Google Buys DARPA-funded Robotics Firm Boston DynamicsAaron Dykes and Melissa Melton The Times of India reports: The deal is also the clearest indication yet that Google is intent on building a new class of autonomous systems that might do anything from warehouse work to package delivery and even elder care. So Google is building a new class of autonomous systems that might do anything To that end, Boston Dynamics is now the eighth robotics firm Google has bought over the past six months. The search engine giant has been tight-lipped so far about what exactly it plans to do with all of these robots, but it is clear that Boston Dynamics is spearheading a revolution a robotic revolution. Gee. Great. According to the Google exec who lead the Android effort Andy Rubin, the companys robotics push is a moonshot alluding to a grand scale project that could transform the landscape but he has declined to comment any further. For Rubin, Boston Dynamics climbing, jumping and running array of machines are part of an emerging wave of autonomous machines, commenting that, computers are starting to sprout legs and move around in the environment. Should Googles latest purchase be a tad more than a little disconcerting to the average person? Multiple reasons why it should immediately come to mind: Google, a company with a CEO quoted as saying things like We know where you are. We know where youve been. We can more or less know what youre thinking about, and The Internet of things will augment your brain, has strong ties to the U.S. government, particularly the CIA and NSA. The Corbett Report noted that, In 2006, ex-CIA officer Robert David Steele told Homeland Security Today that Google has been taking money and direction for elements of the US Intelligence Community, including the Office of Research and Development at the Central Intelligence Agency, In-Q-Tel, and in all probability, both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Armys Intelligence and Security Command. DARPA is the Department of Defenses research arm, complete with creepy projects that run the gamut from mind controlling a squid to change its colors to genetically engineering humans by adding a 47th chromosome. The two are already quite familiar with each other. In fact, former DARPA Director Regina Dugan left her post to take an executive position leading Google subsidiary Motorolas special projects, and she has since made appearances to show off the new smart tattoos theyve developed that can authenticate a persons body like an Internet password. In addition, Google has announced it will continue all current government contracts at Boston Dynamics. 2. Ray Kurzweil. Just Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil, the leading proponent of the singularity and transhumanism and someone who is all about reverse-engineering the human brain to create artificial intelligence, took a position as Director on Engineering with Google in December 2012. Guess what Kurzweil will be focusing on at Google. Just take a wild guess. If you picked artificial intelligence, you win a gold star. Kurzweil has openly admitted he is all about ushering in a transhumanist future where AI computer entities are given bodies, where the minds of humans are transplanted into mechanical vessels and more. (See the Global Future 2045 project and Kurzweil discussing how well all be immortal by 2045 for more on that.) A firm like Boston Dynamics would obviously be part of Kurzweils future vision dream team (and all come from the common wellspring of MIT.) 3. Terminator: Will Google become the real-life sentient evil computer network Skynet? Heres some food for thought on this cleverly illustrated by Dejan SEO (even though weve all been thinking it for years now): While were on the topic of supposedly fictional movie plots coming true, it bears repeating that Google has already purchased seven other robotics firms just in the last six months alone. If Googles track record and current actions dont sound like the perfect recipe for an exquisite and terrifying cybernetic revolt disaster, were not sure what is. See also the plot of The Matrix Trilogy. Another film that comes to mind is Avatar, where robotic bodies are used by the military as a force multiplier. DARPA even currently has a $7 million project creatively codenamed Avatar with a goal of wait for it building robot surrogates for humans. And those are just the three things that immediately came to our minds when we read the Google Boston Dynamics buyout headline (Lets not even get started on the fact that ubiquitous smarter, faster and cheaper robots will ultimately mean less human jobs; thats a whole other article entirely. Dystopic future here we come!) RELATED ARTICLES: 