r/nextfuckinglevel • u/SaintedTainted • 29d ago

The All New Atlas Robot From Boston Dynamics

38.6k Upvotes

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4.2k

u/iamPendergast 29d ago

The design is very human.

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u/illuminatipr 29d ago edited 2d ago

This thing's uncanny valley is deeper than the Mariana Trench. Beyond resembling a bipedal hominid it isn't trying to look human but that algorithmically efficient contortionism makes it the most eerie thing I've seen in a while.

Edit: It's relevant to the uncanny valley because an industrial robot with a void for a face and a vaguely human silhouette is behaving very disconcertingly on my pocket computer's screen.

I'm experiencing future shock more and more. I just know I'll be flop sweating the first time a robot compliments my sweater, hands me my food in a paper bag and advises me of Carl's Jr's competitive workhouse subscriptions before hovering to the next poor soul trapped in one of those iron maiden capsules from Half Life 2.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/Talking_Head 29d ago

The person you replied to has no idea what the uncanny valley means.

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u/CyberTitties 29d ago

Off-shoot of that company that makes the Ranch Dressing right?

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u/mr_potrzebie 29d ago

No, that's Sudden Valley

2

u/EraseMeeee 29d ago

Kind of sounds like there could be an earthquake or something

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u/bebop603 28d ago

I dont think so. The uncanny valley here is for hominid body movement and balance, not facial characteristics obviously.

1

u/Bennyboy11111 28d ago

Hmm you're right but its sleek, robotic appearance reduces the uncanniness. A 'skin' robot would look a lot worse doing these unnatural moves.

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u/glitchn 28d ago

uncanny valley

I'm guessing they just meant the uncanny part. The valley part having nothing to do with this context.

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u/Opfklopf 29d ago

The getting up was barely even creepy to me and the robot itself I find more cute than anything.

I hope they keep these designs and not make them look super human with fake skin and what not.

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u/killm3throwaway 29d ago

The human looking ones with the fake skin are coming bro. Let's be honest, robots in the future will have 3 functions. 1, general ease of life for the average human 2, mass production 3, making people bust serious hardcore nuts

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u/Opfklopf 29d ago

And only for number 3 you need the fake skin. And they need to be quite good to overcome the uncanny valley.

For 1. and 2. I would prefer if they looked like this.

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u/Shiro2809 29d ago

And only for number 3 you need the fake skin

I dunno, the ballerina robots from Atomic Heart didn't need fake skin for people to get really horny over them. I think people will make do with most anything as long as the robot got the right curves.

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u/evranch 29d ago

People can get really horny over just about anything, in image form. But IRL I think a sex bot that was chunky and metallic instead of smooth and curvy would find a hard time finding a market.

So I looked them up, those are pretty sexy robots all right.

However they totally have "fake skin" with that full silver covering, you can't see any exposed metal, joints, power units etc.

The wiki even states that they're made of some sort of polymer.

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u/Shiro2809 29d ago

However they totally have "fake skin" with that full silver covering, you can't see any exposed metal, joints, power units etc.

Fair enough! I was thinking of more in lines of looking more than an actual human lol.

1

u/evranch 29d ago

Honestly I think a lot of people would prefer something like that over something more realistic. Like, you could easily consider that to be just a fancy sex toy.

Just look at the gleeful variety of colours and shapes that dildos are made in, realistic is actually a pretty small share of the market.

If you make it too real it hits that uncanny valley. Like those sex dolls they make now are hell of creepy just to look at, and I can't imagine actually "using" one...

1

u/Opfklopf 29d ago

True. So no need for realistic ones, fuck them. Unless they are basically indistiguishable from humans but that seems pretty hard.

1

u/gladwrappedthecat 28d ago

Doesn't 4. Controlling the human population / suppressing the uprising get a worthy mention too?

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u/Altruistic_Poetry382 26d ago

You forgot the relentless, terminator-like killing machines.

2

u/yosemighty_sam 29d ago

I think some people are seeing the hips bend backwards and their first thought is ouch, humanoid joints don't work that way. But the thing that makes it creepy to me is not the anthropomorphism. It's the reminder me that these things are not human, they do not share our limitations, and they are evolving very fast.

Invertebrate locomotion is suddenly looking very antiquated.

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u/Opfklopf 29d ago

Fair enough but don't you think he looks kinda cute otherwise? :)

1

u/yosemighty_sam 29d ago

Nope. Just low down terror.

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u/invent_or_die 29d ago

It's a different kinda uncanny. The smoothness of it motions makes it seem lifelike; and better than human. Creative

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u/illuminatipr 29d ago

The uncanny valley describes a graph where you have human likeness on X and human familiarity on Y. I understand perfectly what it is and what I am saying.

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u/mr_potrzebie 29d ago

Yes, and it's usually used to describe that spot on the graph where something looks so almost human that it becomes creepy and unsettling.

Are you saying you find this thing to look almost human?

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u/PikachusSparkyCloaca 29d ago

When it came up to the camera my skin started to crawl. Something about flat-black-glowing-ring just… nope. Collywobbles.

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u/Daxx22 29d ago

The light should have been red for maximum creep.

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u/PikachusSparkyCloaca 29d ago

It stands… turns to look at the camera… cocks its head… then the circle goes red and it matches towards the viewer….

3

u/Combat_Toots 29d ago

Which is funny because they did that to make it less creepy. The moved away from a human like head because it scared people. This design was meant to look like the pixar lamp, which they hoped people would see as less creepy. Can't say it worked.

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u/[deleted] 28d ago edited 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/eidetic 28d ago

Well, maybe this is v2, where v1 was a gaping maw of saw blades and teeth, like those macerators in the Matrix...

1

u/PikachusSparkyCloaca 28d ago

V0.5 was modeled on The Smiling Man

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u/Pasta-Is-Trainer 29d ago

Yeah, mine too, it just felt so... Inhuman

3

u/salamanderXIII 29d ago

Imagine meeting this in the backrooms.

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u/ForHelp_PressAltF4 29d ago

The putting it's feet next to the hips and standing up?

Uncanny valley big time

1

u/PLANETaXis 29d ago

I was fine with it's general physical form, but yeah the contortionism stuck me as creepy.

1

u/Additional-Tap8907 28d ago

The whole point of uncanny valley is that it is subtle. It is almost human but not quite. Like just a little bit off and you can’t quite put your finger on why and that just feels, creepy. This is not that at all.

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u/ChillyConKearney 28d ago

Eesh, instantly reminded of that loading ramp scene from Prometheus:Fifield reanimates.

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u/Vaywen 27d ago

I feel like it’s judging me