Video: Hey, how about a robot post every now and then, huh?
posted at 3:48 pm on July 18, 2007 by Allahpundit
We are a bit overdue, aren’t we? All right, I’m giving you all you can handle here. First, the self-explanatory:
Next, robot soccer. Which I think you’ll find precisely as “cool” as that dopey robot zoo. Click the image to watch.
Finally, RunBot! It looks like something you’d build with a really primo Erector set but I assure you, it’s crucial for the eventual development of bipedal robots which we’ll be able to kill at will in the Westworld that’s sure to open outside Tokyo sometime this century. Exit question: Did it really not occur to them to use “Rockit” for the soundtrack here? Or could they not afford the rights?
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
But, thought Senator Byrd’s speech was the robot post!
naliaka on July 18, 2007 at 3:56 PM
robot zoo = congress
The Race Card on July 18, 2007 at 4:00 PM
Nah, that’s the senile old man post. This is the robot post.
Who doesn’t like the occasional robo-post?
Bad Candy on July 18, 2007 at 4:01 PM
Robots playing soccer? Pah. I’d much rather see robot carnage.
Slublog on July 18, 2007 at 4:09 PM
Why not? This is BOTAIR, right?
RedWinged Blackbird on July 18, 2007 at 4:16 PM
I thought that Gore was the robot? Oh, wait, he’s the Chilean sea bass eating, talking tree. Pardon.
OhEssYouCowboys on July 18, 2007 at 4:16 PM
Let’s not ruin a cool Robot post by comparing them to politicians, Robots actually learn from their mistakes.
Zaire67 on July 18, 2007 at 4:25 PM
Look! Solenoids!
km on July 18, 2007 at 4:36 PM
Zaire67 on July 18, 2007 at 4:25 PM
and Robots are created to actually serve a purpose, and they will faithfully and reliably carry that purpose out.
Mazztek on July 18, 2007 at 4:50 PM
That was cool watching that robot learn to walk up the ramp. It won’t be long now until we have humanoids. That walking motion is as real as I’ve seen in a robot with the bend at the knees. Thanks.
ThackerAgency on July 18, 2007 at 4:52 PM
A lot of good guest posters around here lately. Maybe the Humping Robot could use its AI to create its own posts from time to time.
eeyore on July 18, 2007 at 5:11 PM
I guess you didn’t see the post the other day of the Iraqi robotic soldier on the rocky terrain. Everyone here thought it was teh ghey, but it was really designed to fool the enemy (us) into not taking it seriously. Especially when it threw the grenade. While the enemy is laughing, a laser beam shoots out it’s chest and decapitates the infidel.
pedestrian on July 18, 2007 at 5:14 PM
That was great, thanks AP.
Now I need a cigarette.
Kini on July 18, 2007 at 5:31 PM
It’s not a robot post without humping!
lorien1973 on July 18, 2007 at 5:37 PM
I Have No Mouse And I Must Scream
(With apologies to H.E.)
profitsbeard on July 18, 2007 at 6:25 PM
If they Japanese had had these first ones in the stores for the Transformers tie-in, they’d now be rolling in sushi.
Or fugu.
profitsbeard on July 18, 2007 at 6:28 PM
Here I thought transformers were just a Hollywood thing.
boomer on July 18, 2007 at 7:42 PM
IMO robot soccer is much cooler than the robot zoo. AI is starting to make some strides, but is still very primitive. I like the NOVA show about the DARPA challenge:
Cars that drive themselves! Yes, I am a proud tech geek.
Snidely Whiplash on July 18, 2007 at 8:20 PM
I enjoyed the videos. Just one comment though:
Robots can compute, but robots cannot, nor will they ever in the future, think.
Robots, artificial intelligence, and computers lack rationality.
ColtsFan on July 18, 2007 at 8:46 PM
I think those chess playing computers would suggest otherwise. I also guess it depends on what you call thinking.
lorien1973 on July 18, 2007 at 9:58 PM
In stores this Christmas from Theo Spark. ….Caution Ladies
abinitioadinfinitum on July 18, 2007 at 10:02 PM
only because I know you like robot humping so much, this is close, it’s about at mark 4:40 also
AP more Courtney Friel for you
abinitioadinfinitum on July 18, 2007 at 10:23 PM
ColtsFan-
The simulation of active human consciousness (thinking) can never be duplicated, because we don’t understand ourselves, since it exceeds our self-awareness.
Can a machine dream? Or care?
If not, how can it do what we mean by think?
There will be truncated caricatures, but nothing more serious than a fun house mirror.
More dangerous, yes.
Because we are dangerous.
profitsbeard on July 18, 2007 at 10:46 PM
You are correct. If we redefine thinking to mere computation, then, yes computers, robots are able to do advanced, highly complicated, game-scenario moves. But is this thinking? No.
Computers, AI, and robots lack the capacity to think because they lack rationality. I think it is because these non-human entities were never made in the image of God.
ColtsFan on July 18, 2007 at 11:19 PM
It’s only a matter of a few decades before AI can make rational decisions that are far beyond human ability in a wide range of areas. Where humanity differs is that we have absolutely no idea how to make a machine conscious. The most capable computer we could conceive of, if it was left on its own wouldn’t for an instance realize that anything was missing from it’s existence. In comparison to even a severely mentally handicapped human, the most powerful computer would be an empty shell. And that is because God breathed life into Adam.
pedestrian on July 19, 2007 at 2:05 AM
Would you agree that future AI, computers, robot differ IN KIND from humans? Or would you say the difference is not of KIND but of a degree only?
ColtsFan on July 19, 2007 at 2:55 AM
At the level of what I consider rational thinking, the human brain is a computer that is similar in a lot of important ways to a powerful AI. But AI as we would know how to create it would lack consciousness, and that is a difference in kind. I consider consciousness to be a kind of reality that is as basic as matter, energy, time, and space. If we could create consiousness, that wouldn’t be so different from creating one of those others. In fact an artificial consciousness wouldn’t really care about the real world except as a source of fuel. The only consciousness we know of however, depends upon God for it’s existence. BTW, I don’t believe there is any evidence for the existence of free will.
pedestrian on July 19, 2007 at 2:30 PM
Pedestrian, profitsbeard, lorien1973, and others:
Greetings, since Allah has pulled this thread to archives, would you all be interested in discussing these questions at the following website:
http://lionofjudah.squarespace.com/journal/
Just email me at the top left hand corner. Maybe we can then set up a running thread. Yes, me and PRCaldude work at the same website, but he is the owner.
ColtsFan on July 20, 2007 at 1:05 PM