So, the Military Created Zombie Robots

[Wyndam]

Check this out:

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

That "biomass" and "other organically-based energy sources" wouldn't necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they'd be plentiful in a war zone.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced.

Full story.

Great, now we're creating zombie robots. Not to mention, can it differentiate between corpses and people/animals laying there injured? Or anybody that can't outrun the damn things, for that matter?

This...will not end well.

I can already see Roland Emmerich purchasing the movie rights.

[hitnrun017]

What the hell? That is gross and disgusting, even scary. People are idiots.

[Emmie]

How in the hell is this considered okay? Apparently we've gone from treating our veterans like a forgettable notion so that once they get back stateside they're homeless to now EATING them on the battlefield?

What the fuck is wrong with this company?

[The Night Lord]

Oookay then, someone must be snorting a lot of crack under the table to come up with this. Before you know it, it'll be like Terminator Zombie or something like that. The idiocy of some people *shakes head sadly*

[snizapman6294]

... the world we live in... *bows head and shakes it disapprovingly*

[wenxina]

Ya know, this doesn't only have military applicability. Given the state of the world and how much trash we generate on a daily basis, this could very well be very useful in dealing with organic waste, while doing useful work. How's that for a less ridiculously gruesome spin on things. FOX News... pfft!

[Wyndam]

"Mom, why is the robot trying to eat my foot? WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

[snizapman6294]

*Continuing on Wyndam's Post*

Hey Honey! Look at this new-fangled robot vacuum cleaner! Honey, it sounds angry... run! go! now! Hey-- what-- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[siredbyspike]

I love it's name! Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that's right, "EATR" —But the word I am tripping on here is steam. A steam powered zombie robot wouldn't be very efficient, especially on a battlefield. How would you generate heat from organic detritus? Sure, if you let flesh rot in a closed-in space, it will generate some heat, but not enough to boil water. And where does the water come from? Especially if it is wandering around on a field or in a desert or somewhere. Hydraulic zombie robots...maybe, possibly. If you had someone to work on them. Steam powered zombie robots...meh, doubtful. That sounds like something from a 1950's horror movie (which btw I love, and I'm also rather obsessed with zombies). But now I am very curious about this.

And I agree with Xi that these could be very useful in cleaning up trash and doing some good. Just imagine turning one loose in a landfill. And yes, this is very morbid and you will all hate me for it, but what about overcrowding in cemetaries and such. Sure i don't want to even think about it coming to that, and would NEVER want anyone to be dealt with like that if there was any way to prevent it...but if it ever came to a time when the planet was overrun with corpses and there was nowhere else to put them, and it was a public health/safety concern-this sure would help.

I also wonder what else it would feed on and how it would know a difference in living or dead or wounded. The zombie movie lover in me is just full of images of it tearing down a street somewhere gobbling up kittens and children and random things it passes on the way, lol. It is amazing to me that people would see all these movies in which stuff like this goes terribly awry and kills massive amounts of people, and then go invent something with that potential. I guess truth is stranger than fiction sometimes.
And my last musing on this subject...if this robot eats stuff a cockroach would, would cockroaches still survive as well as they always have? Or at the end of everything else after the world ends, would you have twinkies, cockroaches and this robot?




EDIT: I went to the full story, and my question was answered: it uses an "external combustion chamber" burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

[Skytteflickan88]

This sounds like a gross, zombie/robot apocalypse movie in the making.

I would watch the movie, but I hope it doesn't happen in real life. Ugh!

[Midnight Butterfly]

I can see it going sooooo wrong. Bad idea and other countrys won't like it, the last thing we need is even more war.