About two weeks ago, a video popped up throughout the world wide web, which really frightened me at first. As a kid of the late 70s and 80s, I grew up with dark visions of all kinds of machines enslaving and waging war against mankind. Besides RoboCop, who was one hell of a nice guy, I got to know all the AT-AT walkers, cylons, replicants, terminators, the Borg, and many others – culminating in the sci-fi epos “The Matrix”. Humanity’s fascination and ever returning occupation with this topic got me diving deep into the frightening visions from the beginning.
Nevertheless, the visions are fading, because we are just moving exactly in this direction in reality - robotics used for military purposes get stunningly “functional” nowadays. As seen in the following video, we are already capable of building small AT-ATs, called BigDog, “the most advanced quadruped robot on earth“ (quoting Boston Dynamics) - a machine, which impressively masters difficult ground, like rubble, snow and ice, jumps over obstacles and carries heavy loads. The fact, that the project is sponsored by the DARPA, the „defense advanced research projects agency” of the US department of defense, didn’t really ease my mind.
But have a look at it by yourselves – I think it’s quite impressive what this little companion, made of hard metal and sensible electronic circuits is capable of…
Today, as a grown-up, I live in a world, where viral marketing” exists and one week after the discovery of this clip, I stumbled over another video, which really gave me a refreshing laugh. Some creatives used the growing popularity of this video to promote their own company with the fitting slogan “Let’s plant a video”. So, get ready for the truth about BigDog, or some impressions of the beta-testing by Seedwell. Now I’m reassured – humanity won’t be defeated by machines, as long as we keep our humour...
Besides, if you wonder who the guy is, that’s into stuff like this: I’m Philipp, the actual intern of PLATOON. And if you want to build your personal army of machines to take over the world – here’s one more link by the Wired Magazine to check out - but be prepared - you’re not the only one...
Nevertheless, the visions are fading, because we are just moving exactly in this direction in reality - robotics used for military purposes get stunningly “functional” nowadays. As seen in the following video, we are already capable of building small AT-ATs, called BigDog, “the most advanced quadruped robot on earth“ (quoting Boston Dynamics) - a machine, which impressively masters difficult ground, like rubble, snow and ice, jumps over obstacles and carries heavy loads. The fact, that the project is sponsored by the DARPA, the „defense advanced research projects agency” of the US department of defense, didn’t really ease my mind.
But have a look at it by yourselves – I think it’s quite impressive what this little companion, made of hard metal and sensible electronic circuits is capable of…
Today, as a grown-up, I live in a world, where viral marketing” exists and one week after the discovery of this clip, I stumbled over another video, which really gave me a refreshing laugh. Some creatives used the growing popularity of this video to promote their own company with the fitting slogan “Let’s plant a video”. So, get ready for the truth about BigDog, or some impressions of the beta-testing by Seedwell. Now I’m reassured – humanity won’t be defeated by machines, as long as we keep our humour...
Besides, if you wonder who the guy is, that’s into stuff like this: I’m Philipp, the actual intern of PLATOON. And if you want to build your personal army of machines to take over the world – here’s one more link by the Wired Magazine to check out - but be prepared - you’re not the only one...
