Fall of the Robots

Narrative IndustriesNews

As a society we put a lot of faith in technology; sometimes too much. Every once in a while it’s worth remembering that even the most advanced technology can be every bit as fallible as a human being and, occasionally, it can be as fallible as a very drunk human being.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have released a compilation of robots falling down from the DARPA Robotics Challenge in a strange sort-of “You’ve Been Framed” for the iPhone generation. This may not prove anything about technology but it does show that despite huge advances in our society there are few things as funny as watching someone fall over and, as DARPA stated:

As much as nobody wanted to see a robot fall, everybody wanted to see a robot fall.