Proposed military robot would refuel by eating human bodies. What could possibly go wrong?

Published on July 15th, 2009

Proposed military robot would refuel by eating human bodies. What could possibly go wrong? — Cripes!

Those of you who follow the Robocalypse tag know that I find the rise of machine-based warfare and biomimetic freakery… troubling. Well, it just got a lot more so. Not content to have robots simply feed on widely available sunlight, or use an versatile diesel engine or something, some robo-pioneers have decided that this new robot should refuel on biomass.

Yes, it can use plants and compost and stuff like that, but let’s be honest. You’re deploying these on a battlefield. These sons of bitches are going to be eating bodies all day long. And you think it’ll stop there?

Found by Chris Wilson via Twitter.

19 users responded in " Proposed military robot would refuel by eating human bodies. What could possibly go wrong? "

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# 1 McRowan said, on July 15th, 2009 at 11:17 am

Is this a continuation of the Ecobots developed a few years back that ran on sugar and dead insects?

Seems like someone wants to sensationalize them with the ability to eat dead soldiers…..tacky.

# 2 McRowan said, on July 15th, 2009 at 11:18 am

Is this a continuation of the Ecobots developed a few years back that ran on sugar and dead insects?

Seems like someone wants to sensationalize the story with the ability to eat dead soldiers….tacky.

# 3 Cursor_ said, on July 15th, 2009 at 11:22 am

This is a useless application for bots.

All an opposing army would need to do is pull a Russian Scorched Earth on the available land and watch the bots either shutdown or eat their own human allies.

A patently idiotic idea.

Cursor_

# 4 brendal said, on July 15th, 2009 at 11:34 am

Kinda like a really high tech scrubbing bubbles – I wonder if that thing would work in my shower…

# 5 chuck said, on July 15th, 2009 at 11:44 am

If the robot gets hungry and can’t find any dead bodies, would it be permitted to call in an air strike from a Predator done?

ROTM!!

# 6 Poppa Boner said, on July 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Maybe it just eats the black ones?

# 7 winston said, on July 15th, 2009 at 2:08 pm

This reminds me of the Philip K Dick story “Second Variety”.
I used to think his stories and novels were unrealistic and paranoid but so much is now coming to pass.

# 8 paddler said, on July 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

Nice, I like that we plan to treat enemy fallen soldiers as we expect them to treat ours. There once was respect for things like that. Think of the outrage if we discovered they were grinding up our dead Marines and using them for fuel?

Where is the bullshit meter by the way?

# 9 AdmFubar said, on July 15th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

hhmm i wonder if these robots know to pick out the grenades the dead ones are still carrying…

# 10 amodedoma said, on July 15th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Let’s see, a biomass processing unit samll enough to fit into a discreetly sized robot, yet powerful enough to generate the watts the bot needs?!?! It doesn’t exsist, the few experiments I’ve seen don’t come anywhere near generating the energy necessary to move their own weight. There are plenty of better alternatives. This sounds like BS, or a sci fi flick ’screamers’ or the book by Dick ’second variety’ as winston said. Speculative and highly improbable, but that doesn’t mean DoD wouldn’t spend millions investigating this.

# 11 Angel H. Wong said, on July 15th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

Only if they’re send to the fat USA, I doubt they’ll get any real fuel from the skinny taliban.

# 12 The0ne said, on July 15th, 2009 at 4:11 pm

Old tech. China has been doing this for ages Eating fetuses, milking corpse for oil, etc. I’m sure you guys wouldn’t want a link to such things There’s always Google for something like “China sucks”

# 13 Zybch said, on July 15th, 2009 at 5:15 pm

Mmmm, soylent green

# 14 deowll said, on July 15th, 2009 at 5:41 pm

The fuel conversion units wouldn’t be part of the action mobile units. They would need to be a completely separate operation.

That would be one way to tidy up a battlefield. I wonder if they could recycle the landmines and spent munitions while they are at it?

# 15 sargasso said, on July 16th, 2009 at 12:27 am

Killer Cannibal Zombie Robots! Coming soon, to a Fox News channel, near you.

# 16 The0ne said, on July 16th, 2009 at 6:14 am

#14
The answer to your question about mines and ammunition is NO. They’re purposely left there to keep other countries from developing. Why fight we you can leave explosive crap behind for the unknowing to wonder about

# 17 smartalix said, on July 16th, 2009 at 7:17 am

“Let’s see, a biomass processing unit samll enough to fit into a discreetly sized robot, yet powerful enough to generate the watts the bot needs?!?!”

It’s called a stomach.

# 18 threeCents said, on July 16th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

Don’t sleep on the battlefield or you’ll get eaten! I do wonder if this is a hoax.

# 19 Roger said, on July 16th, 2009 at 2:15 pm

Hey this could work!. Inject our soldiers with tiny IFF transponders. The bots wouldn’t eat them!

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