"What the investors want to know is, not how fast they can run..." but whether they can fire a rifle?

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[–] 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This tech will eventually be weaponized

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  • [–] 18 points 1 day ago (4 children)

    I feel like the human shaped stuff won’t be what the terrifying stuff will look like. Too expensive when something smaller will do the trick. But sci-fi has conditioned us to think of robots being human shaped

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago*

    Mainstream sci-fi has conditioned people to think of humanoid robots. Iain M. Banks was writing about concepts like blade drones in the Culture series (basically scalpels on hovering rockets) as far back as the 80's. Terrifying stuff if made real, and they were being used primarily by the 'Good Guys'.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    But sci-fi has conditioned us to think of robots being human shaped

    I'm still surprised that they haven't made monkey robots, which would just be human robots except you also have a tail that can function as an additional limb. Stick a camera at the end of the tail and the robot now has 360 degree vision of its surroundings.

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  • [–] 2 points 11 hours ago*

    Meh, just stick a pole on top of its head at that point. Any more limbs are just more things that have to be programmed. Monkey robots would be a novelty, at best, unless it suddenly become ls extremely popular or profitable to use robots for arboreal maintenance.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    What upsides does a humanoid killer robot have over, for example a drone killer robot? The latter already exists, can move greater distances at higher speeds, has an extra axis of movement, can get up when it falls over etc etc

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  • [–] 4 points 1 day ago

    Terrain becomes an asset rather than an obstacle, accessibility as a persistent shock assault and breacher unit, can deliver heavier payloads without having to sacrifice itself in single or tandem strikes, can hold territory, not simply pound it from the air

    A camouflaged humanoid robot with a heavy grenade launcher mindlessly walking far behind enemy lines can do more damage than ten microdrones

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