Boston Dynamics has made some pretty incredible progress. The very first videos had Atlas and Spot "walking" but really more like controlled tripping. It was co

Boston Dynamics has made some pretty incredible progress. The very first videos had Atlas and Spot "walking" but really more like controlled tripping. It was cool and impressive, but definitely in line with my idea of what was possible in robotics. The most recent video has Atlas doing parkour. It's skin crawling. It looks fake. It can jump and flip better than I ever could. It is suddenly out of step with what I ever thought a robot would do. Conventionally, I would agree that this sounds like an insane overreach from Musk, but it feels like the ground is shifting under my feet and the previously preposterous is becoming suddenly possibly with increasing frequency. Anyway, better that it gets me my groceries than hunts me down through the forest.