July 29, 2009: Shouldn't Have Called It EATR

How's this for a denial? "We completely understand the public's concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission."

Harry Schoell is the CEO of Cyclone Power Technologies, makers of the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR). I would SO like to shake the hand of whoever came up with that acronym. Ahem. At any rate, there seems to be a genuine level of fear among the Internet-consuming class that EATR was actually designed to power itself by feeding on human bodies on the battlefield. Which is why Mr. Schoell had to issue an official denial. "No, folks, we are not designing a robot to CUT UP DEAD PEOPLE AND EAT THEM. Honest. Also, there is no Easter Bunny."

(And why not, I say . . . but then, we have already established that humanity does NOT want me in charge of anything more influential than a game company.)

Anyway, take a look at the Popular Science article. Digest, if you will, the image of EATR. It has a chainsaw. How cool is that? Yet we are expected to believe that it's only for cutting down trees. Hah. I have a chainsaw myself, and . . . well, actually, I just use it to cut down trees. But we all have our little dreams, don't we?

This is still an even cooler robot than my Roomba. And if it's causing dismay and paranoia in the people who move their lips when they read the news, well, that's a bonus.

-- Steve Jackson