This is great tech, but I have nightmarish images of crowds of people migrating a street, all with robo assist legs, all looking like John Cleese. Those crazy Japanese! got to love'em!
SO these aren't motorized at all, right? More like a chair with legs, if I understand it correctly.
Well, I suppose that could be handy for a lot of folks. Much as one may make light, there are a lot of people in this country and others that have mobility problems, and taking care of them is a multibillion dollar expense that I'm sure everyone wishes could be used in other ways. Something like gives folks more autonomy and reduces the need for human assistance, which is increasingly scarce and costly in the US and Japan. And if it gives someone with severe arthritis, back problems, hip problems, or some other disease the ability to get up and around on their own, I'm all for it.
As for using it with factory workers, that does seem rather dystopian, but not much more than the period we're already it. Wake up and smell the dystopia people, the future is now.
It's a shame the military and UCSD are so stupid that they haven't already thought of these moronic objections to what appears to be very beneficial tech, both for military and civilian use. (Note: Not all the objections were moronic, I'll leave it to the individual to decide which is which.)
@GadgetPlay: Hey hey, I defend my moronic objections. The military NEEDS someone to think of the stuff SO stupid that the pros wont ever consider it. Its me or the conspiracy theorists, take your pick.
I am not a gamer, but I gather from the other comments that this has been done already in some combat game. And how did it turn out in the virtual world? I still get a bad vibe about it real time.
Would I sound cynical if I said fear this may be used to introduce other drugs to soldiers as well? Maybe not drugs aimed at the soldiers health and well being but something to make him/her do things that they might judge as morally wrong. I hope not....but if I was cynical, I might think that.
@Curves: Well, you're going to need drugs to go out there and fight against those Geckos and Metal Gears. Any non-medicated person would see those things and just turn the other way.
You know what's goanna happen don't yea? If and when it comes around, they're goanna give the manufacturing contract to the lowest bidder, who are going to
@MadCrazy: Wouldn't giving it to the lowest builder NOT be greedy? Giving to someone who is kicking back to the person who decides would be greedy. And realistically, the lowest bidder is not usually picked b/c if the bidder stands to lose money on a project, you have to worry about them going bankrupt 3/4 of the way through the build, which leaves you SOL.
11/10/08
I guess you had to try to ding it somewhere. Whatever.
11/10/08
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11/07/08
Well, I suppose that could be handy for a lot of folks. Much as one may make light, there are a lot of people in this country and others that have mobility problems, and taking care of them is a multibillion dollar expense that I'm sure everyone wishes could be used in other ways. Something like gives folks more autonomy and reduces the need for human assistance, which is increasingly scarce and costly in the US and Japan. And if it gives someone with severe arthritis, back problems, hip problems, or some other disease the ability to get up and around on their own, I'm all for it.
As for using it with factory workers, that does seem rather dystopian, but not much more than the period we're already it. Wake up and smell the dystopia people, the future is now.
11/07/08
Don't engineers factor in the Robot Uprising factor when designing this stuff?
11/07/08
This is the sort of stuff I would really enjoy testing. Like, jump down 30 flights of stairs, see if I break my legs.
11/08/08
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11/04/08
invariably screw the soldiers.
"In Greed We Trust" - America
11/04/08