The Robots are coming!

The_Doc_Man

Founding Member
#3
The precision available in the control system makes this an incredible demonstration. I had an uncle who used to argue with me about the computers of the middle-20th century (he died in 1974, I think). This video would have blown him away. This kind of bot and the availability of power-boost suits for the military derive from science-fiction writers of that era. Robert A Heinlein would have laughed his butt off at the videos of a powered exoskeletal suit used by a US Marine sergeant to offload a truck of boxes weighing 250 pounds or so. But for him in the suit, it was a one-man job. I saw that video years ago and do not want to think about what is available now. The novel Starship Troopers (not to be confused with the mish-mosh movie LOOSELY derived from it) included a description of such a suit.

Yes, the robots are coming. The dancing bots, the walking bots, the talking bots, the sex bots... hell, they ain't coming. They're here!
I remember an interview with Rear Adm. Grace Murray Hopper on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace. probably in the 1980s or very early 90s, because Mary Grace has been gone for a long time now (passed away 1992). At one point, Mike commented something to the effect of "now that computers are maturing, ..." and before he could finish the sentence, she laughed. He stopped, curious, and asked, "OK, what was so funny." She replied, "Maturity? Mike, you ain't seen nothin' yet." And she was right.

I can't find the Mike Wallace interview but I found one with Morley Safer. You can look her up. She started her career with the Navy when computers were based on rooms full of vacuum tubes and retired when very large scale integration (VLSI) was become commonplace - the age of the microchip computers had begun. The latter part of her military career included the lecture circuit because the Navy thought she was good for public relations. She was a dynamic and intelligent speaker. I'll let you do the web searches. By the way, the U.S. Navy thought enough of her to have DDG-70 named the U.S.S. Hopper.
 

Jon

Administrator
Staff member
#4
Indeed, science fiction writers seem to be the prophets of the tech future. I think many have their fingers on the pulse of what is coming, and correspondingly writer about it to boost the authenticity. It is no long a question of if something happens, but when.
 
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