For instance, I had a very memorable experience when I saw a 20 minute presentation of ASIMO at Disneyland a couple years ago. ASIMO even has his own website. Naturally, seeing him online or in a video doesn’t have the same impact as seeing him in person.

Well, ASIMO is a pretty impressive humanoid robot, but BigDog is an amazing demonstration of a quadruped robot. The video on the BigDog webpage shows off how agile the robot can be. It’s amazing how natural its movement seems!

Props to Cali Lewis of GeekBrief fame for featuring this amazing robot.

You know, by the end of the video, the comparison to a book is so simplistic, I really was wondering just what it is that makes it so difficult to understand how a computer can store our information..

As usual, my post is based on a recent technology news article: Robo-Toddler Learns to Walk Like a Human.

This is quite an impressive feat, especially considering the fact that this creation is learning how to walk, which undoubtedly is what helps it further develop by walking on differing terrain, walking backward, and even adjusting when it trips. When compared with existing technology, this latest innovation is quite a wonderful leap in application of science.

However, I found it nearly comical how the article compared the robot’s gait with that of a human. Despite acknowledgment that “the walking robot looks more like a moving Erector set than a human being”, there were a few times that the robot’s behavior or movement was compared to that of a human being. Really, though, couldn’t one say that its gait is just as similar to that of a monkey? And to be brutally honest, this expensive chrome creature’s maneuverability is likely found lacking next to the most simple-minded living animal.

Whereas such comparisons may even be angering to some–as it could be suggested that they miss the point of this breakthrough–they certainly are not intended to evoke such a reaction. They just help us appreciate that we have a long way to go as creators, even if we are such only in a biomimetic sense. In this changed perspective, the phrase “like a human” suddenly becomes almost laughable.

Incredible as it is to believe, this has actually been recommended by some amateurs. I admit, my first response was intrigue. I thought, “That may actually work!”

Of course, then common sense steps in and you realize what a dangerous idea that really is. Like the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane research division said, “Hurricanes are bad enough without being radioactive. Put that genie back in the bottle. Nuclear weapons are more dangerous than hurricanes.”

Can you imagine if we blew a nuclear weapon in the eye of a hurricane? If it disrupted the hurricane, oceanic wind currents would blow the nuclear fallout into nearby land. And think of how far a hurricane gets inland. Even here as far northwest as Illinois, we sometimes feel the effects of hurricanes (although they are only light storms or rain by the time they reach us). Can you imagine the widespread devastation such a radioactive storm would bring?

Fortunately, no professionals are foolish enough to even entertain such an idea. But even for the amateur storm chasers, I have to wonder why they don’t look past their nose when they think of such ideas? But I hope the very concept gave you a laugh like it did for me.

What makes the difference, I imagine, is if you got good mileage before you trashed the vehicle. I suppose NASA can say they did, since their “vehicle” had traveled 1.86 million miles before it crashed. ;-D

I am referring to NASA’s Genesis Project, which was launched on August 8, 2001, involved intricate recovery plans that pilots started training for in 1999, and ended in futility earlier today when the spacecraft accidentally crash landed during reentry. Ouch!

Check it out at: NASA Capsule With Solar Particles Crashes in Utah.

Without any further ado, let me introduce an article:
Taming the Paper Tiger

Granted, this article was much more concrete than my commentary. It actually spoke to printing documents and reports, and software that addressed the issues behind the glut of printing in the corporate world, elicited by the easy accessibility of information provided by computers. But for a moment, consider the thrust of the article on a far more conceptual level.

For those of you who have bought into the digital camera game, when is the last time you actually printed all your photos from your vacation and placed them in your physical photo album? Or, rather, did you create a photo album available electronically either locally on your machine or over the web? I know I haven’t printed many photos, despite having a nice photo printer and spare ink sitting on the shelf. Not that I never print a picture, but I find myself using electronic photo albums much more frequently. Nevertheless, my wife and I were looking for a couple good photos awhile ago (ironically, to scan into the computer), and even thought it was just for a few minutes, I thoroughly enjoyed looking through our physical photo albums.

And let’s consider the topic of document printing for a moment. In the article, the author said, “It used to be that we would print and distribute; now we distribute and print. Instead of making 50 copies to send around, we send one e-mail and everyone prints it out individually.” I got quite a kick out of this. There is a lot of truth behind this statement. As I write this, I’m referring to the printed magazine version of the article, even though I provide you the electronic link to the same article, because it’s much more relaxing to read on real paper. And these facts apply more so in the corporate world, where email may contain information that we need to study and reference, unlike a lot of personal email that we may just read and file (or delete).

Don’t get me wrong. I think that digital music, photos and documents are a great idea. But it certainly is noticeable that as physical beings, this increasing amount of virtual content imposes a certain amount of discomfort on our non-virtual selves. Until our bodies become completely virtual, that predicament will always exist. And unless you’re changing your name to Neo, I don’t think that will be happening anytime soon.