This video shows a developmental version of a military robot called "Big Dog" from Boston Dynamics. It's designed to accompany a soldier on the battlefield to provide a variety of support services.
The technology is incredible, but it's definitely in the uncanny valley as far as I'm concerned.
Technology derived from the Big Dog will certainly save American lives in the future. But I wonder what it will mean for us as a society if our natural distaste for war and the concomitant battlefield losses leads us eventually to delegate the commission of violence to machines. When we choose to commit violence, though the reasons may be justified, I think we are nevertheless due some of the wages of that violence -- or at least, it behooves us to accept them, if we are to remain a compassionate society.
It definitely wins for creepiest looking invention. Maybe if it didn't sound like a raging hive of hornets... or if it had a head... But at least soldiers won't be bonding with them and wanting to take them home like they do with dogs.
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