Engadget just featured a great article on Boston Dynamics and their newest Atlas robot. It’s pretty clear the best way to test Atlas’s ability to recover from a trip, fall or stumble is to trip it, and make it fall or stumble.  

Atlas is a pretty rad robot. It’s ability to recover is pretty amazing. In the snowy field it kind of looks like a functioning alcoholic. Not fall down drunk but definitely not having an easy go of it. 

While Atlas is the most advanced version of a humanoid robot it still has a lot to learn. The guy with hockey stick is testing and teaching Atlas but he actually comes off kind of like a dick. Here’s this cute robot trying its best to do chores, clean up and just get around. And here comes this guy making a fool of Atlas in front of the camera. 

Watch the video above, you’ll see what I mean. Now let’s just say Atlas continues to evolve and maybe even some day it gains actual intelligence and free thinking ability. In that situation what do you think the first thing Atlas will do? Once it realizes it’s smarter than its creators then it’ll take control of that hockey stick, and I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of. 

Be nice to robots, you never know when they are going to revolt and take over the world. Written by Jesse Friedman, an advocate for the ethical treatment of robots.