When I was a schoolteacher (recently retired), we had a robot club. I went with them four times to take part in the World Cup Robo-Soccer. They had every class of robot there including humanoids.

 

It was absolutely comical watching the humanoids because it took so long for each to figure out what he was supposed to do. I remember one time, the goalie was rubbing his back up and down the goal-post, like a bear on a tree, while the attacker was lining up for a shot, but it was no problem because the attacker tripped over his own foot when he tried to kick the ball at the open goal.there was a big crowd watching, and everyone in hysterics.

 

During those 4 years, the advancement in the robots' skill was very noticeable.

 

Many people were using lipos to power their robots. One time, in the main hall where there's tables on which the teams programme and fix their robots, there was a massive bang as a set of lipos went off. Everybody ran, and then, when things calmed down, everybody crowded round the table to see what happened - just as the second set went off!

 

Fond memories.

Amusing anecdotes, D8veh, (made me smile), and, sure, it was all very painful to watch even just a few short years ago BUT A.I, (now more astutely described as 'Machine Intelligence' and motor advances, (as in the actual physical technologies used to motorise / actualise robotic movement and feedback), is advancing at such a pace as to seem intimidating.

 

I regard myself, have always regarded myself, as a futurist keen to push things as swiftly, (and as early), as I could get my head around an idea or concept but the pace of innovation in robotics and machine intelligence has advanced so quickly over the last few years, it has left me feeling seriously concerned for ourselves as a species.

 

Even without the, often, negative, (and reasonable), warnings from the likes of Musk and Hawkings, the concept of 'singularity', (the tipping point where artificial intelligence will match and then, exponentially, accellerate way past some equivilent expression of human intellect), WILL happen, possibly in our own lifetimes - say the next 20 years. (I'm currently 60).

 

Some folk dismiss such happenings as ridiculous, citing our own human intelligence as representing an unattainable goal for 'mere machines' but I often cite insect intelligence as a counter argument, reminding others that even a basic ant or bee colony, (though consisting of thousands or tens of thousands of individual tiny brains of limited computing power), can display utterly breathtaking social feedback, topographical awareness and intelligence based decisions ... based on no more than "the power of numbers" being applied ... even by such ancient, rudimentary insect feed back systems.

 

The military, (and others), have now picked up on this alternate concept of non human intelligence and, as an example, the insect intelligent feed back loop can now orchestrate hundreds of electronic drones at a time, with each small on board computing processor contributing to a greater 'whole' that, for all intents and purposes, can "think", plan, organise, deploy and act ... without, what we humans might call intelligence as we used to perceive it.

 

And here is something to think about ...

 

I am not some conspiracy theorist OR a great believer in the idea of UFO's, (although with every star now considered to have an exoplanet or two orbiting around it, the idea of UFO's cannot be regarded as fiction any more), BUT ... there was always one question nobody ever understood.

 

IF UFO's could travel at thousands of miles per hour yet turn, at right angles, in an instant, the inertia or G force should turn the occupants bodies to mush! Right?

 

Perhaps but ... that line of thinking assumes such occupants follow some human blueprint, (with flesh, blood and guts encased in a sack of skin).

 

I offer a solution to the conundrum.

 

The reason the occupants of a 'flying disk from another world' don't fuss about inertia or gravity is because ... they are, likely, not flesh and blood but, rather, solid state and, for lack of a better word, electronic ... or machine-like.

 

Think about it.

 

Even using terrestrial phrasing, a thinking, sentient being composed of motherboard, graphite, kevlar or some similar, near indestructable material, (rather than flesh and bones), could be / would be bothered, not a jot, in the sudden 'inhuman' G forces of changing direction at 10,000 mph!

 

In a nutshell, aliens, if we ever lived long enough as a, (free), species to encounter them, are, in all probabilty, going to be based on a technology we, here in the first part of the 21st century, are actually inventing right now.

 

They, (whoever they are), say that the downfall of every civilisation is seeded in that civilisations greatest achievement.

 

Our greatest acheivement will be to create sentient, self aware, artificial life.

 

I'm convinced that same incredible achievement will also herald our own extinction.

 

However ... looking on the cheery side, between now and that time, Robotic Hardware Stores, (looking just like our current bicycle stores), will spring up all over the globe and, just like the bicycle and the electric bike / pedelec industry, (and culture), there will come a time where old, redundant robots will lie rusting at the bottom of our gardens, (or be getting disposed of at our Local Authority recycling centres), and, until the revolution comes, we will have a few years, (maybe 10 - 20 years), to aquire, buy, mod or tinker with humanoid and other robotic forms in exactly the same way we aquire, buy, mod or tinker with our electric bikes and pedelecs.

 

I'm entering that phase myself right now ... by 3D printing my own humanoid ... and getting to grips with the open source A.I / machine language that will turn my creation into a 'meet and greet' entity that will welcome the customers that walk down my passageway.

Edited March 7, 20179 yr by Beach Thorncombe

Hah!

 

See?

 

Thanks, IR772.

 

The very fact that Boston Dynamics's Big Dog is being parodied in a YouTube video just goes to show that the 'robot' of science fiction fame is no longer corralled in a time and space representing a mere possibility of "what might be".

 

For those unfamiliar with the real Big Dog, here is the official Boston Dynamics machine.

 

D8veh,

 

Can you do me a favour and address the question I asked earlier?

 

"Blimey, D8veh. Do you mean blitz in a positive way as in it'll make my Powabyke rock!!!??? OR do you mean blitz in an ominous way as in ... it'll destroy the forks and tear my machine apart???!!! "

I mean that it would win substantially in a race.

Ha ha.

 

Thanks D8veh. :-)

 

That's good to know!!!