No Flesh-Eating Robots

About two weeks ago, rumors began to spread online about a flesh-eating robot created by the military. The robot, named the Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™), would be a reconnaissance droid that could survive for long periods behind enemy lines by foraging for fuel. This fuel would include virtually any kind of biomass: twigs, branches, apple cores, stray cats, or even human bodies.

The robot, it turns out, is real, but the claim that it will be able to feed on human bodies is false. The companies building the robot, Cyclone Power Technologies and Robotic Technology Inc., issued a press release addressing the rumor:

RTI’s patent pending robotic system will be able to find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment. Despite the far-reaching reports that this includes “human bodies,” the public can be assured that the engine Cyclone has developed to power the EATR runs on fuel no scarier than twigs, grass clippings and wood chips – small, plant-based items for which RTI’s robotic technology is designed to forage. Desecration of the dead is a war crime under Article 15 of the Geneva Conventions, and is certainly not something sanctioned by DARPA, Cyclone or RTI.

Food Technology

Posted on Mon Jul 20, 2009



Comments

Hmm. I was hoping they'd say that human flesh would jam the machinery or something like that. Instead, the company just says that "Desecration of the dead is a war crime ..."

Well, I guess we don't have to worry, since the U.S. military would never do something that was against the Geneva Conventions ... Would it? ... Would it? ... Hello? Hello?
Posted by Big Gary  on  Mon Jul 20, 2009  at  08:03 PM
This is exactly the sort of response I'd expect from a company that's developing a robot that eats humans.
Posted by AqueousBoy  on  Tue Jul 21, 2009  at  07:20 AM
People wouldn't make very good fuel, anyway. Too soggy.
Posted by Accipiter  on  Tue Jul 21, 2009  at  01:56 PM
What, no R2eatU?
Posted by Hairy Houdini  on  Tue Jul 21, 2009  at  02:35 PM
Right, the Geneva Conventions...
Posted by Gutza  on  Thu Jul 23, 2009  at  08:38 AM
Twigs, grass clippings, and wood chips scare me. :(
Posted by Sakano  on  Thu Jul 23, 2009  at  02:09 PM
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