Human Exoskeletons Getting Closer 198
ColdWetDog writes "It's not Sigourney Weaver tossing aliens about, but The Register has an interesting blurb about a real human-capable exoskeleton that looks pretty cool (Lockheed-Martin press release). Runs for three hours at 3 mph on internal batteries; max speed is 7 mph. Of course, no price is listed but I suppose if you have to ask you can't afford it. Team this up with a Big Dog and you've got the ultimate high-tech cross-country team. Bring your own batteries. Or just wait for your jetpack to arrive."
Re:Why America sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
Though a tremendous portion of the American annual budget goes toward the Military-Industrial Complex, a tremendous amount also goes toward initiatives such as DARPA, which helps fund more applied research than almost anyone, and in support countless universities and research centers. We have commercial air travel today because the US military helped jump start the commercial aviation sector before World War 2 (The Luftwaffe alone had more planes the all the Allies combined, and we knew we'd need private commercial help manufacturing aircraft in those quantities). The internet itself exists because the US military was seeking a way to maintain communications in the event that a major city was destroyed with an atomic bomb, causing a disruption in telephone communications. We have atomic energy because of the Manhattan Project, we have mass-produced Penicillin because of World War 2, along with radar, jet propulsion, and the birth of rocketry. Even going back to the Revolutionary War, the US government invested heavily in mechanized manufacturing and research into interchangeable parts for firearms.
The fact is that the military is often willing to make investments into technologies that no one else is willing to even look at. Our investments in war have done terrible things. The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless deaths in every war we've been in, etc. But many of these wars and conflicts would have taken place without the technology, and without the investments we've made into the military. The fact is that technology, in particular engineering, advances by leaps and bounds when war is at it's heels. Though we should never forget the cost at which it comes, it's important to realize that technology often has ripple effects and sometimes, like the internet, it becomes something wholly different than what was intended.
Why so shortsighted? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Why America sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
I like to think it began with our deification of paramilitary groups like the police and firefighters after 9/11. Then with the rising body count in Iraq, people just became enamored with the military and military spending. Now, when new technology comes along, it isn't "wow, what can we do with this?", rather it is "wow, how can this help our troops?"
I hate to break it to you, but the military industrial complex predates 9/11 by a substantial amount of time.
You do have something of a point concerning the near-deification of police and firefighters following 9/11. It has become more than a little excessive. Firemen do deserve a lot of praise. Job or not, it takes some courage to run into a building like that to help people, but the praise has become rather over the top.
But... paramilitary? Where did that come from? I know several firemen, all very nice people. If I were to pick words that describe them as a group in general, they would be something like risk-takers, and maybe reckless. But paramilitary is way off the mark.
Re:Why Parent Sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
"a tremendous portion of the American annual budget goes toward the Military-Industrial Complex"
Ah yes, I know, this is slashdot, and I'm going to get modded troll/flaimbait, but just for your edification, our Federal government was created with a very limited amount of powers in mind, most of which were focused DIRECTLY at military affairs. I'm not sure why people whine and complain that the government spends tons of cash on defense but not on XYZ, when its the job of the government to spend money on defense.
For a list of enumerated powers (not the squishy interpreted ones), check out:
http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8 [usconstitution.net]
I'm glad to see the government spend money on things it is SUPPOSE to... now if it would just cut out the shit that its not (like social security, Medicare, ponies, butterflies, and good will towards men).
Re:Looks like there has finally been progress. (Score:5, Interesting)
Companies have been making exoskeletons ever since the "Hardiman" of the 1960...
As with so many innovations, Heinlein came up with it almost first -- Kimball Kinneson greased Helmuth in one in Smith's Galactic Patrol, but Heinlein's powered suit was more accurate and interesting. Mobile Infantry, powered suits. Read "Starship Troopers". The book, not the fun-but-not-faithful movie.
Although the shower scene was very cool...;)
Re:Looks like there has finally been progress. (Score:2, Interesting)
Except the suit from Aliens didn't actually work, it was just a big fiberglass structure suspended from a crane, with the body suspended the rest was light enough that it could be moved around just with muscle power.