reliable/more effective than well-established alternatives.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
> or for the benefit of mankind. Unfortunately, I don't know that I can trust any of the organizations that would have the budget to control enough of these robots to make a difference in any direction. Which is sad to me, as I love this from a technological perspective and looking at a best case scenario.
A Spot costs about $75,000, so as far as trusting the organizations... I mean, I find myself seriously considering buying one. Yes, I would likely have to add-on other modules over the course of time, but $75,000 for Spot's capabilities is actually pretty reasonable.
$75,000 is far enough out of reach of the average person that I think I'm standing by my statement.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably need to be more specific about 'skill as a dancer' too though - I think you're responding mainly about motor control (?) but try choregraphing a bunch of three year olds to actually perform that routine!
Evaluating robots on whether they do what they're told and whether their timing is good doesn't seem too useful. That's the easy part. Pretty much any robot is going to be more precise/predictable/consistent in their actions than any human, let along a three year-old.
True, but they've been well-crafted to make them so. Just as they'll (I assume) continue to be worked for finer motor control.
Re: How Boston Dynamics Taught Its Robots to Dance
#170Boston Dynamics Robots vs Human Originals (The Contours):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VGsfgo8_Jo
Although the dance moves are different, the spirit is synchronised :)