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<DIV>I had the same reaction as Andrew, because the stair-climbing robot
reminded me of the Terminator. Grrlbot and others have had no such effect on me.
I hope that manufacturers of civilian robots will work to make them look
friendly, leaving the scary-looking designs to the military.</DIV>
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<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=alainahardie@gmail.com
href="mailto:alainahardie@gmail.com">Alaina Hardie</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, April 19, 2012 1:00 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=cyborg@lists.noisebridge.net
href="mailto:cyborg@lists.noisebridge.net">cyborg@lists.noisebridge.net</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Cyborg] stair climbing DARPA robot</DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">I
dunno, I find this quite exciting. This robot is just a mechanical object
performing mechanical actions, albeit with some really great adaptability. As a
roboticist it gives me great hope for the future of general-purpose robots. I
mean, I have a hard time making Grrlbot's freaking wheeled base drive in a
straight line, and I haven't even started to consider what would be required for
her to walk up stairs or even get in an elevator and get out on the right floor.
The thing that really troubles me is that it is funded by DARPA, rather than
being a project that was created by hackers and makers.
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As an aside, it's informative that we have such visceral reactions to
videos like this. In one of his talks on the current state of robotics, Dan
Barry shows the 2008 video of Big Dog getting kicked and recovering its footing
at around 0:35 of this video: <A
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww</A>.
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<DIV>In addition to the obvious "holy crap" moment that roboticists and other
technical people have (because they know what it must require for a robot to do
that), a significant portion of the audience--myself included, the first time I
saw it--has an "I can't believe you kicked that animal!" reaction. He says
(and I agree) that this indicates that we could readily develop emotional
connections with robots. I'm already quite attached to my robot, and the only
interesting things she does are follow me, perform head tracking, and spin
around in circles when she is "happy".</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I'm excited for the future, but it will definitely have to be managed
carefully. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>- A</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>On 2012-04-18, at 8:57 PM, Andrew Cantino wrote:</DIV><BR
class=Apple-interchange-newline>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">
<DIV>Watching that video gave me an actual visceral sense of fear.
The<BR>future is scary.<BR><BR>@tectonic<BR><BR>On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 11:15
AM, Eric Boyd <<A
href="mailto:mrericboyd@yahoo.com">mrericboyd@yahoo.com</A>> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><A
href="http://singularityhub.com/2012/04/18/darpas-new-robot-conquers-stairs/">http://singularityhub.com/2012/04/18/darpas-new-robot-conquers-stairs/</A><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">It's surprisingly organic looking, much more so than
ASIMO (who is now<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">over a decade old, I guess). It also
intriguing to see that it uses an<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">arm to stabilize itself as it climbs the stairs - I
wonder how necessary<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">that is? You'd think it would be almost as
much work to make a<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">functioning arm and write the software for using it
for balance control<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">as it would be to just make the stair climbing legs
/ software not<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">require it!<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">I think this latest DARPA robot challenge should be
super interesting to<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite">watch!<BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>
<BLOCKQUOTE
type="cite">Eric</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>