Tuesday 8 February 2011

When it is just too dangerous...

...don't send in the troops...send in the robotic clones (Beetle-Bots):


Grymn are too important to waste in actions that require the 'long haul' so they have come up with a cunning solution to the problem. Their technicians and scientists have perfected a way of copying a soldier's thought patterns and imprinting them on to a manufactured neural net. This neural net can then be placed into the skull of a robot and that will give the robot the personality and ability of the donor Grymn.

The good thing about the system is that it can be done in a few minutes, the Grymn is completely unharmed in the process and, unlike a clone, the robot is battlefield ready in as long as it takes for the new programming to get used to the robot body. Add to that the robot taking on board the training and experience of an existing soldier and you have a great way of putting fully battle-ready troops on the battlefield without running the risk of losing lots of lives...

Cpl Jenssen slowly lowered his head into the headrest of the special chair. Once he was comfortable the nurse tightened the restraining strap over his forehead and asked if he was ready.

Cpl Jenssen said that he was and the seat slowly lowered to a roughly horizontal position. Once it was there, a robotic arm raised a laptop sized scanner and adjusted it so that it was about three inches from Jensses's face. There was a click and about ten seconds of a barely audible hum before the arm withdrew the scanner and the seat began to raise to the normal position.

"All done!" said the nurse.
"Was that it?" Jenssen replied.
"Yep. Robot Jenssen will be waiting outside to meet you".

Jenssen left the small room and walked into a small collection area. Standing on a big yellow spot in the corner, was a blue/grey coloured robot who looked at Jenssen as soon as he entered. Jenssen stopped and looked back at the robot.

"Now that is just weird!" they both said together.

..."This will take a little getting used to" they both thought...

There are a few things to think about though...

What happens if the donor Grymn dies?...
Once the battle is over, will the robot-clones be 'de-programmed'?...
Does sending in robot-clones lead to Grymn getting lazy?...
Do the Grymn donors meet the robot-clones or are they kept separate?...
What if the robot-clones decide not to go and fight?...
What if the robot-clones decide to take over?...

Can you imagine going to war with a bunch of robot clones...say ten...all programmed with your brain patterns? Can you imagine the arguments?

So many things to think about...not even treading the paths of the moral implications of it...but that is the beauty of Science Fiction.