It seems like a lot of trouble just to retrieve a book from a shelf, but this video of a distributed parallel system--a robot swarm--pulling some Tom-Cruise-before-the-Mission-Impossible-franchise-went-off-the-rails theatrics is pretty amazing--not only for the grappling hooks and blinking lights, but because "Swarmanoid" really is a true recon robot. When switched on, it knows absolutely nothing about its environment--but give it a few minutes, and it starts working toward its objectives in all kinds of entertaining ways.