March 8, 2021: A Step Backward For Ogres Everywhere

An art collective mounted a paintball gun on Boston Dynamic's robot dog, Spot. Then they turned it loose in a gallery full of faux art objects and invited the Internet to control it.

Sounds delightfully dystopian, right? Only two problems: Boston Dynamics was not impressed, and the combo didn't actually work very well. The armed Spot presented a satisfyingly sinister silhouette, but stumbled more and more as the carnage went on, and ended up curled in a corner. Sadly, this outcome had not been anticipated, so there was no robo-whimper soundtrack.

A for concept, F for execution. Like the Venus de Milo that it shot at, Paintball Spot remains mostly 'armless.

-- Steve Jackson