Google Buys Boston Dynamics, the Company That Makes Robot Nightmares a Reality

​Google announced late Friday night that it has purchased a robotics firm that builds machines featuring lifelike movement that you shouldn't watch videos of, say, late on a Friday night.

Boston Dynamics, which describes itself as the "leading provider of human simulation software, tools, and solutions," was purchased by the Palo Alto monolith (remember when it was just a search engine?) for an unspecified sum, according to The New York Times.

While Boston Dynamics has contracts with the U.S. military's advanced research department worth many millions, Google has said that it will not pursue that avenue, though it will see through all existing work, which includes Atlas, a humanoid anthropomorphic robot developed for DARPA. Will Google continue in its simple mantra, "Don't be evil?" We'll have to wait and see. 

But the news comes hot on the heels of Google's announcement that it dreams of android sheep a robot workforce that would allow humans to avoid more dangerous work as well as electronics assembly. According to The Times, it had already purchased seven firms before this major addition in Boston Dynamics.

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The only possible explanation for the purchase is that Google is set to launch Google Night Terrors, as Boston Dynamics robots move with the kind of lifelike movement shared by demons and hellhounds. Just take a look at this galloping monstrosity, capable of moving at 16 mph, meaning there is no escape.

And then there's this lumbering horror, the BigDog, spindly black legs and all, which could theoretically help rescue people in tough terrain or track you down, growling at the scent of your blood.

You can't even knock them down by kicking them. What hope do we have?

It's hard to say whether this is a general sentiment of terror or the coming of the singularity, or if Google is just taking the whole conceit of the Android brand to the next terrifying level.

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/technology/2013/12/google-bought-boston-dynamics-company-makes-robot-nightmares-reality/356153/

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