Men against robot: not in a movie, but in a half marathon. It happened at E-Town, the Beijing technological development area. Thousands of runners crowded the streets of the Chinese capital running together with twenty -one Androids, led by the engineers. Fortunately, human beings who, for the moment, had an easy life against the machines, to be tough. Other than Terminator. It ended very badly. For them.
It was a slaughter this first time. Because “The athlete” Tiangong Ultra, the Android with arms and legs faster at the finish, closed his test in 2 hours and 40 minutes, far from the winner in the flesh and blood that ran in 1 hour and 2 minutes. The only satisfaction for Tiangon Ultra: it was not sweaty at all. In short, there was no race. Above all because this futuristic challenge, let’s say, had the merit of arousing even moments of hilarity. For example, when Tiangong Ultra crashed into a railing and is beowed on the ground, due to a current interruption, also dropping the human operator who accompanied him with the remote control. Or when some robots struggled to start: one has passed out, better to say fallen, on the starting line and remained on the ground for minutes before getting up. Then there were several pit-stops. No, not for dysentery or for sudden drops in sugars, simply because the batteries had to be replaced. Everything happened while the runners, lined up on the other side of the roadway due to safety, were unable to believe what they were seeing and who stopping and those in running filmed the robots with their phones.
Irony aside, what emerges is an obsessive search for challenges. Which leads to organizing unthinkable events until a few years ago.
Moreover, the machines begin to make room in society, especially in China, the main robot market. After already inventing the war dogs, the marathon runners have now sprung up in Beijing. And other brothers will come soon. And then there will be no more than joking.