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An impressive robot is just so much more novel and interesting than a feat of human strength. Not to say sports aren't impressive, or that professional athletes

An impressive robot is just so much more novel and interesting than a feat of human strength. Not to say sports aren't impressive, or that professional athletes aren't incredibly dedicated and talented, but someone hitting a baseball isn't very interesting.

bglazer 12y ago
A biological computer estimates the position of an object that's moving much faster than the refresh rate of its visual system using years of training data. Simultaneously it triggers a cascade of actuators, twisting its body so that its hands reach maximum velocity at the same time the object reaches the bat it's holding. It loses sight of the ball, which is following a curved trajectory, while doing this. It then takes off running at 20mph. That's fantastically mysterious and incredible to me. I'm not trying to minimize robotics or Boston Dynamics. It's an amazing field. I just think people under appreciate the movement of the human body.
- Dylan16807 12y ago
  But they're all the same with no progression over time. Not fascinating to me in the long term.
RogerL 12y ago
Do you realize how much time and study catchers put into the abilities of every pitcher, and every opponent that their pitchers face? It's very data based, combined with prodigious amounts of athletics on the part of both the pitcher and hitter. The pitcher is trying to capitalize on the batter's weaknesses without just giving away his plan (you can hit much better if you know a slow curveball to the indise is coming). The batter is trying to watch the pitcher and detect things like late delivery, changes in release points, putting spin on the ball, and so on. Then they are tracking mid time scale things - is the pitcher getting tired, is he losing control, are his pitches drifting to the outside. Or this batter has struck out 3 times now - was that a random walk, is he having trouble with a specific pitch, is he perhaps injured? Then there is the long range stuff - how does this batter fair against left handed pitchers. As of late baseball has been a pitching game. It's often not high score, but it is a fascinating thing to watch, if you have this context. Now, whether you want to keep all that in your brain is another question, and I mostly choose not to, so in practice it is less interesting to me. But there are endless depths there to plumb.

bglazer 12y ago

A biological computer estimates the position of an object that's moving much faster than the refresh rate of its visual system using years of training data. Simultaneously it triggers a cascade of actuators, twisting its body so that its hands reach maximum velocity at the same time the object reaches the bat it's holding. It loses sight of the ball, which is following a curved trajectory, while doing this. It then takes off running at 20mph. That's fantastically mysterious and incredible to me. I'm not trying to minimize robotics or Boston Dynamics. It's an amazing field. I just think people under appreciate the movement of the human body.

Dylan16807 12y ago
But they're all the same with no progression over time. Not fascinating to me in the long term.

RogerL 12y ago

Do you realize how much time and study catchers put into the abilities of every pitcher, and every opponent that their pitchers face? It's very data based, combined with prodigious amounts of athletics on the part of both the pitcher and hitter. The pitcher is trying to capitalize on the batter's weaknesses without just giving away his plan (you can hit much better if you know a slow curveball to the indise is coming). The batter is trying to watch the pitcher and detect things like late delivery, changes in release points, putting spin on the ball, and so on. Then they are tracking mid time scale things - is the pitcher getting tired, is he losing control, are his pitches drifting to the outside. Or this batter has struck out 3 times now - was that a random walk, is he having trouble with a specific pitch, is he perhaps injured? Then there is the long range stuff - how does this batter fair against left handed pitchers. As of late baseball has been a pitching game. It's often not high score, but it is a fascinating thing to watch, if you have this context. Now, whether you want to keep all that in your brain is another question, and I mostly choose not to, so in practice it is less interesting to me. But there are endless depths there to plumb.