7.23.2013

The ED-209 from RoboCop and it's potential alternative uses

For those who haven't seen RoboCop recently or at all, this is the ED-209, the Enforcement Droid Series 209.

Credit: RoboCop wiki.
ED-209 was built as both a policing unit and as a possible military weapon. The latter explains why it's armed with three autocannons, a shotgun, and three rockets. Cripes. According to Dick Jones, the movie's antagonist and head of the project that developed the 209, the machines would have been deployed to the streets of Detroit to help wipe out crime before construction of OCP's Delta City was set to begin and if it had been successful, it would have been offered up to the military.

If it had been successful.

Cue gangsta rap playing in the background.
Credit: Future Fiction.

On the plus side, this cleared up his asthma.
Credit: Future Fiction.
It wasn't. However, it did get me thinking about alternate uses for the ED-209, derivative designs based on the original. The two that came to mind was riot control and firefighting.
  • Riot control: The simplest of the two, as it would just be the base model without the cannons. In their place, you would have launchers for rubber bullets and beanbag rounds, and separate ones for tear gas. There would also be dispensers for pepper spray. If these things were built today, I'd add in threat recognition/assessment software that would scan a crowd and if it spots anything categorized as a possible weapon - a rock, brick, club, etc. - it tags that person as a potential hostile and alerts whoever is in charge.
  • Firefighting: This variation is pretty good. Instead of weapons, it's arms would be loaded with fire suppression equipment. Maybe they could even be modded so that they can be hooked up to a water source. I picture these things being trucked to fires and acting like mobile, flame resistant, water cannons, focusing on the major parts of the fire while the firefighters handle the smaller areas and search and rescue. It would also reduce the number of firefighters needed for a fire, so that way each station could handle multiple emergencies at the same time.
As for the original 209, I think it's problem was entirely buggy software. Like I mentioned earlier, these things were going to marketed to the military as well as the police, so presumably it's operating system had programs for both role and since this thing was still in beta, not all of the bugs had been worked out, so as a result, some poor dude gets his chest cavity turned from an innie to an outtie.

Even if the 209 ran perfectly, I still can't see them being used in the same role as a flesh and blood cop. For one thing, how exactly is it supposed to arrest someone? Dick Jones was never clear on that during his presentation. My best guess is that it would hold a person (under threat of obliteration) until a cop picked them up. No, I would use them to protect buildings and areas that likely targets for terrorists and criminals, places like power and water facilities, government buildings, airports, ports, that sort of thing.

Amazingly, despite their flaws, the second RoboCop movie revealed that they were eventually deployed in Detroit and four other American cities and that they were still malfunctioning.

7.22.2013

Cha-cha-cha-changes

Recently, I've been dwelling on what to do with this blog after steadily losing interest in science fiction, so after much thought and deliberation, I've finally decided that I'm going to convert this blog over to my newfound passions: Korean pop music, My Little Pony, and Taylor Swift! I hope you all stick around and enjoy future posts as much as I will.










Haha, I'm just jerking your chains. God, can you even imagine? Hey, what's with...okay guys, put the pitchforks and torches away.

In any event, I am going to be making some changes to this blog. I'm still going to post about science fiction, because that shit is awesome, but my interest in science and technology is being renewed and so I plan on posting about that stuff too. I may not fully grok it, but I still dig it. I'll also be giving my thoughts on the future of the human race: space travel, colonization, cybernetics, etc. Another thing you'll be seeing on here is retro technology. Over the past few days, I've been getting more and more interested in technology of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, as well as the scientific and technological culture that existed back then, so don't be surprised if you see geeking out over old electronic calculators, computers, and whatnot.

Now for what is easily the biggest potential change, a new name. I've never been a big fan of the Rayguns and Space Suits name, I only chose it because I didn't think this blog would be around a year and a half later. Plus, I want a name that reflects my interest in science fiction, as well as all of the stuff I mentioned in the above paragraph. Unfortunately, I can't think of a new name, so I'm opening the floor up for suggestions. Otherwise, I might just leave the name be.

7.21.2013

I didn't know it until last night, but Karen Gillan is going to be the Guardians of the Galaxy movie!

Even bigger surprise:

Credit: Geek Magazine.
Yup, the lass who won the hearts of Whovians as Amy Pond shaved her noggin for her role as Nebula, who is bald. I'm not entirely familiar to Nebula, since she was never a big time character, but I think she is or was a space pirate at one point, claimed to be the granddaughter of Thanos (the purple dude that briefly appears in the Avengers movie), and oh yeah, is green skinned. So next year, we're going to be seeing a lovely green skinned, bald Karen Gillan on the big screen. This is awesome.

I really do dig that, though. I don't think there's a lot of actresses who would shave their heads for a movie role, especially a comic book movie. And it's not like she had to do it, she could very easily have cut her hair short and worn one of those bald caps. That's commitment right there.

What's your opinion on Gillan's baldy baldness?

Matt Smith almost stuck around as the Doctor

According to Steven Moffatt, Smith came close to staying on as the Doctor for two or three more years.

And women and anyone who's a Whovian, really.
Now if you guys will excuse me, I have to go throw myself into the nearest sarlacc pit.

7.10.2013

Trek thought: I wonder how much paperwork the captains had?

Damn these TPS reports! Damn them to hell!
Credit: Memory Alpha.
I mean, being the captain of a starship or of a backwater space station can't be all boldly going and in the case of Kirk, getting laid all of the time.

Speaking of Kirk, I just cannot imagine him filling out forms and whatnot. Picard seems like he would be the most okay with the administrative side of command, mostly because he can just grab a nice cup of Earl Grey, turn up the Van Halen and work in his ready room. Sisko, I imagine, had a pretty heavy workload. He had to manage a mixed crew of Starfleet and Bajoran military personnel, in addition to the civilian population and a warship. Janeway likely had it the roughest, since she probably had to deal with the upkeep of Voyager and its crew without the benefit of starbases. As for Archer, no clue.

Heh, maybe that's the real reason why Riker waited so long before accepting promotion?
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