Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.
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Oh, or change the objective of the mech.
Let's say the giant monsters are farm animals and you need to restrain them without killing them.
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@adynathos Who's going to be the first volunteer to try milking them?
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@pie_flavor Nope thread is
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@blakeyrat said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
As for kaiju:
Does the Giant Moussaka (from Space? maybe, I don't remember) fit in that list?
EDIT: sauce, and this is what it looks like.
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@steve_the_cynic said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Ultimately, though, the real problem with walking combat robots in the style of BattleMechs or Gundams (or even AT-ATs, whatever) is that they will be way too visible on the battlefield. Numerous tank designs have failed over the last century because they were too tall to hide easily in mixed countryside, and therefore they attracted high explosives.
That's not a problem if you're fighting a giant creature
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TL:DR; Pacific Rim is not good enough as a sci-fi for the tech level of the robots to be worth comparing.
The article premise is clearly wrong, but I've always thought the giant robot solution was unlikely to be practical.
I mean, I get suspension of disbelief is a thing, but...
- Somehow a sword is better than bullets/missiles?
- I assume we can't send high-explosive drones down a monster's throat. It implies they're armoured heavily on the inside, which would create a number of biological complexities.
- So maybe they're shock troops: they exist long enough to be a catastrophic problem, but would die after a week. Or they're just not entirely biological.
- There's somehow a mathematical progression to the number of these things being generated? I'm disappointed not to find out why. Do they reproduce at an alarming/increasing rate?
- One assumes they came from a cthulhoid universe where the rules are different but can somehow exist here, or any variation on "magic did it" means I can suspend disbelief.
It was some entertaining monster-bashing, but unless the real world is weirder than I thought in ways they didn't bother to explain (which would be really cool if they had) dismantling how the robots are "less advanced" seems moot anyway.
But hey, convince me otherwise. I'm genuinely curious about the sci-fi.
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@adynathos said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Walking mechs could be justified in a story by constructing the fictional world correctly.
For example by having only limited computers, incapable of complex control tasks, and wiring a human's nervous system to control the mech gives the fastest responses - but for that to work the mech must be close to a human body.
Also make the alternatives like aircraft or long range weapons impossible. A couple of guys with portable missile launchers would win against a Pacific Rim mech.
Hollywood has largely ignored one of the most likely uses for human-powered robots: healthcare. Researchers have used exoskeletons to help people with spinal cord injuries walk again.
Robocop?
Also: Aliens.
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@shoreline said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Somehow a sword is better than bullets/missiles?
I assume we can't send high-explosive drones down a monster's throat. It implies they're armoured heavily on the inside, which would create a number of biological complexities.
So maybe they're shock troops: they exist long enough to be a catastrophic problem, but would die after a week. Or they're just not entirely biological.
There's somehow a mathematical progression to the number of these things being generated? I'm disappointed not to find out why. Do they reproduce at an alarming/increasing rate?
One assumes they came from a cthulhoid universe where the rules are different but can somehow exist here, or any variation on "magic did it" means I can suspend disbelief.They're engineered, and then hatched.
By beings in a Lovecraftian universe.
Where apparently they can keep doubling the strength of their monsters, in perpetuity. That's the mathematical progression that matters, since it makes for Lovecraftian horror as their overwhelming power becomes inevitable. The kaiju are monster-shaped manifestations of something we don't understand. They're like a symbol for nature's brutal indifference towards us, especially at a cosmic scale.
Kinetic impact weapons would be okay (like "fists", "swords" or "bullets"), but recall that the humans don't want to use nuclear weapons because the fallout will just do the Kaijus work for them.
So they built nuclear powered weapons platform with nuclear powered battering rams, nuclear powered blades, etc. This contains the nuclear fallout but still uses most potent form of power generation we have.
That's my take on it anyway. I liked the first movie a lot when I saw it, basically because of these Lovecraft themes and the neat fights. :-)
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@shoreline said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
- Somehow a sword is better than bullets/missiles?
This is very typical of many kinds of science fiction. Popular example: Star Wars. Okay, Jedi can deflect blaster shots with their light sabres, in which case it makes sense, but in a lot of SF there’s no such ability yet people wave swords around and somehow get away with it.
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@gurth said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Okay, Jedi can deflect blaster shots with their light sabres, in which case it makes sense
And they're not supposedly easy weapons to use like that, at least not without a strong connection to the midichlorians…
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@captain said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Where apparently they can keep doubling the strength of their monsters, in perpetuity.
Does that mean each monster is twice as strong as the last, or that each monster periodically doubles its own strength?
If the former, if you trapped one instead of killing it, would new monsters keep coming?
Because they're using a dumb strategy if not.
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@blakeyrat I recall it being that each monster was twice as strong as the last. I'm pretty sure that more monsters would keep coming, since there were times when they sent groups of monsters. I'm guessing each "expedition" or "away team" was twice as strong as the last.
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@captain wasn't the passage getting bigger and allowing for larger monsters?
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@sockpuppet7 Yeah, that sounds right.
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@gurth said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
Popular example: Star Wars.
Pfft. That's not sci fi. That's fantasy in space.
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@captain said in Pacific Rim robots are less advanced because they aren't designed the way we design robots.:
I liked the first movie a lot when I saw it, basically because of these Lovecraft themes and the neat fights.
This is why I liked it. Lovecraftian action robots doesn't have to be sci-fi. Somebody should have mentioned necromancy or something though, just to offset the idea that people might try to compare the robots to the ones in the real world. ;)
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https://twitter.com/LeahTiscione/status/1155976518549458944
Without context.