Mr. Future

A lot of net attention has been rightly paid to Boston Dynamics‘ / DARPA’s “Big Dog” robotic pack mule this week. It’s uncanny all-terrain gate makes for amazing video footage for robot-fans. When combined with the strangely sympathetic shots of an employee kicking the beast to show that it’s very hard knock it off balance, it’s an irresistible watch, and re-watch.

But there’s something a little ominous and sad about the video. Watching it, you just know that there’s a military department that has already drawn up plans to strap a weapon to the back of the camo-clad robot. Like the Soviet anti-tank dogs, it was born drafted, destined to be kicked as a show of resilience, until it’s sent into the field. It’s amazing, but for some reason, it’s hard to feel particularly good about it.

The best antidote for the sad wisdom of a robot on the road to weaponization is a robot designed to make a dog happy. Jerry the wiener dog has his own fetch-bot, and he demonstrably loves playing with it.

“..after two years of on and off work, with many safety features such as IR proximity sensors to protect Jerry and my son from the machine, I finally complete[ted it].

Far from being a replacement for me, I was always right there with him enjoying his fun. And with all the troubles that I went through to build the ball machine, I still end up throwing more balls than that the machine could count”

Though it’s comparatively a simpler robot, there’s something perfect and right about it. The next time the DOD wants to show off its newest kill-bot, I’m going to re-watch Jerry here, just to remind myself about why robots are great.

Link (via BotJunkie)