robot overlords?

July 8, 2003 3:03 PM

This gladiator looks like he's trying to step up to the red robot for the human crushing title. But, in all seriousness, am I the only one whose first reaction on reading this was: "Oh man, what if they had one of those during the Seattle protests?" It has apparently been in development for some time now, but somehow this version seems a little scarier. [main two content links via boingboing.]
posted by jann (11 comments total)

"Ray Grundy, who is with the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Virginia, told those assembled that there is a gap in U.S. military crowd-control capabilities. To demonstrate, he showed a picture of an M60 tank with a 105-mm main gun facing off against a boy with a rock.

"When you take a look at that picture, it's worth a thousand words," he said. "Today, in situations where U.S. forces are presented with restricted rules of engagement, we're at a significant loss to be effective with non-lethal weapons."

Oh good - now we can mow the boy down with a quarter-sized tank, and save a couple hundred million!

Only from the minds at Minolta...
posted by Perigee at 3:07 PM on July 8, 2003

Woo Hoo, Terminator comes to life! How soon til the singularity?
posted by PigAlien at 3:33 PM on July 8, 2003

The point is to make the boy drop the rock without killing him.

That said, it's time to start working on your homemade RPGs, people.
posted by Ryvar at 4:06 PM on July 8, 2003

Speaking of robot soldiers and/or police... I just received this link today. (Maybe you did too.) Not as pretty as Kristanna Loken, but still neat-o.
posted by micropublishery at 4:09 PM on July 8, 2003

micropublishery - oh the horror! Future Policebot is running Windows XP, and is full of Neil L's AOL Flash animations and Dr. Dre HTML files!
posted by Schnauzer at 4:35 PM on July 8, 2003

And I for one welcome our new robotically assaultive overloads. (Well, someone was going to say it!)

Yeah, what with the morale toll taken by using actual soldiers to violate civil liberties and human rights, this looks like the most ethical solution. Do they have x-ray cams built in?

On preview: what else would it run on but XP?
posted by squirrel at 4:40 PM on July 8, 2003

The cops indeed do have their own version of firepower-on-wheels and aren't afraid to use it.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 4:45 PM on July 8, 2003

Been there, done that.
posted by kablam at 5:40 PM on July 8, 2003

I know, Ryvar. I was bein' impertinent. I'm just that way.
posted by Perigee at 5:55 AM on July 9, 2003

The point is to make the boy drop the rock without killing him.

...but not without injuring and poisoning him!
posted by jann at 6:41 AM on July 9, 2003

"Put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply."
posted by Perigee at 7:58 AM on July 9, 2003