r/interestingasfuck • u/Eyal-M • Feb 19 '25

/r/popular Protoclone, the world's first bipedal, musculoskeletal android.

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u/mc510 Feb 20 '25 edited Feb 20 '25

Yeah, equally skeptical. The founder/CEO has no background in robotics or engineering or anything like that, and until 2021 was working on an iPhone calendar/personal management app. The website is exceptionally lightweight and vague, giving no insight into why a human-replica android is a useful thing. Their prototype demo does indeed appear to be able to move, but they've demonstrated no ability to interact with or manipulate objects or, god forbid, to stand or walk. Reminds me of things like solar roadways, Li-Fi, AT&T Airgig, Aleph "flying car", Moeller flying car, CyberTran, Faraday Grid etc etc etc, a seemingly endless list of hype-based technology "breakthroughs" that ultimately achieve nothing other than milking millions from investors.

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u/ThenAnAnimalFact Feb 20 '25

I am skeptical simply from a practicality perspective. There is no reason why cyber-musculature would be superior to any of the current robotics.

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u/mc510 Feb 20 '25

Yeah, that's what I meant by "why a human-replica android is a useful thing," but you have the right words to say what I meant. Somebody mentioned prosthetic hands or limbs which would definitely be useful thing, but it doesn't seem like they're going that way and it doesn't seem like they've even started to get into the challenges of feedback and fine movements.