Anti-robot project explores human relationship with technology in AI future
VANCOUVER — Inside a warehouse in a secluded part of Vancouver, engineers and fabricators are building a two-storey tall, 3.5 tonne racing robot with four steel legs and a massive battery pack in its belly.
But unlike robots in science fiction, this mechanical beast won’t be autonomous. “Prosthesis: the anti-robot” needs a human inside to operate its colossal limbs.
Its creator, Jonathan Tippett, views Prosthesis as a metaphor for the importance of keeping people at the heart of technology.
“Visually and physically it’s this fragile human in the centre of this super-powerful, monstrous machine that is completely dormant without the pilot’s will, which I think is how our relationship should remain with our technology,” said Tippett, 42, a mechanical engineer and sculptor.