Russkies in Oklahoma!

[seabolt]

at the risk of taking the thread even farther OT than it is

Um, this thread has a topic? I kinda started it mostly to self-confine my various ravings ...

The first video shows a quadruped robot navigating both sheer ice and a jumble of cinder blocks. The second video shows how the vision system of Stanley works. (Stanley was the winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous ground vehicle race).

Oh, I'm certainly not saying that the technology won't exist. Big Dog's a little creepy, but it's also a fascinating proof of concept. The vision system had less "wow" to it, but it still shows that challenge will be met, too.

I'll stand by the assertion that it's a long way from proof of concept to militarized ready state. Those things aren't Hero's aerophile needing to wait 1,600 years for Watt's working steam engine, certainly not. But they might be Chinese fireworks needing to stew a solid century before the idiotproof, practical matchlock.

-- 30 --