Exoskeletons

Status
Not open for further replies.
W

w30dogg

Registered Member
Many Anime have included exoskeletons. Gundam being most popular. I don't think we are far from seeing something smaller in scale, and less powerful. But I think that it does bring new venues for technology. The best Uses for them are War, or so it seems, but they could be usefull in other venues. I think that it they will be used as machines of destruction, if only because that is the way they were perceived in comics, and animes. With technology devellopping at the rate it is, and with exoskeletons gaining popularity in the western world, then it is only a matter of time, and some thought should be put into what uses these machines can have, other than war machines...
 
There was an exoskeleton in a William Gibson short story (King's of Sleep??) which was essentially a high-tech wheelchair... it was used by a (kind of psycho) disabled girl, anyway.
 
are you thinking a smaller scale exoskeleton, like the kind ripley used in aliens? and invariably exoskeltons would first be used for the military, since they're the only ones with enough money to put into the initial investment. then after a while, after declassification, it would go to corporate, then maybe personal use. probably for farming and contruction though. :m:
 
There are the big freaking mecha: Gundams and kin. These I figure aren't possible, much less practical. You would need an ungodly supply of power to work one of these monstrosities, plus a construction material with unheard of strength... and thats just so it can walk around without crushing itself under its own weight. If you have the tech to make one, it would be better invested on a flying tank.

Then there are the smaller scale suits: These are found in some anime and manga, particularly the 'appleseed' series. 10 to 20 feet tall, these are considerably more practical.

Then there are true exoskeletons: suits that are worn rather than pioleted. These are seen in the book 'Starship Troopers', the anime 'Bubblegum Crisis', and many other places. It is hard to find fault with these babies. Someone with one of these can do anything a regular human could do... plus it takes a direct hit from a RPG launcher to take you down. The US military is working on something like this.
 
The William Gibson story is The Winter Market, a short story in Burning Chrome.
Kings of Sleep is the title of something in the story.
I like the exoskeleton in the story. It's very peripheral, and described in a by-the-way sort of way, just a glimpse at a time.

Great story. Makes me all emotional.

Read it online.

  First time I saw her: in the Kitchen Zone. You wouldn't call it a kitchen, exactly, just three fridges and a hot plate and a broken convection oven that had come in with the gomi.
  First time I saw her: She had the all-beer fridge open, light spilling out, and I caught the cheekbones and the determined set of that mouth, but I also caught the black glint of polycarbon at her wrist, and the bright slick sore the exoskeleton had rubbed there. Too drunk to process, to know what it was, but I did know it wasn't party time. So I did what people usually did, to Lise, and clicked myself into a different movie. Went for the wine instead, on the counter beside the convection oven. Never looked back.
  But she found me again. Came after me two hours later, weaving through the bodies and junk with that terrible grace programmed into the exoskeleton. I knew what it was, then, as I watched her homing in, too embarrassed now to duck it, to run, to mumble some excuse and get out. Pinned there, my arm around the waist of a girl I didn't know, while Lise advanced (was advanced), with that mocking grace straight at me now, her eyes burning with wizz, and the girl had wriggled out and away in a quiet social panic, was gone, and Lise stood there in front of me, propped up in her pencil-thin polycarbon prosthetic. Looked into those eyes and it was like you could hear her synapses whining, some impossibly high-pitched scream as the wizz opened every circuit in her brain.
  "Take me home," she said, and the words hit me like a whip. I think I shook my head. "Take me home."
  There were levels of pain there, and subtlety, and an amazing cruelty. And I knew then that I'd never been hated, ever, as deeply or thoroughly as this wasted little girl hated me now, hated me for the way I'd looked, then looked away, beside Rubin's all-beer refrigerator.
  So if that's the word I did one of those things you do and never find out why, even though something in you knows you could never have done anything else.
  I took her home.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Exo-skeletons are already a fairly successful concept in science fiction, and given that technology already has the potential to produce certain basic types of E-S it can't be long until the apparent practical applications of them lead to advanced E-S manufacture.
Incidentally, if you have an interest in the field of theoretical E-S, iI would recommend that you read 'Sentenced to Prism', by Alan Dean Foster author of 'Aliens'.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top