Google: Your Robot Overlord

Apparently, Google has acquired several robotics companies lately, most notably the famed robotics company Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics, for those who do not know, are famed for the creation of BigDog and several other quadruped robots, which quite frankly, are as impressive as they are unnerving. If you have never seen one of these robots in action you should check out this video of the LS3 (based on BigDog), and then go hide somewhere:

If that was not uncanny enough, here’s Petman, an anthropoid robot that walks like a Cyberman from Doctor Who, but is wearing a camouflaged chemical warfare suit for some inexplicable reason (I honestly don’t think robots are all that vulnerable to nerve gas, but who am I to judge?).

So the question is, why does Google need these robots? Your guess is as good as mine, but my guess is that they want to take over the world with an unstoppable robot army, powered by (you guessed it) the Android operating system.  Or perhaps its just another supreme example of the technology paradox that is the “uncanny valley”. You decide.