Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/baseball-stadium-invites-danci.html
…
4 Likes
So, 21?
They should have brought her in instead
My god that was disturbing. Worse than a bad “Black Mirror” episode.
2 Likes
Seems like baseball stadiums (and other outdoor sports) could still have fans come, just in smaller numbers (better than nothing) and make sure they were all seated several rows/seats apart. Everyone wears masks, mobile vending only (no lines), maybe fill out the rest of the stadium with mannequins/inflatables/etc.
1 Like
The whole display is weirdly disturbing and dystopian, but I have to say, when those Boston Dynamics bots rotate their butts around, it’s pretty cute, like a puppy being playful. If the bots in “Metalhead” did that, they would have been much more effective assassins: “Oh, stop, look it’s being so adorab - gak!”
6 Likes
It would be more authentic if the robots had AI to root for either team. And maybe some rioting in the case of soccer (football) matches.
As someone who was a teen in the 80s, twerking robot dogs is something I never expected from the future.
7 Likes
How long until Trump does this with his rallies? They would have to paint them white though. Put hats on 'em.
2 Likes
For the first minute or so, I thought they had intentionally blurred out the “Boston” part of the “Boston Dynamics” brand on the dogbots. Then there was a close-up that showed “Boston” clearly, but in a gray font that just fades into the background color when there’s any sort of distance. I would have expected top-notch high-def from a televised sporting event.
Now fetch me a hotdog.
1 Like
The robot puppers were fine, but the blank-faced babyzoids were straight out of the Uncanny Valley. Still got the shudders now.
2 Likes
Visuals can be addressed — well or (more likely) not – but what about the sounds? Don’t we need robots that’ll sass the players and umps!
You’re a bum!
You blind idiot!
Go back to … bzzzzzzzzzzzzz-pop… minors!
I was thinking the same thing. Just get people into every fifth seat and you still have a “full” stadium. You could raffle off the chance to buy the tickets and the exclusivity would make up for the lack of conviviality for the lucky winners.
1 Like
I’m still waiting for someone to green screen in a crowd from an older game into the stands or a stadium of some sort of event.
1 Like
This is the perfect thing to power itself up when the last survivor of Covid enters the dark stadium and it kicks in like an old Wurlitzer.
2 Likes
doesn’t say much about the dogs reliability, seeing as they lost two before it even starts, and six of them by the end
3 Likes
This is what the ball games on Camazotz must look like.
I thought it was interesting that the pups were all in absolute perfect sync while the humanoids has some variation to the timing of their movements. For these group robot shows I’d program each feed to add a little wiggle room (like drum machines had a ‘swing’ setting that was able to trigger the strike some randomly generated number of milliseconds around the downbeat) to give the group performance more ‘life’ so to speak. Perfection can be quite boring.
3 Likes
The day that robots themselves can actually be invited to anything, is the day we find out just how friendly they can be.
2 Likes
