This Christmas, Buy Someone a Creepy Robot Dog

[deathmetal]

https://youtu.be/kgaO45SyaO4

 

[mso489]

Oh boy, what a cute pooch, that lolling tongue, that reckless smile, the sparkle in the eyes. And all that unconditional love. Dogs just warm my heart.

 

[georged]

Boston Dynamics is a strange case. Unable to find an actual use for their amazing stuff (i.e. they were hemorrhaging money), they sold to Google's tech group four years ago. Then, even with the bigge$t angel of all investing in them, still no applications were found. So they were sold again this past summer. This time to a Japanese tech fund / banking outfit.
Looks like the global version of a lost kitten on your doorstep. A creature of no practical use, but too cute to chase away.

 

[mso489]

Any outfit that can build that "dog" can build manufacturing robotics. Now we have to figure out how to gainfully employ all the people who don't have jobs because of this technology. Most of them don't have the particular tech skills to operate and maintain these bots. People talk about artificial intelligence willfully taking over humans, but in certain areas, they already have. Once people find a niche in that world, it is difficult to do anything else, it is so remunerative. I don't know whether to be disappointed that I am not part of that world, or rejoice that I'm not. Do young college graduates want to make $25K a year in retail or $850K a year doing tech? Not really a choice. It's deeply cultural, not just a matter of training. You have to think that way.

 

[5star]

That definitely is creepy. I was half expecting some kinda 'ray gun' to pop out've it's face and start shooting.
There seems to be plenty of intelligent people out there . But as for wise people, I have my doubts.

 

[wyfbane]

Yeah, I think it is a prototype to start hunting us humans down. I'll pass.

 

[deathmetal]

There seems to be plenty of intelligent people out there . But as for wise people, I have my doubts.

Insightful, I think. Some of the intelligent might become wise if they removed all the crazy mental spam of modern life from their heads and focused on understanding, but even in the philosophy departments, that has been toxified into re-defining wisdom and whatever makes an audience buy your book or view your podcast.

 

[brian64]

I think it is a prototype to start hunting us humans down.

That's exactly what it is.

 

[hawky454]

That is freaking awesome! Won’t poop and pee in the house and doesn’t shed either. Still, I love me a real dog as you can see by my avatar photo.

 

[mackeson]

All hail our robot overlords!

 

[deathmetal]

They will fix us, finally. Not all of us... but those who survive will be among the best, and will find new meaning from the quest our AI neo-gods assign to us.