THIS IS THE OUTRUNNER, A TINY LITTLE KICKSTARTER BOT WITH SOME SERIOUS SPRINTING POWER. IT'S COOL, BUT...
Some think the robot apocalypse might be an overblown fabrication dreamed up by sci-fi dorks. But if machines like DARPA's clumsy and ambling Atlas bot really do become sentient killing machines, at the very least we'd be able to outrun them, right?
Wrong.
Over here we have a little guy called OutRunner, which has legs specifically built to mimic those of fleshy humans but can maintain speeds of 20 miles an hour outdoors. Don't let its pint size or the fact that it spins like the Road Runner's blurry feet fool you. It can run pretty much anywhere: On roads. Off-road. It doesn't matter. Unless you happen to be named Usain Bolt, the OutRunner--which the creators say broke the world speed record for legged robots--will catch up to you when your feeble human anatomy breaks down.
One glimmer of hope: The remote-control operated OutRunner is still in its Kickstarter phase, and just $20,000 have been pledged of its $150,000 goal. Fund it if you'd like, but know this: You are making things that much easier for our one-day machine overlords to capture us and store our bodies in biology-sucking battery pods. Swear your allegiances now.
Courtesy of an article dated May 16, 2014 appearing in Fast Company
Comments