Technology can be cool BUT

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Please, please, please can we find better things to do than kill people:

A powered exoskeleton suit designed to let soldiers march and fight carrying huge loads of weaponry, equipment and armour is to enter testing with the US Army.

...

The HULC uses li-ion batteries to power its hydraulically-driven titanium legs. It matches its movements to those of the wearer without the need for any control inputs.

Heavy equipment can be carried on a HULC trooper's back or hung in front of him from various over-shoulder fittings, and the weight is carried by the exoskeleton rather than his body. A HULC wearer can easily carry 300lb of backpack and body armour, and still be able to walk, run, kneel and stand with ease. The basic machine offers no help to the wearer's arms, but there is a shoulder attachment with powered belts over the shoulder for lifting heavy objects (pictured).

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/07/15/hulc_goes_to_natick/

The technology impresses the heck out of me but the fact it instantly becomes a tool of war saddens me to no end.

*sigh*

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. k&r

[jp11]

2. This country always finds money to develop the latest way to kill 'our enemies'.

I'd say this would be more beneficial to giving people a way to walk again but there isn't money in that so only if it gets picked up by the military does that side track have a shot at working.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Here comes Gears of War...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Ig2JJRpdo&feature=related

It is a mad world

[Nuclear Unicorn]

4. I knew this day would come when I saw that game "Missile Command"

;(

just kidding

kinda

[Odin2005]

5. This is a perfect example of useless DOD pork.

[MercutioATC]

12. Right, because it's SO much less expensive to use vehicles to transport things.

Wanna move a 200-pound piece of gear? You need a vehicle.

How much more efficient (and strategically valuable) would it be to put that load on a soldier's back?

[spin]

6. Unfortunately often research funded for the military ...

leads to advancement in technology which helps average people. The research for the exoskeleton may lead to new approaches for those who are handicapped.

While the army started exoskeleton research as early as 1995, the Sarcos suit is the first major success to date. The suit so impressed Waltham, Massachusetts-based defense contracting giant Raytheon, that it bought Sarcos Inc. this past November.

Jack Obusek, a former colonel now employed in the Army's Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center, foresees the suits initially providing invaluable support. From loading heavy ammo crates, to fixing tanks in the battlefield that would otherwise have to be scrapped to prevent American tank from falling into enemy hands, the potential is enormous he feels.

Jacobsen adds that the technology may also serve home-front uses, helping construction workers build, helping firemen carry gear inside burning houses, and helping disabled people move more freely. Jacobsen states, "We see the value being realized when these suits can be built in great numbers for both military and commercial uses, and they start coming down in cost to within the range of the price of a small car."
http://www.dailytech.com/Building+An+Iron+Man+Pt+I++Military+Grade+Exoskeleton/article11810.htm

Military Technology Transfer

Aeragon examines how modern material human existence developed out of advances in military technology. Few elements of modern life are not the result of military development in some way. For example, the way that you are seeing this site, the Internet and computer, grew out of military technologies. Here, you can obtain a great deal of information about technological advances in military equipment down through the ages and their transfer to civilian uses.

Many of today's most popular consumer items were actually developed by the world's militaries. This includes many articles of clothing as well as things that would seemingly be unrelated such as trendy furniture. Some of the most sought after civilian vehicles and also certain modern building styles were spin-offs of military technologies. The consumer electronic products of today all owe their existence to advancements in military technology. In the few cases where the whole concept of a consumer electronic device is not the product of military technology, the underlying hardware technology such as printed circuits is. The influence of military design affects not only the functional aspects of material life, but also, the aesthetics of it.
http://www.aeragon.com/

Sadly, without conflict we might still be living in caves.

I've often thought that a sentient species needs warfare to advance to the level where it can journey to the stars. The final hurdle before making that leap is to find a solution to hostility and warfare. If the species can not overcome the urge to fight, the technology they have developed will destroy their species.

[Electric Monk]

7. I liked it better when Iron Man was just a comic book.

[Warren DeMontague]

8. That's because the military is the only place where we can spend science R&D money.

Anything else is just "government waste", you know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Think of the INDUSTRIAL applications for this

And believe it or not the Military actually does test some things ahead of the civilians, and at times it is the other way around...

By the way, the intertubes are a product of that research.

[TroglodyteScholar]

10. ...

[Juche]

11. Exoskeletons are being investigated as tools for the elderly, injured & factory workers

They are being looked into for civilian use. They can help factory workers work 12 hour shifts on hard cement, they can help the elderly maintain mobility, they can be used while people recover from injuries.

http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2005/09/exoskeletons_he.html



I say this country has been too harsh
on its outright condemnation of war.
You can point to the many
material advantages brought about
by a crisis and conflict policy.
Hell, World War II gave us
the ballpoint pen.

-Harold and Maude