[motters]

They're only horrific if they're misused. Robots like this will also have plenty of non-military applications - especially in agriculture. Legged locomotion opens up the possibility of cultivating land which was previously inaccessible to conventional farming automation.

It should also be said that there is nothing inevitable about the close association between robotics and the military - it's just an artefact of American culture and the idiosyncratic way in which high tech research gets funded in America.

[StrawberryFrog]

They're only horrific if they're misused.

Given that this whole line of research is funded by the US military, what do you mean by "misused" ? Wouldn't "used" be more accurate?

[motters]

Under "misuse" I would include things like:

Use of robots for the purpose of prosecuting a war crime

Use of robots to carry out an act of terrorism

Indiscriminate use of deadly force by autonomous robots

Use of autonomous robots in a military context without proper supervision (for example, not being able to deactivate them once deployed).

[po]

Perhaps you will change your mind after viewing this horrific weaponized version of BigDog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptyV1cpE14o