Taiji Robot Showdown!

The advances in robotics over the past ten years are amazing to see. Every year, they get harder, better, faster, stronger.

It is inevitable that they will get tired of vacuuming our floors, and rise against us. Fortunately, nobody is teaching them how to fight…right?


Sony QRIO

OK, so they already know a little Chinese boxing–no big deal. Taiji is obviously too slow to use in a real fight. I mean, it’s not as if these robots could chase us through the streets, as we flee in terror their steel-reinforced fists…right?


Boston Dynamics BigDog

Tai Chi Death Robot

OK, we are all screwed. It is time to start building our human resistance army, for the war against the machines. Here is lesson number 1, courtesy of Stephen Hwa.

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  3. Commentary by Jim Roach, Wu Style…

    …I have seen it time and again over 30 years that Tai Chi forms become watered down if not passed on intact from one generation to the next. The Square form insures that there is no deviation in this process, no moves are added, no moves are subtracted. For that reason, I am happy for this opportunity to reiterate that the performance of Square Form should look Robotic. In fact, the more robotic the portrayal, the better the performance.

    The delineation of yin and yang is the eventual goal. That is to teach students what parts of the body to keep still and what parts to move. The part that is still is Yin and the part that moves is Yang. The majority of people who start Tai Chi however, cannot keep much still when it calls for it…

  4. You mention the martial aspect of Tai Chi but there is no mention in your article of the health benefits of doing Tai Chi.

    In addition, the benefits or hazards of any Tai Chi has to be studied in the same rigorous way as any scientific discipline. With humans this has been done over generations. I do not see this same generational criteria in your essay.

    Tai Chi also has to serve 2 purposes, 1.) benefit for health, 2.) benefit for martial purposes.

    If Tai Chi as done by any entity does not serve both of those purposes, it is not Tai Chi and its entire logical structure collapses.

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