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Technology

HAL-5

hal-5

Powered Exoskeleton sir? HAL stands for Hybrid Assisted Limb and is designed to help the disabled and elderly (the suit allows you to lift 5 times the weight you’d usually be able to) and also as an aid for disaster rescue. All cool so far but it’s with the military applications that things start to get scary.

I remember reading something about crash safety that said that the human body isn’t designed to hit something faster than we can run so a mechanical suit that can increase strength, speed and endurance is definitely starting to ring alarm bells. People are gonna get fucked up! What happens when things get to the point where you could get disabled in combat but just carry on?

Don’t get me wrong, power armour is awesome, but can you think of one fiction in which power armour occurs and the world(/galaxy/universe) is not just a bit fucked up? Perpetual War? Post Apocalyptic Wasteland? Staight-to-video sequels?

Also just for reference: The wireless network in James Cameron’s offices being called Skynet = cool. Naming your robotic exoskeleton company Cyberdyne = bad.