9 April 2006, 1:37 PM
I don't really envision mech's taking a very large place in future military design for a few reasons (all of these will take your generic gundam mech as a comparison. for transforming vehicles, you can take all of these points, and add the fact that the transformation process is so ridiculously complex and really gives almost zero benefit v.s. building 2 or 3 specialized vehicles to fill that role anyways. plus, the more mechanical components you have, the more can go wrong). It's simply not practical. If you think about all the functions a mech can perform (it's really just a weapons platform that can also use swords), it's far more efficient, cheaper, and simple to use a series of specialized vehicles. Instead of having your mech holding a rifle, why not make a big moving car with a big gun fused onto it's chassis (oh wait...we already have these). another supposed advantage is that they can change weapons (rifle jamming? grab your energy pistol, etc...), but a lot of modern combat vehicles have been designed so that they can be reconfigured on the fly for a number of purposes -- not a real big advantage there.
But they can walk? Walking is overrated - especially if it's bipedal. You get height at the expense of increased balance issues, unnecessarily complex design, significantly reduced speeds (think about it, a human can't possibly run as fast as a lion, and a lion will never go as fast as a car, and human's don't weigh a bajillion pounds) plus the fact that having such a small footprint for such a huge mass (like...a mech that big would have to be 30-40+ tons) would make the land-travel function completely improbable (it could only walk on well-maintained, high-quality roads without breaking them, or sinking into the ground). The only advantage is that they can traverse certain obstacles (like small houses) with their walking, but this is really a minor advantage.
As for the ability to fly, well we have helicoptors that have guns and rockets and also happen to be able to act as transports, and they probably use less fuel than a rocket-powered supermech.
In other words, current technology already allows us to surpass the abilities a mech could ever hope to have (unless we develop the lambda drive ;P), so there's really no reason to ever develop them...especially if we're ever going to war in space (what's the point of giving a robot a single multipurpose instrument -- the hand -- when you can give him a million single-use tools?)
That said, i can also see those k-suits popping up some time in the future, although if nanotechnology has it's way, we may not ever need them...and we might see something that uses far less power, and is a whole wack lighter.
But they can walk? Walking is overrated - especially if it's bipedal. You get height at the expense of increased balance issues, unnecessarily complex design, significantly reduced speeds (think about it, a human can't possibly run as fast as a lion, and a lion will never go as fast as a car, and human's don't weigh a bajillion pounds) plus the fact that having such a small footprint for such a huge mass (like...a mech that big would have to be 30-40+ tons) would make the land-travel function completely improbable (it could only walk on well-maintained, high-quality roads without breaking them, or sinking into the ground). The only advantage is that they can traverse certain obstacles (like small houses) with their walking, but this is really a minor advantage.
As for the ability to fly, well we have helicoptors that have guns and rockets and also happen to be able to act as transports, and they probably use less fuel than a rocket-powered supermech.
In other words, current technology already allows us to surpass the abilities a mech could ever hope to have (unless we develop the lambda drive ;P), so there's really no reason to ever develop them...especially if we're ever going to war in space (what's the point of giving a robot a single multipurpose instrument -- the hand -- when you can give him a million single-use tools?)
That said, i can also see those k-suits popping up some time in the future, although if nanotechnology has it's way, we may not ever need them...and we might see something that uses far less power, and is a whole wack lighter.