Mobile Suits in Real Life? Will this ever happen?

As a huge fan of Japanese culture I have always wondered how long it would be before we had mobile suits as a plausible war machine. If you have ever watched the Gundam series or even some of the earlier shows that made it to the west like Voltron then you can appreciate the attraction. I honestly have a part of me that believes that one day when N. Korea or someone else actually attacks Japan, a swarm of mobile suits will emerge from the Sea of Japan or an underground base to defend the country.  Then again I also question whether or not a huge invisible force field will not be activated to defend it from a missile attack but that’s beside the point. All these years of defense only spending and perhaps due to being the most high tech nation in the world, I could totally see it. Ultimately I just wonder if it is realistic to expect mobile suits one day.

Believe it or not, some wealthy playboys have already gone so far as to make working prototypes, they aren’t exactly battle worthy but definitely interesting. Just take a look at these videos to see what I am talking about when it comes to these ventures, it is really kind of interesting:

How would these handle actual warfare? Would these be sitting ducks for attacks or could these be absolute juggernauts in war situations? It is quite possible that these machines would be too slow and clunky but at the same time one could also bet that they would handle a large number of terrains very well. The use of legs and arms does add a dimension to terrain scalability that wheels or even belts do not offer. There are many options when it comes to arming them, they could be fitted with weaponry or could carry it like a human would, but obviously much larger versions of the weaponry. It could either work more like the old Mech Warrior series or perhaps the mobile suits in Avatar. 

There are other applications to such machinery, let’s face it, these could be the construction machines of the future! Having a gigantic humanoid machine with realistic reactions to human limp controls would be especially useful during certain tasks, in fact it may revolutionize the construction industry altogether.

Some movies have brought up the idea of mobile suit gladiators who would battle for sport; In fact we see references to this going back a few decades even to old PC games like One Must Fall. 

So how far are we away really? The answer to the question really depends on the mainstream humanoid robotic technologies we are working on. It seems that so far we haven’t really been able to perfect balance as much as we would like to. Sure we can keep these robots standing upright but they aren’t quite stable in unorthodox scenarios like when legs are raised too high or to too extreme of an angle. This is why you tend to see robots walking in completely orderly ways rather than moving around freely with their legs. Once these suits could truly remain stable through high stress situations, we could possibly see an increase in prototypes being presented. Currently we mostly see prototypes using wheels or tank style all-terrain belts. 

If I had to guess the increase in these prototypes will be seen in about 15 years as we continue to mechanize our military. Hopefully the mobile suits we end up with are as exciting as we had hoped, they may never be a reality but one can dream.

Will the Google Android be the first with diabetes? Rumors about Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie

So one has to ask themselves just how much sucrose an android can consume before it gets the dreaded diabeetus. Google, I hope when you developed this android, you didn't include some sort of bionic pancreas that could end up with beta cell burn out, but clearly this android can metabolize sugar in huge quantities. You might be injecting Synthulin™ (not really trademarked, just for fun though) in large doses pretty darn soon.

Let's take a look at what this Android has been consuming!

Cupcakes, Donuts, Eclairs, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honey Combs, Ice Cream Sammiches,  and of course an unhealthy serving of Jelly Beans. Here lately, we have heard even Key Lime Pies aren't safe from this robot's saccharine driven onslaughts of diabetic goodness.

I have to admit, writing this is making me a bit hungry! I might have to stop by a Krispy Kreme later.  
Okay so humor aside, what do we know about Android 5.0 " Key Lime Pie " so far? Well, we know next to nothing really. There is a rumor of it having a power saving profiles feature where you can change what processes run while it idles but there isn't a lot more than that released just yet. Be sure not to take a lot of the information out there too seriously just yet and I will definitely keep you all posted as I find out a little more about it.

Ubergizmo has an interesting rumor about a potential Google X phone, to be honest though I am not sure whether to make heads or tails of it.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/04/google-x-phone-with-android-5-0-key-lime-pie-spotted-rumor/

 So I guess that is that.  We will just have to wait and see what happens with the new Key Lime Pie Android version and whether or not this Android is in fact capable of getting metabolic diseases.

Humanoid robots and the future of robotics as it pertains to humanity.

How far are we from actually having realistic human robots? Humanoid robots for just about any purpose you could imagine. Think about the possibilities! We aren’t really far from having robots who can do almost anything and everything a person could do. The artificial intelligence of cleverbot is growing to astounding levels where it can hold somewhat complex conversations and even take hints to responses it should give. Just imagine what humanoid robots could be used for: Cooking, Cleaning, Building, Military, and yes even a replacement for intimacy. Tired of the harsh dating scene in the era of the ever wiser female who knows exactly what to look for when a guy is about to try and play her? What if she could be replaced? SHOCK! Then again, so could the guy in the relationship and I am sure that by now there are plenty of women who are simply tired of the same old games, a robotic cabana boy might be exactly what the Dr. ordered.

Robotics have improved significantly in the last decade, from moderately lifelike androids to robots hardly distinguishable from human beings as seen below:

People have always had a certain love for robots though, just think of the 80s and 90s movies that had to do with robotics like “Short Circuit” or “Batteries not included”. Most of us raised at least in part during the 1980s can appreciate the quote “Number 5 is Alive!”

 Many might have to wonder why we didn’t seem to have such an explosion of robotic technology in the 80s and 90s to match the sentiment though. I think the main reason for that wasn’t so much because the lack of mechanical technology out there, but instead the necessity being strong enough to fund it. Now with the rise of aging populations worldwide there is a serious threat when it comes to the question of who could possibly nurse the older upcoming generations. In Japan this has been one of the bigger focuses of the robotics industry, their aging population is a significant problem.

There may yet be more to it than just the aging population, what about battle? In recent years there has been a trend toward robotic warfare more than ever before. Drones are taking the center stage more than ever and robotic militaries may be how wars are decided in the future. It is quite possible that through drone robotic technologies we could end wars in more peaceful ways than ever before as humans may eventually be entirely unable to fight them and be forced to simply surrender and be tried.

What if you could get your house cleaned or even repaired by a humanoid robot? What if literally nothing had to be done by humans aside from pursuing what they truly wanted to pursue in life? If we had a world where energy was nearly free and our labor was done by robotics we would merely need to sustain ourselves. Unfortunately we are a long way from energy to matter converting devices like those in star trek, but life could be significantly cheaper with the right automation. 

In 15-20 years the highest paying jobs may very well be in robotics engineering; That is until robots take those jobs also. What will humanity do if it is obsolete in the workforce? I suppose that will be a day when socialism will have no feasible alternatives, not saying I am pro-socialist, I am just pointing out that it could become inevitable in that scenario and what then?