MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video] • Hacker News Board

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#11

Post by codeshaman » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:27 AM UTC

methodover wrote: post #5

tugberkk wrote: post #3

Aside from being a great development; I am really scared that robotics is improving this much. It feels like we are creating our own potential enemy.

Ugh, I really dislike this sentiment. Even assuming the most extreme possibility -- that we create a powerful, sentient machine -- this is no different than what every species on this planet has been doing for a few billion years now. Creating life is what we earthlings do. And yeah, maybe that life form you create goes on to do horrible things. But maybe it goes on to do really good things. You don't know until you…

The main issue is that this advanced tech creates a powerful lever for mad leaders. 1 clumsy cheetah robot at MIT may not be that scary, but 100.000 fully armed and armoured killing machines, which can avoid obstacles and track humans with all kinds of sensors, under the control of leaders wanting to 'right' the wrongs of history scares the shit out of me.

At the same time, this progress cannot (and shouldn't) be stopped, but we need to quickly 'evolve' our moral and ethical standards in order to accommodate for these new powerful tools. Just like giving a loaded Ak-47 to a monkey is a bad idea, making this tech freely available to everyone is similarly stupid.

And that's because a lot of monkeys are wiser than a lot of humans. Give those humans a button which controls an army of robot killers and they'll press it just to see what happens.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#12

Post by jolt » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:28 AM UTC

This reminds me of when i was learning to drive. In the beginning I was only aware of what was immediately in front of the car, and as such, drove very slow and had pay extra attention because a lot of important stuff was coming in to my field of view all the time.

Now, when i drive i look further down the road, i plan out how to follow the road, i see the intersection coming up, and try to anticipate the routes of the other cars/bikes and that requires far less energy, than only processing the immediate surroundings.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#13

Post by icebraining » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:30 AM UTC

XCSme wrote: post #7

Well, it is very impressive, but still a very long way from what a real animal can do. What if the obstacle is at the edge of a canyon? It will suicide :D . Those tests are very restricted, but even after they will think the robot is ready, there will be cases they have missed in which it will fail.

What if the obstacle is at the edge of a canyon? It will suicide :D

Not to worry, the drone flying ahead will already have mapped the terrain :)

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#14

Post by icebraining » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:32 AM UTC

ZenoArrow wrote: post #8

methodover wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I really dislike this sentiment. Even assuming the most extreme possibility -- that we create a powerful, sentient machine -- this is no different than what every species on this planet has been doing for a few billion years now. Creating life is what we earthlings do. And yeah, maybe that life form you create goes on to do horrible things. But maybe it goes on to do really good things. You don't know until you…

Personally, I'm not concerned with that. I'd be more concerned about powerful robots controlled by governments/corporations/anyonewhohasaninterestincontrollingyourbehaviour. Look at what's happening in Yemen. The population there lives under the fear of drone strikes by the US (that includes the civilian population). If governments are prepared to do that with drones, what reason is there to suspect they'll turn down…

using something that's ground-based to impose control?

I think we have that, they're called soldiers.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#15

Post by icebraining » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:32 AM UTC

nodata wrote: post #6

methodover wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I really dislike this sentiment. Even assuming the most extreme possibility -- that we create a powerful, sentient machine -- this is no different than what every species on this planet has been doing for a few billion years now. Creating life is what we earthlings do. And yeah, maybe that life form you create goes on to do horrible things. But maybe it goes on to do really good things. You don't know until you…

> this is no different Creating something with our knowledge and the ability to learn ever faster than us is very different.

Yes, but this robot is not that. It's not even a step in that direction.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#16

Post by Qantourisc » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:33 AM UTC

icebraining wrote: post #13

XCSme wrote: post #7

Well, it is very impressive, but still a very long way from what a real animal can do. What if the obstacle is at the edge of a canyon? It will suicide :D . Those tests are very restricted, but even after they will think the robot is ready, there will be cases they have missed in which it will fail.

What if the obstacle is at the edge of a canyon? It will suicide :D Not to worry, the drone flying ahead will already have mapped the terrain :)

And tagged you as its next kill :p

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#17

Post by bendtheblock » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

methodover wrote: post #5

tugberkk wrote: post #3

Aside from being a great development; I am really scared that robotics is improving this much. It feels like we are creating our own potential enemy.

Ugh, I really dislike this sentiment. Even assuming the most extreme possibility -- that we create a powerful, sentient machine -- this is no different than what every species on this planet has been doing for a few billion years now. Creating life is what we earthlings do. And yeah, maybe that life form you create goes on to do horrible things. But maybe it goes on to do really good things. You don't know until you…

Like the way drones are used?

I think this is an optimistic view of human nature.

I suppose these animal robots could help with same-day deliveries.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#18

Post by tracker1 » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:37 AM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #4

tugberkk wrote: post #3

Aside from being a great development; I am really scared that robotics is improving this much. It feels like we are creating our own potential enemy.

Hopefully the real world version will end up a bit more benign than the movies.

Right now, the closest we seem to have to a learning machine is IBM Watson, and to be honest, it's really far behind human intellect in terms of adaptive thought. Though maybe in 10-20 years Watson may evolve into something much more capable...

As to a robot army + an evolved computer intelligence... that could be scary. It's easy to imagine something like remove anyone that isn't a "pure" X... where X is a combination of racial and religious dogma. In practice, and with practical limitations on resources, it's hard to imagine such an army that isn't outmatched (at least in numbers) by armed people (lets not weaken the 2nd amendment too much).

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#19

Post by Xophmeister » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:39 AM UTC

XCSme wrote: post #7

Well, it is very impressive, but still a very long way from what a real animal can do. What if the obstacle is at the edge of a canyon? It will suicide :D . Those tests are very restricted, but even after they will think the robot is ready, there will be cases they have missed in which it will fail.

> there will be cases they have missed in which it will fail

i.e., parity with real life.

Re: MIT cheetah robot lands the running jump [video]

#20

Post by xixixao » Fri, May 29, 2015, 9:42 AM UTC

ZenoArrow wrote: post #8

methodover wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh, I really dislike this sentiment. Even assuming the most extreme possibility -- that we create a powerful, sentient machine -- this is no different than what every species on this planet has been doing for a few billion years now. Creating life is what we earthlings do. And yeah, maybe that life form you create goes on to do horrible things. But maybe it goes on to do really good things. You don't know until you…

Personally, I'm not concerned with that. I'd be more concerned about powerful robots controlled by governments/corporations/anyonewhohasaninterestincontrollingyourbehaviour. Look at what's happening in Yemen. The population there lives under the fear of drone strikes by the US (that includes the civilian population). If governments are prepared to do that with drones, what reason is there to suspect they'll turn down…

I wish there was no reason for stupid warfare, but:

Aren't they better off than the Vietnamese who lived under the fear of Napalm bombardment? (or, for that matter, Japanese fearing the atomic bomb) I don't think that robotics has significant negative impact on warfare (and I wonder whether it has a positive impact).