Wildcat: galloping 16mph robot

I see these as useful for the running of the bulls. Idiots can still get run over, no bulls will be hurt. Win/win.

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I, for one, welcome our galloping robot overlords.

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I can also imagine one on every street corner armed with cameras and weapons, keeping us all in line.

you might as well just be terrified of horse mounted police if all it takes for you to get terrified is something with guns that can chase people.

you might as well just be terrified of horse mounted police ā€“ says the person who has never seen footage of a cavalry charge by mounted riot police. Or the real thing.

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one day the name boston dynamics will be cursed as histories greatest monsters

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I wonder what the outer bounds of practical size are for this designā€¦ how large or small could one be?

Also, could it be, without disrupting operation, covered with an adorable Muppet costume with a shaggy pelt of long rainbow fur, big googly eyes on stalks, and a Seussian trumpet for a nose?

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What? what makes you think that? I tell the guy that if he is scared of that then mounted police would scare him more and you tell me I never saw mounted police?
A man with a gun on a horse is far more effective than investing into galloping machines , its also scarier if you know what they are capable of, trying to demonize technology just because it looks weird is extremely dumb.
Like another person said above, might as well mount guns on blimps, it would be far more effective.

That would be awesome, especially if it was T-Rex size! RAWR!

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OK Iā€™m starting a kickstarter to take this robot http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/05/jellyfish-killers and make it land-based, to take down olā€™ Arion there.

We are so pre-extinct.

Found it. Coincidentally, this was the first article I ever commented on at popsci.com *sheds single tear for fallen comments section*

It actually has more cool features than I even remembered.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-01/meet-athlete-nasas-robot-moon-walker

Well, that would depend on who is around to write the history, wouldnā€™t it?

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'twould be merciful were the history recorded in writing. At this rate, the best we can hope for is 1s and 0s.

Well, I would be somewhat terrified if we had armed police, mounted or otherwise, on every street corner.

However, no city can afford that - the only places I have seen that sort of coverage usually involved conscripted military kids - again, terrifying.

But, these things will be relatively cheap compared to mounted police or even military conscripts. No pay, no pension, no training. When mass produced they will be a bargain - and they will make it very feasible, resource wise, to put one on every corner. That is what will terrify me - the economies of scale robots like this imply when applied to repression.

In the UK (our closest current example of a panopticon), how hard would it be to network the endless video cameras with a few thousand of these ā€˜to keep the peaceā€™ in a city such as London?

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That said, I can also see a use for them as personal defense critters - like a dog but more trainable and more terrifying. Take it with you when you go running in the park at night, nobody will bother you.

Once again, technologyā€™s boons and terrors are in the hands of the user. These, sadly, will be in the hands of high-tech militaries and police forces first.

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It would be cheaper to just mount turrets on the cameras than to make walking robots with guns. Cmon guys, I know you all want to be terrified of something but at least make it economically viable!

As long as it is prohibited from exceeding the speed of sound in urban areasā€¦

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It is perhaps not entirely clear to you that the apocalyptic panic comments in this thread are humor.

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I think these guys have the best job in the world.

What they didnā€™t show is C3PO following closely behind, carrying a plastic grocery bag and hand sanitizer.

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