A Dog Like No Other
The militaries of the world are behind some of the most fascinating technological developments (e.g. the computer). The US Department of Defense has an agency within it, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), that not only birthed the internet, but is continuing to do, and sponsor, some amazing things.
First, there is the DARPA Grand Challenge, which is an event where groups (mostly universities) build artificially intelligent cars that race through an obstacle course. This is probably the most widely known project that the DARPA group is working on.
I saw another DARPA project a while ago, and found myself talking about it again recently. Boston Scientific is working on a quadruped robot known as BigDog. Absolutely bizarre. Check out the video of it in action, and try not to be scared and amazed at the same time.
