Ride the Lightning

Is Google Becoming Skynet? Why is it Buying Robotic Companies?

December 24, 2013

Interesting questions, raised by a Business Week article. Google has recently acquired Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed robots for the Pentagon and has close ties to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Google has been aggressively buying robot makers over the past year. I keep wondering why.

DARPA is funding Boston Dynamics’s development of a prototype robot called the Cheetah. In March 2012, the company announced that the cat-like bot managed to gallop 18 mph on a treadmill, setting a new land speed record for legged robots, and the machine eventually surpassed 29 mph in subsequent tests.

Boston Dynamics has also developed a quadrupedal pack robot called the Legged Squad Support System (LS3). Beyond that, Boston Dynamics has a prototype human-like robot in the works called the Atlas that can walk upright and use its hands for balance while squeezing through narrow passages on surveillance or emergency-rescue missions.

Want to take a look at some of these (pretty scary) robots? Courtesy of my friend Dave Ries, here are some links (and there will be others on the right side of your screen).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE3fmFTtP9g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISznqY3kESI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptyV1cpE14o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gi6Ohnp9x8

If you think your dog goes nuts when he sees a squirrel or a deer, imagine his reaction to these things. Personally, I don't want to see any of these things galloping, hopping, flying or otherwise maneuvering in my neighborhood.

The Cheetah has not been deployed (yet) for combat. Will it be under Google's ownership? It’s worth recalling that one of Google’s 10 corporate precepts is: You can make money without doing evil. My thought? We'll see if the precept holds.

And on that somber note, I shift tone and wish all those who celebrate Christmas a very merry Christmas – in the midst of so many dreadful news stories, I have delighted in the stories of those who are "paying it forward" by paying off layoff items for strangers. My grandfather, a lay minister, used to say, "You may regret many things in your life, but you'll never regret doing good." Amen, Grandpa Abbott.

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