With a population of only about 2 million, would you actually have a need for dedicated crowd control robots/waldos? or could that just be one of the functions of a more generalized "disaster response" mechanism, designed for fire/life support failure/other toxic conditions? I guess I'm picturing troops or peace officers having the ability to "deputize" any autonomous machinery to come and make a moving wall (while waving their arms and saying "Danger, Will Robinson").
Quote from: SpeakertoAnimals on 11/25/2022 08:24 pmWith a population of only about 2 million, would you actually have a need for dedicated crowd control robots/waldos? or could that just be one of the functions of a more generalized "disaster response" mechanism, designed for fire/life support failure/other toxic conditions? I guess I'm picturing troops or peace officers having the ability to "deputize" any autonomous machinery to come and make a moving wall (while waving their arms and saying "Danger, Will Robinson").Perhaps, I've been downsizing my response to the Great Landcruiser robbery as time went by, from a 'They stole nuclear material, this means war!' to a more measured 'hum that, a bit annoying, my good chap', level of response. Deputized emergency rescue equipment? That's an interesting thought. They do look a bit more like tractors than police officers, to be honest :-)That would address Zed_Noir's objection with a minimal change of text, something like: "Well, they do look as dangerous as a bunch of old tractors can look", or something slightly derisive of that sort...
Updated p.73 as per suggestions. Thanks!Safety first!!
Setting up for a robot fight? Will we be having a dump truck trying to run over a fire bot?
The ability of a robot to rapidly change size and shape would be rather intimidating in a crowd control situation, eg go from a squatting posture to standing tall and spreading arms wide.
Quote from: MickQ on 11/30/2022 09:01 pmThe ability of a robot to rapidly change size and shape would be rather intimidating in a crowd control situation, eg go from a squatting posture to standing tall and spreading arms wide.Unless the crowd perceived some form of threat from the robot, not really. And you need a wall of robots. Also a surging crowd will likely overturn any light weight robots or vehicles that gets in the way. Plus in the context of the story, provide a bigger and easier target for anti-vehicle weapons.
Quote from: Zed_Noir on 12/01/2022 06:23 amQuote from: MickQ on 11/30/2022 09:01 pmThe ability of a robot to rapidly change size and shape would be rather intimidating in a crowd control situation, eg go from a squatting posture to standing tall and spreading arms wide.Unless the crowd perceived some form of threat from the robot, not really. And you need a wall of robots. Also a surging crowd will likely overturn any light weight robots or vehicles that gets in the way. Plus in the context of the story, provide a bigger and easier target for anti-vehicle weapons.I don't see anti-vehicle weapons being something available. People living in pressurized habitats would be very adverse to the existence of that kind of weapon.
Given the mess of airport codes, JSUR is as good as any.I knew nothing about IATA and ICAO codes until CGP Grey released his recent video on them, attached below. But it does seem that J is reserved for Mars (for now) and I would guess there will be an new letter for the Moon. And if we ever get off world in a big way, it will become a mess, just like how codes evolved for airports as described in the video.