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Massachusetts-based robotics corporation Boston Dynamics has posted another video showing off its latest achievement. (For those unfamiliar with the company, check out its sand flea, cheetah, and big dog robots.)

The latest video shows the cheetah running free, at a pace of up to 16mph. For context, the average human runner jogs at about a 5-8mph pace. 

Boston Dynamics also makes a humanoid robot called PETMAN, shown below. Keep in mind that these products are developed with funding from the US military's blue-sky research arm, DARPA.

There's been a lot of talk of Orwell lately, especially where the military's 'turnkey totalitarian' surveillance programs are concerned. We still have a chance to head off the kind of bleak totalitarian future he described in 1984, but we need to work like hell to prevent it. Otherwise, the image of the future just might be a humanoid's boot stamping on a human face — forever.

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