Google owned Boston Dynamics is a robotics company that is known for creating some creepy yet amazing robots in the past, but they have upped the ante with their new untethered Atlas robot.
This new version of Atlas can operate doors inside buildings, lift and stack boxes, and walk on uneven surfaces like snow without falling. In the video, one of the engineers repeatedly antagonizes the robot by knocking it down with a hockey stick, in order to test its ability to stand back up after being pushed down. After being knocked down, the robot would spring back up into a standing position every time.
We all saw what happened in the Terminator movies and I, Robot, so it’s safe to say that beating robots with hockey sticks will not produce good results for humanity.
On a more serious note, this leap in technology is truly remarkable and will create a future that will be vastly different from what humans have experienced in the last 100 years. I have always used the motto, “Don’t get a job that robots can do.”, but it appears that new developments in robotic technology could impact the simplest everyday tasks in the near future.