Rescuing victims from a burning building, a chemical spill, or any disaster that is inaccessible to human responders could one day be a task for adaptable robots. Imagine, for instance, rescue-robots rising up on two legs can bound through rubble (碎石), push aside a heavy obstacle, or break through a locked door.

Engineers are improving the design of four-legged robots and their ability to run, jump and even do back leaps. But getting two-legged, human-like robots to use force or push against something without falling has been a lion in the way.

Now engineers at MIT and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a method to control balance in a two-legged, tele-operated robot-an essential step toward enabling a human-like to carry out high-impact tasks in challenging environments. The team’s robot, physically resembling a machined body and two legs, is controlled remotely by a human operator wearing a vest that sends information about the human’s motion and ground reaction forces to the robot. Through the vest, the human operator can direct and experience the robot’s movements. If the robot is starting to tip over, the human feels the same pull on the vest and can adjust in a way to rebalance both himself and the robot.

In experiments with the robot to test this new “balance feedback” approach, the researchers were able to remotely maintain the robot’s balance as it jumped and walked in sync (同步) with its human operator.

“It’s like running with a heavy backpack-you can feel how the dynamics (力) of the backpack move around you, and you can make up properly,” says Joao Ramos, who developed the approach as an MIT Postdoctor. “Now if you want to open a heavy door, the human can command the robot to throw its body at the door and push it open, without losing balance.”

Transhumanism, first coined in 1957 by biologist Julian Huxley, meant “man remaining man, but going beyond himself by realizing new possibilities of and for his human nature.” Generally speaking, transhumanism in its modern meaning implies that human beings can be enhanced by the means of science to the extent when they rise above biological limitations and capabilities programmed by nature.

There are numerous areas which, according to transhumanists, require enhancement. In particular, transhumanists work on such problems as overcoming the physical boundaries of the human body. Starting with aging, which they believe to be rather a disease than a natural process, and ending up with replacing organs with their artificial ones. All kinds of nanotechnologies for repairing damaged organs; nerve stimulants and drugs to alter mood and eliminate negative emotions; brain implants and implanted technologies to allow interconnectivity between multiple human beings and to advance intelligence. Some of the technologies transhumanists plan to employ to push the boundaries of humanity are available already. For example, gene therapy allowing to cure or stop certain diseases that were considered terminal; CRISPRi or SHARP-2 methods, which were discovered not so long ago, have already proved to be efficient in treating a number of complicated medical conditions. Virtual reality, another technology from science-fiction movies of the late 1980s, has become not so virtual either, after all. VR device can be easily purchased from online stores, and the prices are affordable. So far, it has been mostly used for games and education, but in the future, the range of its useful applications will definitely broaden.

About a hundred years ago, the idea of flying in the skies seemed absurd, until Wilbur and Orville Wright proved this assumption wrong. Who knows, perhaps in a couple of decades the concepts listed here, no matter how fantastic they look now, will become reality. Moral aspects and the price humanity will have to pay for such advancements are a different subject.

This year, in March, I jumped into a heated pool in California to meet a dolphin named Delle. As I approached her, Delle turned towards me and became playful, greeting me by splashing me with her beak. Delighted, I reached out to pat her shiny skin. It felt rubbery, which was the main giveaway that Delle the dolphin was a robot.

Just as fake(假的)animals are becoming very realistic,it's becoming increasingly less acccptable to use live animals for entertainment purposes. Documentaries like Blackfish (2013)and The Cove (2009) have exposed some of the horrific treatment and suffering of occan mammals. The resulting public protest has made aquariums(水族馆)controversial, attracting less visitors.

Arguably，entertaining people with captive(圈养的)animals is vital for animalconservation. Many zoos and aquariums actively try to promote conservation efforts byproviding educational experiences and encouraging interest in the natural world. This type of entertainment is useful, because it inspires people to care.

At first, this seems like a reason to avoid replacing the animals with technology. However, research in the rapid-developed field of human-robot interaction is showing astonishing resultson engagement with robots that can imitate lifelike behaviour. When physically interactive,robots attract a lot of attention. People tend to treat them like they’re alive,even though theyknow perfectly well they’re just machines.

If we start to replace the animals in our theme parks with machines, will this trend decreaseour wonder for the natural world? A bunch of people expressed negative gut reactions(本能反应)after I posted video of the robot dolphin on Twitter. And yet, I don’t believe that using this robotanimals will cause us to forget the worth of living creatures.