Could a Robot Do Kung Fu?

During one of our discussions in the second degree brown belt class last Saturday my brain threw a question completely out of left field at me. Sifu Brinker was describing how flow and power does not come from executing a technique with overly specific instructions (i.e. "ok I'm going to move my arm 98 degrees to the left then extend my elbow in 3.5 seconds then...") and my brain grabbed that idea and ran with it, almost immediately asking "COULD YOU TEACH A ROBOT KUNG FU?????"

I made a note of it then left the idea alone because I knew as soon as I started to think about it there is no way I would be able to refocus on the actual discussion (which I very much wanted to hear).

Once I allowed myself to think about it my first answer was: probably, and it would most likely be better than us at it because you could measure out the timing and distancing, all things we have to constantly adjust and practice, to a microscopic level, and the robot would be able to execute perfect technique every time you hit start. 

Once I did allow myself to think about the question more I came away with an immense appreciation for how complex every single technique in kung fu actually is. (another one of those, I knew it but now I know it things) I thought about what sort of instructions I would code for a robot to do a simple punch and quickly realized just how much I would actually have to specify. At first I though there would be a handful of different sections: starting position, raising the arm leading with the hand, and rotation at the end, then I realized I would need to include instructions for the 6 harmonies, and then things broke down even further from there because you couldn't just program the shoulders/hips elbows/knees, and hands/feet because there are all the things in between and connecting each of those larger pieces! To try to program a robot to be able to do any single technique you would have to input the timing, distancing, and alignment for so many parts and each one of those would change over the course of the technique especially since other things were moving in tandem with them. You would also need an incredibly mechanically complex machine, every muscle, bone, tendon, and ligament would need a hinge, gear, or belt to artificially replicate it. You would also need a throughout understanding of the physics of a good punch, understanding it completely, calculating the optimal timing for each part to occupy which axis in space. You would have to account for all the things that unknowingly can be carried out by a human brain, like the equal and opposite sway of our arms, or our ability to counteract the weight of an object as we move, because you would need to explicitly write out instructions for those things because nothing is unknowingly known by a robot. 

And that's just the case for a single technique, imagine stacking 2, 3, 4 techniques together, accounting for the flow between moves, not just the techniques in isolation! That would take even longer to program and measure and calculate! What about a whole form?! Or god forbit a long Chinese form like ours??!

I think it would have been easy for me to dismiss this somewhat silly question, scoffing and saying, of course not, kung fu has so many facets beyond executing techniques with absolute precision, (which is still my final answer to the question) but it made me stop and appreciate how much is actually going on in our brains every time we do anything in kung fu!