"The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.
New Scientist magazine reports that the "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease. "
Isn't he cute? How long before someone gives him a gun, do you think? Mental images of a row of cute little teddy bear robots, armed to the teeth, mowing down anything in their path...
Anyway, fans of Dan Simmons will know what I mean when I say this thing looked suspiciously voynix-like to me...
6 comments:
A good basic idea - that's always the most poignant part of war films (and I presume real life), when soldiers helping a wounded comrade are struck and killed themselves.
Just as long as they don't ever start putting guns on these things.
Why not just send in the bots?
Seems like a good invention. What evasive skills does it have? It seems to me that it will be slow and susceptible to attack.
Aren't the vonyx supposed to have cutting blades?
I think we are pretty far from useful battlefield robots. But we're not very far from robot taxi drivers. I'd say 20 years is a safe bet.
My guess is that "techno" battlefield lethality is not really useful -- trench warfare using robots seems outdated in the age of guerilla tactics and precision munitions.
The real future of "techno" warfare is probably pervasive surveillance and remote control. Release bug size creature scowering the countryside for Bin Laden, bite him with a poison upon locating him. The ant army can defeat any guerilla army or terrorist group.
That could only be an improvement! NY seems to be indundated with lunatic taxi drivers just lately.
Load them up with a copy of OBL's DNA profile and set them loose. Anyone downstream of him gets liquidated, too. "A curse on your children, and your children's children and your children's children's children..."
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