A steam-powered, autonomous, military robot that fuels itself by devouring biological materials will not eat human corpses, according to the Pentagon.
It is delightful to be able to write a sentence like that.
EATR (yes, the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) is designed to feed on plant matter, mostly. It will chow on compostable stuff, generally. But EATR won't eat animals, including us. Especially not us. According to a rather arch press release, "Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI."
The Fox News piece then offers this tidbit for science fiction and horror writers:
Yes, Bolos are becoming real. Or, put another way, we're on the way to WALL-E. In the meantime we can just meditate on the power of that phrase: "extremely flexible in fuel sources." Mmmmmm.
We first blogged about EATR (yes, the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot) earlier this year. Infocult: we're all about the uncanny valley where cannibalism and posthumanism come together for meals.
The first sentence of this post was pretty much the most fabulous thing I have read in months.
Posted by: Alison | July 17, 2009 at 13:42
Win.
Posted by: Andy Havens | July 17, 2009 at 17:08
Best of all, they're steam-powered. And the military is looking into tiny mechanical difference engines as well for high-stress computing environments. Steampunk's day is coming, fast.
Posted by: Ed Webb | July 19, 2009 at 00:41
Steampunk's dark side, Alison, Andy, and Ed. Nothing cosy and faux-Victorian here.
I'm reminded of that fabulous Ted Chiang story about Victorian-era golem industrial labor.
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