Here's the interview with SciFi Shenanigans mentioned at the end of the vid: www.sfshenanigans.com/2019/04/15/sfs-episode-95-isaac-arthur/?fbclid=IwAR1S6M2y9BT3vIw080jMhwzyI72bqy7kSHmi4qScZ0knOkPTMvCkEU6FFdI
why not just do things similar to like robotech like make the jets have a jet mode and in robot mode it would just be a jet with arms and legs, the same for tanks make them have a tank mode and in robot mode for the tanks it would just be a tank with arms and legs both of which controlled via advanced vr so where its like a second body to the operator
You mentioned in the video that you would come back from missions? What service were you with? I want to share this video with my father, and things always become a lot more attractive to him when it's even remotely related to the USMC.
@@alphayun7401 as amazing as transforming jets are in concept, they won't work well in reality. Jets need to be light enough to fly, and all of the transformation mechanisms add weight. The chassis of the plane will need do be reinforced for use in humanoid mode, adding more weight. The point of having a giant robot mecha is to use like a giant tank or gun platform. This requires thick armor, which adds yet even more weight. Because of this you can either build a good mech that transforms into a plane that can't fly, or a good plane that transforms into a mech with no armor, that can barely handle the stresses of walking on 2 legs. You could split the difference but would end up with a cool transforming machine that isn't good at anything. If you want a transforming war machine, then make it land based. Having a realitivly low profile wheeled or tracked vehicle for higher speed traveling, that turns into a mecha to utilize it's height and field of view, and perhaps it's easy to use humanoid form is a bit more viable. The weight restrictions would be less important. The situation in Robotech is a bit unique because they are fighting alien giants, and built their machines to be the same size as the aliens to better fight alien infantry, and navigate alien ships. This may seem to make sense within the show, but the VF-1 seems to be no stronger or more durable than a Zentradi soldier. It is pointless for a fighter to engage in a ground fight because their only real advantage is the ability to fly. A dedicated humanoid giant robot would fare better, as it could be considerably armored and carry heavier weapons. It would have a clear advantage in an encounter with alien infantry. For boarding actions in space, rockets and maneuvering thrusters can be affixed to the robots. Transforming fighters are not needed. I'm a Robotech fan, but Gundams will perform better in the Robotech and Macross franchises that Valkary fighters would.
12:11 U really fiuck there. Light Water Reactors has NO FUTURE! Water is bullshit... Molten salt reactor with size of frigde will produce that same amount of energy...more about MRS there: ua-cam.com/video/uK367T7h6ZY/v-deo.html
@@mechredd you sort of miss the point with macross/robotech VF. First, they have alien tech to make the VF work and considering that this channel is about futurism where we might discover new materials and tech, it is too early to immediately say that transforming mech is out of the question. Two, the point of the VF isn't too be a heavy combatant unit but an all purpose role considering the situation they were in at the time. Making a dedicated heavy ground mecha unit would be pointless when most of the time they won't be used due to the enemy not reaching the base. In that case, it is better to not build a dedicated unit and build more VF that can be used in the front lines. Heck, they were purposely made to be light for dogfight and evasion purpose. And indeed, most transforming mecha depicted in fiction isn't built for heavy purposes. So yeah, saying that transforming mecha is useless because they couldn't fill the heavy role when they weren't intended to in the first place is kinda pointless. And finally, they don't even need to make a dedicated ground/heavy unit when they can just attach armor and weapon packs that turn their light unit into a heavy.
:) There actually is one I think I mentioned in passing before, that was expressed to me as 'the second most important thing', and it was to always pack an extra pair of dry socks. This, as anyone whose done a lot of marching in crappy terrain can confirm, is indeed excellent advice :)
It starts with mining or exterior service power suits, not weapons. When a man finds himself compelled to physically go out into hostile settings like on the surface of a planet or moon with a killer environment, one has to be physically protected from whatever that environment throws at it, That suit must also provide environmental control and radiation shielding. They would also have to have sufficient strength to actually get needed tasks done. A complete feature set would likely be provided by machinery that is too heavy for people to physically carry around and so we head into the realm of power-armor all without even thinking about war. Then when there are two or more people in the same universe, there's always the chance they would fight and if they are already in their power-armor.... :-)
in 40k the spare marine power armour was originally not developed for superhumans to slaughter hods of xenos and heretics but as mining gear like you describe
It would basically be like an enhanced space suit. I found that you could run one off of a rtg,optimally made out of polonium 210, due to its high power output per gram.
It's worth noting that tanks were developed from tracked farming tractors, armored cars from the civilian variety, and so on and so forth. Which isn't to say no one thought of the war machines ahead of time, but they weren't worth making to milspec until after early adopters had done their thing.
The image of two angry people in deep sea diving suits just clanking their tiny grabby claws at each other’s armor and achieving nothing is pretty funny.
@@C104-k5m Do note that Terminator armor began as protective suits for people working in ship reactors. Someone then had a brilliant lightbulb moment that if it can stop you from getting cooked by a nuclear reaction a few feet from your face it will probably also protect you from the claws of a Genestealer.
Battletech also included a partial neural interface helmet early on. That seemed to be abandoned later on. Still Pacific Rim had their neural interface. I remember wondering how you could control a giant mech without somehow tapping into someone's brain. A full body monitor rig seemed like the only option. Then the Kinect came out and the question seemed a little silly.
In Starship Troopers it was theorized that hundreds, if not millions, of small contact switches would line the interior of the armor. Then it's operation, at least once it's fitted and calibrated, would be completely thoughtless.
@@UpperDarbyDetailing the problem with switches is the latency. If you raise your arm, there will be a millisecond delay in the machine moving. That can be trained around though. It's the approach most current exoskeleton designs use.
@@XD-sc4ix I haven't been keeping up with battletech, I've been thinking about getting back into it. The helmets were mentioned less often for a while, but they never actually said they weren't in use. They probably reemphasized them after I lost track.
@@christianmarx3249 haven't seen t hi s (which was pretty much a first glance pick, frm Netflix during quarantine) But I've heard food stuff frm a fellow sci-fi enthusiast.. Is it any good, does it explores different thematics on the autonomous - AGI robots? In short why should i invest my time in that one?
26:45 is my interpretation of why Nier Automata's protagonist is a cute girl robot. They ran out of proper combat robots, so the military conscripted people's sexbots for their war.
Mobile game called Girl's Frontline is pretty much this. Surplus of companion robot dolls plus surplus of guns equals army of cute and/or sexy murder machines. Also because the creators decided they wanted to make their favorite guns into waifus.
Pretty sure it's mostly for thematic reasons. Making the androids look more human than the machines they fight, but still obviously objectified, fits too neatly into the game's narrative to be an accident. But your idea is good, too. It'd probably be stronger if the androids didn't almost universally wear blindfolds, but it's still a decent sci-fi premise.
@@rommdan2716 Naw, man, the trainer had a point. He just didn't explain it very well. In a button-pushing fight between two equally skilled button-pushers with equally powerful buttons to push, having some other, non-button-based method of preventing your opponent from pushing his button would be immensely valuable. Or in other words, the lesson is basically about "thinking outside the box", and the importance of being prepared for situations you don't expect to be in.
firefox5926 much better, but should be lower to the ground, more like a badger, streamlined without floating parts that serve no weaponized purpose (the horses legs are just long targets that would cripple the bot if only one is incapacitated) by being lower to the ground, with a center of gravity that is essentially ground level you reduce mobility problems in the case of partial crippling....
Military Beancounter: "I don't know... Project Gundam is impractical tactically, financially and tecni-" General: "GIANT! WAR! ROBOTS!" Several nearby Congressmen nod in agreement while the crowd cheers. Nearby protester puts down anti-war sign: "Dude! Wait!" General: "What do you want, hippie?" Protester: "Uh, well, war is evil and all... But I really like this idea... Can we do something like a battle arena where there'd be, like, almost no collateral damage? OOH! The Sahara! It's big enough to let off small nukes! Small ones, to keep fallout to a minimum." Beancounter: "Well... It would keep costs to a minimum, by not having to build an entire army of them... AND, it would be a cheap way to disarm the nuclear arsenal. Recycling the nukes we have for both power and ammunition... Let's do this." Everyone cheers.
I am pretty sure the whole thing about the Fallout series is that small bombs cause MORE fallout. As in, our contemporary bombs are so big that the fallout is smaller than the ones used in the 50's. The reason being that the bigger a bomb, the higher the cloud and at a certain point it just goes into higher atmosphere while a smaller one stays and falls back on lower atmosphere. What I am trying to say is that nuclear bombs aren't a good idea. So, objectively, why not use swords? Clearly, giant robots using giant glowing swords is superior!
I love that Battletech addresses so many criticisms in this video, as well as other common arguments against using mechs. One strength of that universe has always been justifying its mechs and making them seem believable as they can be, even going so far as to having a 'Space Geneva Convention' banning orbital bombardment so we can have extensive ground combat at all. I mean that's not to say I think mechs would ever be effective, but I do love a universe that helps me deceive myself into believing that for an afternoon of chucking dice.
Honestly, as a fan of mech suits, I've noticed much the same as you. In marking out the advantages of a humanoid robotic suit from exosuit to mecha, I've noticed that they seem to mostly shine in space and low G conditions with hazardous terrain. You can cover over joints and moving parts with some kind of rubber, possibly even pack them with a form of gel to capture things like silicon dust that would otherwise get caught up in axles and rotors. They would be perfection for construction on the lunar surface or orbital activities (since they won't limit movement like the balloon-like space suits of our modern era), and may even prove more versatile than a rover if you can make them in mass for the population, since nothing's stopping you from giving it a means of low G rapid movement like thrust assisted jumps, strides, or just put a set of wheels on the base that you could work on when you get back. I would agree that their warfare capability is determined by how cheap they are to make, how common they are, ease of use. But it's often the cheapest and most effective means that gets deployed rather than big expensive projects to mitigate the risk and reward of potential loss. Sure, it's like sending everyone out to the desert with their trucks and strapping a machinegun to the bed... but that's not an entirely ineffective tactic. I could easily see a resistance force on a pre-terraformed mars being made up of civilian mechs upgraded with standard or shop-made weaponry, especially if they have access to a means of production to fabricate blueprints. I think they might be pretty impractical as far as 1g planets under a relatively heavy atmosphere, aside from industrial situations. They'd basically just serve as hardsuits and hazard suits on our homeworld, but they could flourish with low oxygen, low gravity environments, especially when trying to balance mobility, protection and a multi-purpose platform.
There's always gonna be a direct counter to a weapon system on the pyramid of the combat chain, then you have periphery threats, then you have counters with negligible threat status that really are only a threat in that they support the counters and periphery threats. ~So while LRM boats are roflstomp long range missile artillery powerhouses, there are lots of other things that threaten them...
Battletech also has faster than light travel, but stupidly uses internal combustion engines running on fossil fuels. That never made sense, you can't even find fossil fuels on planets without life, and making biofuels is horribly inefficient. So I wouldn't use Battletech as an indication of anything realistic..
@@Malamockq Err no. The mech and most advanced stuff use fusion reactors. The fuel in the ships is reaction mass mostly. Some tanks do use fuel as in ICE as supposedly tbere is life in thise planets, etc.
SFIA Rules of Warfare: #1 Don’t encourage the enemy to shoot at you 4:02 #1 Always outnumber your enemy 8:09 #1 Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight 21:35 🤣
Gundam lore is pretty well developed. The technology that necessitated and developed into those big humanoid suits was, in no short order, thanks to the development of a nigh-magical, compact, high output power source and the characteristic exotic particles they emit. ah. always enjoyable to re-live those fascinating creations.
There is only one thing you need to know about giant robots: _"Living here in Jersey_ _Fighting villains from afar_ _You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car_ _You dig giant robots!_ _I dig giant robots!_ _We dig giant robots!_ _Chicks dig giant robots!_ _Nice."_
Ever hear the full song? It's those 2 verses followed by a ridiculously long guitar solo, then the same 2 verses. The whole song is over 3 minutes long.
I just butt dial-watched this video, those are the real wonders of technology :) Kept wondering where that voice was coming from. Now actually watching it!
Exo squad... I watched that show more then any other growing up... I even have a box of action figures in storage I gave to my kids a couple months ago and showed them the show for the first time. It's weird revisiting something after 30 years and a month later it coming up on one of my favorite channels. With nothing in between... Thank you for the episode.
@@DrewLSsix - Agreed! I personally would love a CGI version. When I revisited it with the kids I realized it was... quite brutal by comparison... Honestly, might be refreshing for the generation... That story arc though... Genetically engineered slave race rebels? I'm surprised I'm not racists against blue people...
@Ben Siener -Yea they were, putting aside the annoying sounds, each one shot like 4 projectiles, grappling hooks, hover disks, missiles, etc.. many had break away spots and the suites are really articulating... Some really cool designs... Taking the era into account, they were really impressive...
I'm surprised he didn't cover the other uses of Mecha. They're probably the best option imaginable when it comes to disaster response. Since something with legs would have a lot less trouble navigating through a ruined environment. And unlike tracks. You can decide where the footfalls land precisely. To not crush survivors or further weaken the structure you're traversing. Plus arms, especially humanoid ones. Are ideal for clearing debris. , They like horses, would be ideal for use in crowd control as well. Making them useful for police. And if in spider configuration, legs could also be used to scale buildings. Making them good for rescue operations on high floors that ladders cannot reach. When it comes to combat though. Outside of urban environments. I don't really see much practical use.. especially if they're huge.
when you mentioned the exosuit from aliens, an old anime popped into mind called patlabor. the mechs in that worlds started out as industrial purposes and evolved to counter forces to combat crime from those mechs. with power gen in the carrier trucks came into play as well in that series.
While they are suboptimal for actual warfare, i do expect to see those mechs in sport events. I mean giant robot gladiator fights sounds way cooler than some guys running around with a ball.
Also, I personally liked the way the mechs were controlled in "Avatar," where the cockpit had an armature of multi-jointed levers strapped to the wrists and ankles of the pilot, so that the mech's limbs moved with the motions of the pilot. I like that method best because it seems like the most practical. Better than old-fashioned buttons and joysticks and doesn't require surgery or a lack of morals like the brain transplant.
Ah, the relief of removing body armor, be it after mission, or after a melee in the more ancient stuff is totally palpable, though plate armor and arming garments are a magnitude worse than even missions humping 2000 rounds while wearing full battle-rattle in an Iraqi summer. I am in love with this channel, by the way. I so glad my love of sci-fi and world building led me here
I never really considered Battle Mecha to be all that feasible for the reasons mentioned. But the point about its intuitiveness to untrained users is something I have never thought about and its feasibility in sporting combat is also fascinating. A stellar episode as always.
I remember playing a modded game of Civilization IV that had giant mechs as a unit. In the description, it said that even though they kept falling over and took tons of people to make them walk, no one ever suggested giving them treads instead of legs because legs were just too cool.
Guy in tiny tank "wow those 80m tall robots are easy to hit I can take it down from 70 miles away. Guy in giant robot "what's shooting at me, I cant see anything"
Guy in giant robot, "oh wow, due to my mecha's size, it allowed me better sensor equipment than what a tiny tank could carry! I can detect a tiny tank from far away! Also I can carry a number of weapons including artillery weapons that due to its size can shoot much farther than 70 miles away. Why should I go into the tanks range again?"
I always kind of pictured the evolution of Mecha starting out with large clunky heavy machinery, designed for engineering duties. Sort of like how we had tracked bulldozers and tractors before we built tanks. I kind of wonder about the first person who looked at a Holt (now known as Caterpillar) traction engine and said, "That's great, it can go almost anywhere but, what if we put a gun on it?"
Between you and me the BattleMechs of BattleTech are just called that for branding, but in-universe it's to distinguish them from the IndustrialMechs that came first. The wide footing and ability to shift their centre of mass around makes them good heavy lifters and haulers over unpaved terrain, and the same muscles used to build the legs also made hydraulics obsolete in wheeled and tracked vehicles with tool arms because the muscles are stronger and aren't full of leaky fluids.
Before I continue with the video, I'll briefly lay out my thoughts. Giant robots are for the most part, impractical. There are some niche scenarios where they could be superior to a tank or something, such as rough terrain navigation, on the move weapon stabilization, easily swappable weapons, and the ability to lean around obstacles and the like (also possibly martial arts like movements depending on the mech), but their complexity pretty much cancels all of that out. Power armor on the other hand would be far more useful. Assuming we even have a reason to still include human combatants on the field that is. Infact, power armor may be a requirement just to stand a chance on the battlefield of the future. Or you could just make a small flying robotic super tank and call it a day.
Impractical on earth sure, but not in space use, which it was originally intended in Gundam and Macross. Them being able to operate in Earth was just a plus really. In space a lot of its problems is not existent. Square cube law? Nope. Huge size? Space is so large that it would make the mecha looks small anyways. Impractical? Removing space debris, act as improv thrusters for large debris, etc etc. And in battle, the hands turns the weapon it carries into a near 360 degrees turret, which if faced against a combat space jet that for some reason still uses fixed forward weapon like atmospheric fighter does...well, it ain't gonna fare well for the space craft.
Could have done the entire video entirely using the Battletech universe. There's tanks, hovercraft, power armor and giant mecha all participating in planetary invasions. Hey, would be super cool to do a video series tackling specific futuristic franchises. Is that planned?
@@halilzelenka5813 -So either you're an idiot or... Nope, that's it. People don't sign up to "slaughter for profit", they do it to serve their country honorably because it's respected within society and you're young when you sign up. Something most people understand. And if you are in a situation that you don't deem "moral", you throw away your life if you choose to do something about it... It's not like people like you would support those who object and stand their ground... The notion that an 18 y/o would know everything is.. lol, idiotic.
@@edstoutenburg3990 -What's a 19K? I was a 19D and when I was in there were no other '19's', was that the radio controller or forward operator MOS? I heard something like that was around before my time..
On the subject of "Remote controlling robot/combat drones" and the idea of "Does the guy even need to be there" -- the series Gundam Wing approaches this with the invention of automated drone mobile suits called Mobile Dolls. The argument against them is that, by rendering warfare to automation or risk-free remote command, it removes the humanity of conflict and turns war into a meaningless pushing of buttons. Treize Kushrenada's concern was that, by by removing all risk to humans in waging war, it would become the go-to solution rather than the option only chosen when all other options failed. His stance was that combat must involve humans, because war must have meaning. If war becomes meaningless, humanity will ultimately destroy itself.
Some of the BIG questions that I still have after watching this are: Weight and how that affects locomotion. Weight and how that affects terrain accessibility (PSI on terrain). As always, very good content and thank you for all of the great entertainment! Love the channel!
The idea of one guy with lots of robots looks pretty good 'cause you could send just one guy to get the job done. Harry Harrison did it nicely in "The men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T."
What do yo think of the Starship trooper version of war-armor. They use exoskeletons for mobility and mostly hit-and-run missions, and do use high-ordinance mini-nukes. Nice video!
John Rivers I think he spent this video talking about the larger mech suits, where as the armour from ST is more an exosuit, not designed to act as a heavy vehicle but as heavy infantry
Sure you can do heavy infantry but that still puts soldiers lives in danger. Mini nukes is more of a showboat kinda thing and a result of not having precise enough weaponry. What you want is drones. Most future conflicts are going to be fought using drones.. The ones that aren’t involves total nuclear devastation and even then the drones are going to be the method of delivering the payload. Now what about the less tech savvy part of said conflict? Well they’re going to have to train their soldiers to avoid the opponents RC war machines and they’re probably not going to win even if they do. Right now we’re already used to the concept of flying drones but with sufficient advances in battery tech those bots can get small enough to combat people on the ground and inside buildings.. The bot makers are in full swing albeit they usually develop the tech as meant for “rescue” bots.. Have a look at Boston Dynamics.. They’re making terminators.
@@KarryKarryKarry And that ironically open a way for literal combat robots. But obviously they size would be logically limited to size of tank, at best.
Mining. Boring old mining, driven by some nerdy geology major. That's what your mechsuit-bots get used for. Digging through the rubble of a clumpy asteroid, presorting silicates from ferroids from platinoids, just plunking the rocks into bins. I guess that don't make for an exciting show, huh?
Are you kidding? When the Solar Empire goes totalitarian on your mining colony, those humanoid mech suits all get fitted with makeshift weapons in the big rebellion and it wouldn't be the first time the "peasants" took up arms with the tools of their trade as weapons.
@@CrossoverManiac Haha, well I can't blame you for trying to make it exciting again. Your version of it will probably be on my version's TV shows anyway, to add some romantic spice to an otherwise productive but uneventful tour of duty. Or it could have some small O'Neill Cylinder with a fried out navicomp heading straight for the mining site, and someone has to use a mechsuit to manually redirect thruster heads or something to avoid the disaster.
If nothing else, I can definitely see them popping up in arena battle matches as mentioned. Mech pilots being treated as professional athletes. Well more like I imagine them being treated more like pro gamers since I doubt people would be in the robots themselves... Unless we regress to gladiatorial arenas and watch blood sports for entertainment.
I remember when I saw the first Iron Man movie the two things that struck me is that Tony figured out the two things needed for power armor/robots. 1st A power source (arc reactor) and 2nd) A computer smart enough to run it (Jervis). Your comment about power source got me thinking about that.
As a former FMF grunt, big equals dead. Part of why we unassed from tracks the second we thought there were bad guys. I'm alot happier with how I can move and where I can get cover on foot than in a ten+ foot tall metal box. 60ft tall robots would get pasted by fire from *everywhere* on a battle field. The bigger the target, the more armor it needs to survive long enough to shoot back. The more armor it has, the bigger it is. Endless loop. Shape charges, apsdf, and other weapons tech advances faster than armor tech and is *always* cheaper than protection needed to defeat it. Again, endless loop. Edit: it should be noted this is a well understood concept in military circles. An excellent example is Heinleins starship troopers. What makes them effective is extreme mobility and comparatively small target silhouette. Even then, if they go to high or stand still for any length of time they get smeared as easily as an aluminum can.
I did one a while back, these are the "notes" I took: Since combat wrecks stuff, try to do it far away form your stuff. Avoid recruiting for the enemy. Never pick on someone your own size, or larger. Your gear will break, especially if it's costly or important to the mission. Know how to use your equipment. Pyrrhic victories aren't. Don't lose battles... unless doing so wins the war. Don't let the enemy see you Caffeinated troops are alert troops, decaffeinated troops may mutiny. Avoid using weapons that are likely to kill their user. Avoid getting shot. Plan for Everything. No plan survives contact with the enemy. Always outnumber the enemy. Don't encourage the enemy to shoot at you. Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. I think that's all the ones brought up so far. Unfortunately I didn't put down which episodes they were in.
And this is why i love WH40k since they actually have a good reason for useing knight and titian class walkers.... Their mechs design wise were never meant for combat but instead were primarily used originaly by collonists for labor porposes during the stellar exedous some 20 plus thousand years prior to 40Ks time. Simply put human war walkers are retrofitted contruction and mineing machines repurposed for military applications since there really isnt anyone left alive who remembers what they were originally used for or how they were originally made.
3-10m tall mechs might be useful in rough terrain and urban enviroment, which tanks can't easily handle. They also might have more agility, as they can change direction in a matter of seconds. It would have a very specific use case, but that is okay. Also, that idea of an armored soldier with his robo-buddy sounds cool.
I think the strong point of (humanoid) mecha is flexibility: They are basically excavators and bulldozers if you give them a shovel, but they can also place fortifications, wield knives, or swap to a suitable ranged weapon at a moment's notice. While a tank can be converted towards various purposes, it often requires a fairly long time to implement. Basically, a mecha is best suited for engineering tasks while still being suitable for combat. Anyhow, you might want to check out Patlabor, which focuses upon slice-of-life coverage of law enforcement. With mecha, of course. ua-cam.com/video/2-3E0D5o1N4/v-deo.html
All this talk about the first rule of warfare reminds me of Sun Tsu's first rule: " To win without fighting is best". I think a video on the future of warfare that examines how technology may eliminate the need for warfare (particularly from the perspective of a former soldier) would be interesting.
What if machine civs get a tech that allow them to turn corvettes into ground units? Super imba I know but just imagine. Combat Megamech that can move around the stars all by themselves.
A good book featuring humanoid robots is "all you need is kill", which is also the "edge of tomorrow" movie is very loosely based of. The book goes into a lot of detail about the interaction between the pilot and the vehicle, highly recommended.
Here's an idea for circumventing the power source issue. (until we figure it out) Wireless power transfer via short range masers. Put a battery onboard the power armor, doesn't need super high capacity, even half an hour is sufficient. On the back you have a replaceable, deployable receiver dish. When you need a recharge you ping the system and the local generator at your base fires a maser at a drone orbiting the theater, the drone bounces it to you and recharges your battery. A generator complex with multiple emmiters and a few dozen drones in the theater could allow a force to stagger recharges of multiple teams. (I say maser, but that's just what came to mind first...probably a better option)
I feel like you missed someone of the advantages with the traditional mecha, like the fact that having legs instead of wheels and tracks makes you way more able to deal with all kinds of terrain. Also a pretty big advantage of having arms and hands is versatility since you can lift almost everything meaning that a mecha can be an extremely versatile machine. Plus like a lot of mecha aren't exactly human and in Gundam they often have more than 4 limbs because that's just useful. Some look superficially human but really they're not.
“Having legs instead of wheels and tracks makes you way more able to deal in all kinds of terrain” …no. There’s one GLARING flaw in your assumption here: ground pressure exists. The size and weight of mechs makes it so that you will sink into the ground before you are able to cross any meaningful distance of any terrain because of the insane amount of ground pressure you will be imparting on the very swampy, muddy terrain. I don’t know where this myth came from and why people keep regurgitating it, but it’s just false. “A pretty big advantage of having arms and hands is versatility since you can lift almost everything meaning that a mecha can be an extremely versatile machine” Cranes do a much better job than mechs in that capacity, and tanks, or even just tracked and wheeled vehicles in general can be easily outfitted with many modules that make it just as, if not more versatile than mechs. Even if mechs were somehow still more versatile, it’s generally not worth all of the other trade-offs you must accept for mechs.
After looking at this episode, all of the giant alien kaiju, who monitor earth's culture are saying - "Well after we arrive on earth. Isaac is going to be so happy that were're going to answer all his questions of The Fermi Paradox, the usefulness of Giant Robots, space combat, future pets, Clark Tech, etc."
kinda interesting how the original gundam actually answers ALOT of those problems, in very inventive and logical ways, from why humanoid form, to the dogfighting aspect of combats, all the way to the need for melee weapons.
It's interesting that you mention armor in Dune because during at least one book they do specifically mention suspensor assisted armor, however they also talk about air inside personal shields getting very hot as the shield is put under stress, because airflow through the shield barrier is still reduced significantly. I'd imagine wearing a suit of armor underneath a PS would simply be too exhausting, your soldiers would be dropping from heat exhaustion like flies.
Mister Arthur, I love your videos, but I grew up on Transformers, Macross and Battletech, and will love big bots until the day I die, and I WILL write giant robot fiction! Kudos on mentioning Micheal Stackpole.
I think even in a future where giant mechanized robots are never used in combat, I could absolutely see large robots piloted by humans used in other areas of a futuristic society, weather it be in construction or other industrial fields, or even in entertainment. Imagine entirely new sports or even Olympic games being invented for giant robots and mech suits competing for the championship title of Ultimate Mecha Fighter. The money people would pay to see that would more than make up for the cost.
Or it's sibling series, Pandora in the Crimson Shell. Or Rideback. We're so close to achieving Rideback, it's not even funny... Boston Dynamics' Handle, but ridable like a motorcycle.
@@secondsein7749 Totally agree. Only the first two episodes are worth it. The race is meh. The battle is meh; other than the military history of the rideback, in-world.
@@SLLabsKamilion yeah. I find it funny that it doesn't know what it wants to be; either a show about rideback sport or how the rideback changed the form of warfare so much that it being superior to anything that existed before...which I find it funny due to it being implausible, and I'm a mecha lover! They would make for great combat for sure, but not to the point that it trumps over everything.
Robert Heinlein's book Starship Troopers is about power suits, mecha! the "Mobile Infantry" I actually liked that description in it because its one of the few stories outside standard mecha franshises like Battletech, Robotech (and alot of other anime/manga) etc, that uses Mecha or robot suits. They didnt use this part in the movie though (sadly), except for mentioning and teasing about it in the movie "Starship Troopers 3". Just a hint. The book is alot of fun! ;)
Love Gundam. Gonna say, the Mobile Doll Unit turned out to be a bad idea. This was a big theme of the Gundam Wing series that looked at this problem from multiple angles. It was the cause for the coup with Treize Kutrinada, a single operator with the Mobile Doll Unit proved extremely vulnerable, and allowed crazy space generals to unilaterally control an army without concern of those orders being questioned. Unfortunately, we are currently dealing with this issue in current day. Right now, we have AI drones capable of deploying ordnance without a final command or pilot - or even a remote pilot. Seeing as arguably the conflict presented in Gundam Wing was caused by the introduction of an automated military power, I hope the DOD and DARPA doesn't push us all into a Gundam Wing size conflict.
23:48 brings to mind Armored Trooper VOTOMS. It didn't look like the dudes in the mechs were any kind of elites, and the opening scene to one of the series was basically Operation: Overlord. With mechs instead of soldiers.
Great episode as usual. I don't know if you mentioned this, but the primary reason for a big ass robot or tank might be to enable use of a mobile potent power and energy source, i.e. a nuclear reactor, on the battlefield. This because warfare involves delivering lots of energy to the enemy, and fission or fusion is at least six orders of magnitude better than chemical energy.
Many years ago I read a sci-fi story about the final battle for Armageddon. Robots and AI where sent in to battle the demons from hell. At the end the humans watched on as God raised the robots and AIs up to heaven. Always felt there was a moral to that story.
Power suits will be used as soon as the power problem is solved for a couple reasons that could have been expanded on: Infantry scale weapons are relatively easy to armor against. A large power suit could reasonably become resistant to anything smaller than an M2, while bringing significant firepower, and more importantly comms and sensors, along for the ride. The other big reason: warfare isn't just about killing people, and the easier it gets to kill people, the less that remains the focus. It's the other objectives, capturing high value targets and intel, good will/face time missions, protective/intimidating presence patrols, etc. This is why infantry will always be present, and if they need to be there, then we will find ways for them to be as top of their game as possible.
Love the shout-out for Michael A. Stackpole. Brother and I grew up on his Rogue Squadron novels and comics, while my Battletech buddy grew up on his Battletech books.
Ideally yes, though 'someone' can be a fairly broad definition with AI, and of course while you can't jam a brain on the ground, you can jam a bullet into that brain and achieve the same goal plus bag a skilled soldier, which the jamming scenario doens't allow, just damaging equipment instead..
yeah, I wasn't really excluding just having AI there. and the soldier can obviously be countered, too - but it requires different tools. jamming isn't gonna do anything to the soldier, and bullets would probably not be as effective against drones, so you achieve some redundancy by having both.@@isaacarthurSFIA
Did "Robot Jox" (1990) come to mind for anyone else when Isaac started talking about duals? I love that movie but I've met very few people who've even heard about it.
Man that mech render that kinda looks like REX is awesome. And exactly the type of mech like Gungriffon I would love to see today in videogame form, with a more simulation than mechwarrior and long range combat. Well to be serious I can definitely see man sized drones of various shapes being significant forces on the battlefield. Maybe even with one soldier armed to the teeth being the puppeteer like a necromancer commanding skeletons and spiders. More so in urban environments. As for big armoured warfare, drone tanks and fighter\bomber aircraft drones remaining the big thing.
In the original Gundam there were two plot devices which make the use of giant robots logical. Number one, such machines were used for building the large O'Neill cylinder space colonies. Secondly is the go-to McGuffin -- Minovsky Particles, which render RADAR and radio frequency communications unusable. Without that, it would be harder to justify some of the choices made by the military industrial complexes of both sides, namely Anaheim Electronics for the Earth Federation and The Zeonic Company for the Principality of Zeon.
Some future tank design ideas; Instead of one track on each side either a main track down the center with outriggers at the sides where the tracks now are OR five tracks of equal length for cannibalization with one at the bow for going up things as this is a target for defenders to disable the tank, three on each side in case one is lost so that the tank can still move, & one as a spare at the back.An idea for ships as well as tanks would be multiple concentric shields so that the all can be rotated to one threat or separately moved to protect from multiple threats as needed rather than heavy shielding protecting from the front with less from the sides/rear. Can also go up against attacks from above.There are of course others.
@Isaac Arthur Even though the title of this episode is Giant Robots & Power Suits, you mention relatively little about the latter. I was, however, really surprised that, concerning power suits, you did NOT mention some early originators of the concept. POWER SUITS (1) Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein (2) The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman REMOTELY CONTROLLED HUMANOID DRONES (3) Forever Peace (1997) byJoe Haldeman (a) For land warfare: "soldierboys" (b) For sea & undersea warfare: "waterboys" (c) For air warfare: "flyboys"
man no nod to "Robot Jox" THE movie on future states using Gladiator style combat to settle conflict, or "Crash and Burn" for big industrial robot discussion?
@@isaacarthurSFIA but how could you forget *ROBOT JOX*!? the name alone is just so 80s it makes me nostalgic for a decade that happened before I was even born, so I can't even imagine what it does for a man your age... or maybe it has that effect on me specifically because of my younger age... or just because I've fallen in love with so many other old "retro/pulp" Sci-Fi properties over the past couple years...
You like Michael A. Stackpole?! You are truly a man of culture, Isaac. The X-Wing novels are what made me fall in love with the Star Wars expanded universe. They showed there could be EU-exclusive characters that were just as good (or better in some cases) than the movie characters. I never got that into the Battletech novels, but from what I read they seemed of similar quality.
The most important thing for big humanoid robot, is physical warfare against anyone physically in the field with it. Or worse against civilians if you get a few in a city.
I’d love to see something like the armored giants in Titanfall, or even a Starship Trooper type battle suit. The mobility alone would be a huge factor in deployability and speed of movement. Such a system would have to be ridiculously hardened against a penetrator, or thermal directed energy weapons. Protecting the targeting and life support systems needs to be a big consideration before it is deployed in theater. Good work Isaac! I like your comparison of the pros and cons of each type of platform. In the world of someone who has been on the pointy end of warfare, flying by the seat of your pants doesn’t cut it.
Power suits manned by cats, convinced that the opposition is mice. Small, deadly, and absurdly patient. Isaac, how would you feel having your cat outrank you?
Here's the interview with SciFi Shenanigans mentioned at the end of the vid:
www.sfshenanigans.com/2019/04/15/sfs-episode-95-isaac-arthur/?fbclid=IwAR1S6M2y9BT3vIw080jMhwzyI72bqy7kSHmi4qScZ0knOkPTMvCkEU6FFdI
why not just do things similar to like robotech like make the jets have a jet mode and in robot mode it would just be a jet with arms and legs, the same for tanks make them have a tank mode and in robot mode for the tanks it would just be a tank with arms and legs both of which controlled via advanced vr so where its like a second body to the operator
You mentioned in the video that you would come back from missions? What service were you with? I want to share this video with my father, and things always become a lot more attractive to him when it's even remotely related to the USMC.
@@alphayun7401 as amazing as transforming jets are in concept, they won't work well in reality. Jets need to be light enough to fly, and all of the transformation mechanisms add weight. The chassis of the plane will need do be reinforced for use in humanoid mode, adding more weight. The point of having a giant robot mecha is to use like a giant tank or gun platform. This requires thick armor, which adds yet even more weight. Because of this you can either build a good mech that transforms into a plane that can't fly, or a good plane that transforms into a mech with no armor, that can barely handle the stresses of walking on 2 legs. You could split the difference but would end up with a cool transforming machine that isn't good at anything. If you want a transforming war machine, then make it land based. Having a realitivly low profile wheeled or tracked vehicle for higher speed traveling, that turns into a mecha to utilize it's height and field of view, and perhaps it's easy to use humanoid form is a bit more viable. The weight restrictions would be less important. The situation in Robotech is a bit unique because they are fighting alien giants, and built their machines to be the same size as the aliens to better fight alien infantry, and navigate alien ships. This may seem to make sense within the show, but the VF-1 seems to be no stronger or more durable than a Zentradi soldier. It is pointless for a fighter to engage in a ground fight because their only real advantage is the ability to fly. A dedicated humanoid giant robot would fare better, as it could be considerably armored and carry heavier weapons. It would have a clear advantage in an encounter with alien infantry. For boarding actions in space, rockets and maneuvering thrusters can be affixed to the robots. Transforming fighters are not needed. I'm a Robotech fan, but Gundams will perform better in the Robotech and Macross franchises that Valkary fighters would.
12:11
U really fiuck there. Light Water Reactors has NO FUTURE! Water is bullshit...
Molten salt reactor with size of frigde will produce that same amount of energy...more about MRS there: ua-cam.com/video/uK367T7h6ZY/v-deo.html
@@mechredd you sort of miss the point with macross/robotech VF. First, they have alien tech to make the VF work and considering that this channel is about futurism where we might discover new materials and tech, it is too early to immediately say that transforming mech is out of the question.
Two, the point of the VF isn't too be a heavy combatant unit but an all purpose role considering the situation they were in at the time. Making a dedicated heavy ground mecha unit would be pointless when most of the time they won't be used due to the enemy not reaching the base. In that case, it is better to not build a dedicated unit and build more VF that can be used in the front lines. Heck, they were purposely made to be light for dogfight and evasion purpose. And indeed, most transforming mecha depicted in fiction isn't built for heavy purposes. So yeah, saying that transforming mecha is useless because they couldn't fill the heavy role when they weren't intended to in the first place is kinda pointless.
And finally, they don't even need to make a dedicated ground/heavy unit when they can just attach armor and weapon packs that turn their light unit into a heavy.
"The First Rule of Warfare:
Every Rule of Warfare is the First Rule."
-General Isaac Arthur
that might be the zero-ith law. A rule beyond the rules.
General? He's clearly a field marshal.
The first thing you do is spread out while clumping up.
NO NO NO, you're not listening, Isaac describes the FIRST, first rule of warfare.
General? To me, he's royalty.
The first rule of warfare,
There are no second rules of warfare, only first rules.
there is rule.
rule 1. dont hold back
rule 2. back to rule 1
rule 3. if you dont do rule 1, dont engage in war.
the day we finally discover the second rule of warfare will be a turning point for this channel
:) There actually is one I think I mentioned in passing before, that was expressed to me as 'the second most important thing', and it was to always pack an extra pair of dry socks. This, as anyone whose done a lot of marching in crappy terrain can confirm, is indeed excellent advice :)
...and keeping the socks dry.
@@isaacarthurSFIA Or anyone trekking through the woods and streams! As well as a change of underwear for those really scary parts!
I figured that the second rule of warfare is that every rule is the first rule.
@@isaacarthurSFIA -Ha, yea... It seems fitting for "rule 2", now that the 342 "rule 1's" are checked off the list...
That "#1 rule of warfare" joke always makes me at least smile.
Vaasref, not if you are on a high-value ship at sea exposed on the bridge!
#1 rule of warfare do not get yourself killed...
The first rule warfare is never forget any of the first rules of warfare.
The #1 rule of warfare is not a joke. People die that forget it.
annoyed707: I like the way Patton put it- you do not win a war by dying for your country! You win by making the OTHER S.O.B. Die for his!!!
The First Rule of Warfare is, we don't talk about the Second Rule of Warfare.
It starts with mining or exterior service power suits, not weapons.
When a man finds himself compelled to physically go out into hostile settings like on the surface of a planet or moon with a killer environment, one has to be physically protected from whatever that environment throws at it, That suit must also provide environmental control and radiation shielding. They would also have to have sufficient strength to actually get needed tasks done. A complete feature set would likely be provided by machinery that is too heavy for people to physically carry around and so we head into the realm of power-armor all without even thinking about war. Then when there are two or more people in the same universe, there's always the chance they would fight and if they are already in their power-armor.... :-)
in 40k the spare marine power armour was originally not developed for superhumans to slaughter hods of xenos and heretics but as mining gear like you describe
It would basically be like an enhanced space suit. I found that you could run one off of a rtg,optimally made out of polonium 210, due to its high power output per gram.
It's worth noting that tanks were developed from tracked farming tractors, armored cars from the civilian variety, and so on and so forth. Which isn't to say no one thought of the war machines ahead of time, but they weren't worth making to milspec until after early adopters had done their thing.
The image of two angry people in deep sea diving suits just clanking their tiny grabby claws at each other’s armor and achieving nothing is pretty funny.
@@C104-k5m Do note that Terminator armor began as protective suits for people working in ship reactors. Someone then had a brilliant lightbulb moment that if it can stop you from getting cooked by a nuclear reaction a few feet from your face it will probably also protect you from the claws of a Genestealer.
Battletech also included a partial neural interface helmet early on. That seemed to be abandoned later on. Still Pacific Rim had their neural interface. I remember wondering how you could control a giant mech without somehow tapping into someone's brain. A full body monitor rig seemed like the only option. Then the Kinect came out and the question seemed a little silly.
In Starship Troopers it was theorized that hundreds, if not millions, of small contact switches would line the interior of the armor. Then it's operation, at least once it's fitted and calibrated, would be completely thoughtless.
@@UpperDarbyDetailing the problem with switches is the latency. If you raise your arm, there will be a millisecond delay in the machine moving. That can be trained around though. It's the approach most current exoskeleton designs use.
@@emmettobrian1874 yes, I'm just saying that was the proposed method in the book. Heinlein just ignored the latency.
Not really the neural helmets still exist in battletech
@@XD-sc4ix I haven't been keeping up with battletech, I've been thinking about getting back into it. The helmets were mentioned less often for a while, but they never actually said they weren't in use. They probably reemphasized them after I lost track.
I always forget that before Isaac became a science UA-camr, he was in the military. Firsthand experience is always one of the best sources to cite!
you had me at Giant Robots & Power Suits
love death and robots
@@christianmarx3249 haven't seen t hi s (which was pretty much a first glance pick, frm Netflix during quarantine)
But I've heard food stuff frm a fellow sci-fi enthusiast..
Is it any good, does it explores different thematics on the autonomous - AGI robots?
In short why should i invest my time in that one?
Power Armor Little League Baseball
Only on ESPN 8! THE OCHO!
Back to you, cotton.
Would definitely watch powered armor sports
26:45 is my interpretation of why Nier Automata's protagonist is a cute girl robot. They ran out of proper combat robots, so the military conscripted people's sexbots for their war.
Mobile game called Girl's Frontline is pretty much this. Surplus of companion robot dolls plus surplus of guns equals army of cute and/or sexy murder machines.
Also because the creators decided they wanted to make their favorite guns into waifus.
@@haassteambraker9959 thanks for the game suggestion
Pretty sure it's mostly for thematic reasons. Making the androids look more human than the machines they fight, but still obviously objectified, fits too neatly into the game's narrative to be an accident.
But your idea is good, too. It'd probably be stronger if the androids didn't almost universally wear blindfolds, but it's still a decent sci-fi premise.
It was to trick the aliens into thinking humans are still alive.
"Don't bring a knife to a gunfight."
But your enemy cannot pull a trigger if you disable his hand.
Its all fun and games until the hills start speaking radroach.
Actually that's wasn't a lession, it was the trainer punishing a soldier for making a better point than him.
@@rommdan2716 Naw, man, the trainer had a point. He just didn't explain it very well.
In a button-pushing fight between two equally skilled button-pushers with equally powerful buttons to push, having some other, non-button-based method of preventing your opponent from pushing his button would be immensely valuable.
Or in other words, the lesson is basically about "thinking outside the box", and the importance of being prepared for situations you don't expect to be in.
@@macdeus2601 Nah, that was totally about power, he wanted a soldier that doesn't ask questions like every fascist goverment do.
Yeah, but you need to do it beffore they can get a shot in. If your opponent has you at gunpoint, don't; if their attention is diverted, go for it.
Giant robots just are not practical war engines... Or are they?
*Hey Vsauce, Michael here*
Gehargen2 they aren't...
@@kevg1617 but then i think ... what about "zoids" like 4 legged ... mabe something the size of a horse but less ... death prone and easier to repair
firefox5926 much better, but should be lower to the ground, more like a badger, streamlined without floating parts that serve no weaponized purpose (the horses legs are just long targets that would cripple the bot if only one is incapacitated) by being lower to the ground, with a center of gravity that is essentially ground level you reduce mobility problems in the case of partial crippling....
@@kevg1617 In way as show in most anime? Yes, they are not. But there is few possible exceptions like space station combat and spider-tanks.
SFIAsauce, Isaac here.
Military Beancounter: "I don't know... Project Gundam is impractical tactically, financially and tecni-"
General: "GIANT! WAR! ROBOTS!"
Several nearby Congressmen nod in agreement while the crowd cheers.
Nearby protester puts down anti-war sign: "Dude! Wait!"
General: "What do you want, hippie?"
Protester: "Uh, well, war is evil and all... But I really like this idea... Can we do something like a battle arena where there'd be, like, almost no collateral damage? OOH! The Sahara! It's big enough to let off small nukes! Small ones, to keep fallout to a minimum."
Beancounter: "Well... It would keep costs to a minimum, by not having to build an entire army of them... AND, it would be a cheap way to disarm the nuclear arsenal. Recycling the nukes we have for both power and ammunition... Let's do this."
Everyone cheers.
Could hardly do worse than Space Launch System.
So...
Robot Jox then?
What the hell was that? You're a particularly geeky neck beard incel aren't you?
I am pretty sure the whole thing about the Fallout series is that small bombs cause MORE fallout. As in, our contemporary bombs are so big that the fallout is smaller than the ones used in the 50's. The reason being that the bigger a bomb, the higher the cloud and at a certain point it just goes into higher atmosphere while a smaller one stays and falls back on lower atmosphere.
What I am trying to say is that nuclear bombs aren't a good idea. So, objectively, why not use swords? Clearly, giant robots using giant glowing swords is superior!
@@jessicamilligan3196 Why yes, Captain Obvious. How did you guess? 😆
I love that Battletech addresses so many criticisms in this video, as well as other common arguments against using mechs. One strength of that universe has always been justifying its mechs and making them seem believable as they can be, even going so far as to having a 'Space Geneva Convention' banning orbital bombardment so we can have extensive ground combat at all. I mean that's not to say I think mechs would ever be effective, but I do love a universe that helps me deceive myself into believing that for an afternoon of chucking dice.
Honestly, as a fan of mech suits, I've noticed much the same as you. In marking out the advantages of a humanoid robotic suit from exosuit to mecha, I've noticed that they seem to mostly shine in space and low G conditions with hazardous terrain. You can cover over joints and moving parts with some kind of rubber, possibly even pack them with a form of gel to capture things like silicon dust that would otherwise get caught up in axles and rotors. They would be perfection for construction on the lunar surface or orbital activities (since they won't limit movement like the balloon-like space suits of our modern era), and may even prove more versatile than a rover if you can make them in mass for the population, since nothing's stopping you from giving it a means of low G rapid movement like thrust assisted jumps, strides, or just put a set of wheels on the base that you could work on when you get back. I would agree that their warfare capability is determined by how cheap they are to make, how common they are, ease of use. But it's often the cheapest and most effective means that gets deployed rather than big expensive projects to mitigate the risk and reward of potential loss. Sure, it's like sending everyone out to the desert with their trucks and strapping a machinegun to the bed... but that's not an entirely ineffective tactic. I could easily see a resistance force on a pre-terraformed mars being made up of civilian mechs upgraded with standard or shop-made weaponry, especially if they have access to a means of production to fabricate blueprints.
I think they might be pretty impractical as far as 1g planets under a relatively heavy atmosphere, aside from industrial situations. They'd basically just serve as hardsuits and hazard suits on our homeworld, but they could flourish with low oxygen, low gravity environments, especially when trying to balance mobility, protection and a multi-purpose platform.
During the Cold War I served with the Royal Artillery in BAOR using the M107. We truly were 20 mile snipers.
If Battletech is any indication, a swarm of small, cheap LRM boats will eat giant mechs for breakfast.
We must have played different battletechs then.
There's always gonna be a direct counter to a weapon system on the pyramid of the combat chain, then you have periphery threats, then you have counters with negligible threat status that really are only a threat in that they support the counters and periphery threats.
~So while LRM boats are roflstomp long range missile artillery powerhouses, there are lots of other things that threaten them...
I've seen those things fire for at least 30 seconds in the most recent Battle tech game... It's almost insulting.
Battletech also has faster than light travel, but stupidly uses internal combustion engines running on fossil fuels. That never made sense, you can't even find fossil fuels on planets without life, and making biofuels is horribly inefficient. So I wouldn't use Battletech as an indication of anything realistic..
@@Malamockq Err no.
The mech and most advanced stuff use fusion reactors. The fuel in the ships is reaction mass mostly.
Some tanks do use fuel as in ICE as supposedly tbere is life in thise planets, etc.
SFIA Rules of Warfare:
#1 Don’t encourage the enemy to shoot at you 4:02
#1 Always outnumber your enemy 8:09
#1 Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight 21:35
🤣
Douggernaut84: you left out “stay out of the enemy’s gun range.”
When at first you don't succeed, call air support.
Gundam lore is pretty well developed. The technology that necessitated and developed into those big humanoid suits was, in no short order, thanks to the development of a nigh-magical, compact, high output power source and the characteristic exotic particles they emit. ah. always enjoyable to re-live those fascinating creations.
@13:00 - Rule #1 of Warfare: Always Bring a Posse of Killer Cyber-Panthers.
I'm personally partial to cyber-dragons, but same.
There is only one thing you need to know about giant robots:
_"Living here in Jersey_
_Fighting villains from afar_
_You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car_
_You dig giant robots!_
_I dig giant robots!_
_We dig giant robots!_
_Chicks dig giant robots!_
_Nice."_
MEGAS. Damn I miss that series
Ever hear the full song? It's those 2 verses followed by a ridiculously long guitar solo, then the same 2 verses. The whole song is over 3 minutes long.
Thank you
I just butt dial-watched this video, those are the real wonders of technology :)
Kept wondering where that voice was coming from.
Now actually watching it!
Oh no! Google (or Apple) finally did it! The phone read your mind!
JK :)
Your butt knows what's good
Your hips don't lie
Exo squad... I watched that show more then any other growing up... I even have a box of action figures in storage I gave to my kids a couple months ago and showed them the show for the first time. It's weird revisiting something after 30 years and a month later it coming up on one of my favorite channels. With nothing in between... Thank you for the episode.
Show could do with a quality reboot or continuation.
@@DrewLSsix - Agreed! I personally would love a CGI version. When I revisited it with the kids I realized it was... quite brutal by comparison... Honestly, might be refreshing for the generation...
That story arc though... Genetically engineered slave race rebels? I'm surprised I'm not racists against blue people...
@Ben Siener -Yea they were, putting aside the annoying sounds, each one shot like 4 projectiles, grappling hooks, hover disks, missiles, etc.. many had break away spots and the suites are really articulating... Some really cool designs... Taking the era into account, they were really impressive...
How about Battletech/Mech Warrior, Mobile Suit Gundam, & Macross/Robotech?
I'm surprised he didn't cover the other uses of Mecha. They're probably the best option imaginable when it comes to disaster response. Since something with legs would have a lot less trouble navigating through a ruined environment. And unlike tracks. You can decide where the footfalls land precisely. To not crush survivors or further weaken the structure you're traversing. Plus arms, especially humanoid ones. Are ideal for clearing debris. , They like horses, would be ideal for use in crowd control as well. Making them useful for police. And if in spider configuration, legs could also be used to scale buildings. Making them good for rescue operations on high floors that ladders cannot reach. When it comes to combat though. Outside of urban environments. I don't really see much practical use.. especially if they're huge.
when you mentioned the exosuit from aliens, an old anime popped into mind called patlabor. the mechs in that worlds started out as industrial purposes and evolved to counter forces to combat crime from those mechs. with power gen in the carrier trucks came into play as well in that series.
And can't forget the basic knightmare frames in code geass they were realistic in size and movement, and built in wheels to propel them
While they are suboptimal for actual warfare, i do expect to see those mechs in sport events. I mean giant robot gladiator fights sounds way cooler than some guys running around with a ball.
Loved the twist you added to your "Space Warfare" intro!
Also, I personally liked the way the mechs were controlled in "Avatar," where the cockpit had an armature of multi-jointed levers strapped to the wrists and ankles of the pilot, so that the mech's limbs moved with the motions of the pilot. I like that method best because it seems like the most practical. Better than old-fashioned buttons and joysticks and doesn't require surgery or a lack of morals like the brain transplant.
Avatee best mive she in love avatar.
Can't wait for my MJOLNIR armor.
Classic Mjolnir is coming back...
@@phanthuannguyen1846.........Yeah.......................It.....................................................................................is......................................................................
You would to need Asgardian level strength to wear it.
You need a power supply. That's the only drawback
Ha your heretical armour is no match to the glorious Space Marine MK10 armour. 😬
Ah, the relief of removing body armor, be it after mission, or after a melee in the more ancient stuff is totally palpable, though plate armor and arming garments are a magnitude worse than even missions humping 2000 rounds while wearing full battle-rattle in an Iraqi summer.
I am in love with this channel, by the way. I so glad my love of sci-fi and world building led me here
I never really considered Battle Mecha to be all that feasible for the reasons mentioned. But the point about its intuitiveness to untrained users is something I have never thought about and its feasibility in sporting combat is also fascinating.
A stellar episode as always.
Isaac Arthur: ONE OF THE MOST DISAPPOINTING MOMENTS IN MY LIFE WAS WHEN I FOUND OUT GIANT ROBOTS WERE TOTALLY IMPRACTICAL.
I remember playing a modded game of Civilization IV that had giant mechs as a unit. In the description, it said that even though they kept falling over and took tons of people to make them walk, no one ever suggested giving them treads instead of legs because legs were just too cool.
When you want to take a nap but then Issac uploads.
First rule of warfare: watch SFIA ASAP.
So just upload your mind along with the video.
And end up accidently napping?
Guy in tiny tank "wow those 80m tall robots are easy to hit I can take it down from 70 miles away.
Guy in giant robot "what's shooting at me, I cant see anything"
Guy in giant robot, "oh wow, due to my mecha's size, it allowed me better sensor equipment than what a tiny tank could carry! I can detect a tiny tank from far away!
Also I can carry a number of weapons including artillery weapons that due to its size can shoot much farther than 70 miles away. Why should I go into the tanks range again?"
I always kind of pictured the evolution of Mecha starting out with large clunky heavy machinery, designed for engineering duties. Sort of like how we had tracked bulldozers and tractors before we built tanks. I kind of wonder about the first person who looked at a Holt (now known as Caterpillar) traction engine and said, "That's great, it can go almost anywhere but, what if we put a gun on it?"
Between you and me the BattleMechs of BattleTech are just called that for branding, but in-universe it's to distinguish them from the IndustrialMechs that came first. The wide footing and ability to shift their centre of mass around makes them good heavy lifters and haulers over unpaved terrain, and the same muscles used to build the legs also made hydraulics obsolete in wheeled and tracked vehicles with tool arms because the muscles are stronger and aren't full of leaky fluids.
I think the 'First rule of warfare' running gag on this channel is my favorite thing on all of youtube.
Before I continue with the video, I'll briefly lay out my thoughts.
Giant robots are for the most part, impractical. There are some niche scenarios where they could be superior to a tank or something, such as rough terrain navigation, on the move weapon stabilization, easily swappable weapons, and the ability to lean around obstacles and the like (also possibly martial arts like movements depending on the mech), but their complexity pretty much cancels all of that out.
Power armor on the other hand would be far more useful. Assuming we even have a reason to still include human combatants on the field that is.
Infact, power armor may be a requirement just to stand a chance on the battlefield of the future.
Or you could just make a small flying robotic super tank and call it a day.
Impractical on earth sure, but not in space use, which it was originally intended in Gundam and Macross. Them being able to operate in Earth was just a plus really. In space a lot of its problems is not existent. Square cube law? Nope. Huge size? Space is so large that it would make the mecha looks small anyways. Impractical? Removing space debris, act as improv thrusters for large debris, etc etc.
And in battle, the hands turns the weapon it carries into a near 360 degrees turret, which if faced against a combat space jet that for some reason still uses fixed forward weapon like atmospheric fighter does...well, it ain't gonna fare well for the space craft.
Could have done the entire video entirely using the Battletech universe. There's tanks, hovercraft, power armor and giant mecha all participating in planetary invasions.
Hey, would be super cool to do a video series tackling specific futuristic franchises. Is that planned?
11B here. Artillery is great when you need it, a God send honestly. Hooha!!
Congratulations on being a willing participant in slaughter for profit
@@halilzelenka5813 -So either you're an idiot or... Nope, that's it.
People don't sign up to "slaughter for profit", they do it to serve their country honorably because it's respected within society and you're young when you sign up. Something most people understand. And if you are in a situation that you don't deem "moral", you throw away your life if you choose to do something about it... It's not like people like you would support those who object and stand their ground... The notion that an 18 y/o would know everything is.. lol, idiotic.
Even if so...oil is the lifeblood of freedom.
Old 19k agrees-they can't out run a Radio.
@@edstoutenburg3990 -What's a 19K? I was a 19D and when I was in there were no other '19's', was that the radio controller or forward operator MOS? I heard something like that was around before my time..
On the subject of "Remote controlling robot/combat drones" and the idea of "Does the guy even need to be there" -- the series Gundam Wing approaches this with the invention of automated drone mobile suits called Mobile Dolls. The argument against them is that, by rendering warfare to automation or risk-free remote command, it removes the humanity of conflict and turns war into a meaningless pushing of buttons.
Treize Kushrenada's concern was that, by by removing all risk to humans in waging war, it would become the go-to solution rather than the option only chosen when all other options failed. His stance was that combat must involve humans, because war must have meaning. If war becomes meaningless, humanity will ultimately destroy itself.
Some of the BIG questions that I still have after watching this are:
Weight and how that affects locomotion.
Weight and how that affects terrain accessibility (PSI on terrain).
As always, very good content and thank you for all of the great entertainment! Love the channel!
Arthur talking about 40K brings limitless amounts of joy to my hearth.
The idea of one guy with lots of robots looks pretty good 'cause you could send just one guy to get the job done.
Harry Harrison did it nicely in "The men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T."
The 7th episode of Evangelion is the perfect demonstration of why a robot on a chord is better than a nuclear powered one
I cannot wait till the space whales and bioships episode this summer ^^'
Watching SFIA is better than TV these days by far, with rare exceptions
Ooooo Bioships... Dammit, now I'm anticipating something...
I hope he also includes space-schools in that episode too (aka space piranhas)
Gojira intensifies
@@HiopX
Gojira is a flee compared to giant space creatures and bio ships! XD
What do yo think of the Starship trooper version of war-armor. They use exoskeletons for mobility and mostly hit-and-run missions, and do use high-ordinance mini-nukes.
Nice video!
John Rivers I think he spent this video talking about the larger mech suits, where as the armour from ST is more an exosuit, not designed to act as a heavy vehicle but as heavy infantry
Sure you can do heavy infantry but that still puts soldiers lives in danger. Mini nukes is more of a showboat kinda thing and a result of not having precise enough weaponry.
What you want is drones. Most future conflicts are going to be fought using drones.. The ones that aren’t involves total nuclear devastation and even then the drones are going to be the method of delivering the payload.
Now what about the less tech savvy part of said conflict? Well they’re going to have to train their soldiers to avoid the opponents RC war machines and they’re probably not going to win even if they do.
Right now we’re already used to the concept of flying drones but with sufficient advances in battery tech those bots can get small enough to combat people on the ground and inside buildings.. The bot makers are in full swing albeit they usually develop the tech as meant for “rescue” bots.. Have a look at Boston Dynamics.. They’re making terminators.
@@whitneylackenbauer9782 I love when people pretend that there is a difference ;D
@@KarryKarryKarry And that ironically open a way for literal combat robots. But obviously they size would be logically limited to size of tank, at best.
Mining. Boring old mining, driven by some nerdy geology major. That's what your mechsuit-bots get used for. Digging through the rubble of a clumpy asteroid, presorting silicates from ferroids from platinoids, just plunking the rocks into bins. I guess that don't make for an exciting show, huh?
Hauling crates from point A to point B like the one in Aliens.
Yeah until the IMC wrecks your homeworld and you end up having to stand by for titan fall.
Maybe not a fun story, but it could be a neat one.
Are you kidding? When the Solar Empire goes totalitarian on your mining colony, those humanoid mech suits all get fitted with makeshift weapons in the big rebellion and it wouldn't be the first time the "peasants" took up arms with the tools of their trade as weapons.
@@CrossoverManiac Haha, well I can't blame you for trying to make it exciting again. Your version of it will probably be on my version's TV shows anyway, to add some romantic spice to an otherwise productive but uneventful tour of duty. Or it could have some small O'Neill Cylinder with a fried out navicomp heading straight for the mining site, and someone has to use a mechsuit to manually redirect thruster heads or something to avoid the disaster.
If nothing else, I can definitely see them popping up in arena battle matches as mentioned. Mech pilots being treated as professional athletes. Well more like I imagine them being treated more like pro gamers since I doubt people would be in the robots themselves... Unless we regress to gladiatorial arenas and watch blood sports for entertainment.
I remember when I saw the first Iron Man movie the two things that struck me is that Tony figured out the two things needed for power armor/robots. 1st A power source (arc reactor) and 2nd) A computer smart enough to run it (Jervis). Your comment about power source got me thinking about that.
As a former FMF grunt, big equals dead. Part of why we unassed from tracks the second we thought there were bad guys. I'm alot happier with how I can move and where I can get cover on foot than in a ten+ foot tall metal box. 60ft tall robots would get pasted by fire from *everywhere* on a battle field. The bigger the target, the more armor it needs to survive long enough to shoot back. The more armor it has, the bigger it is. Endless loop. Shape charges, apsdf, and other weapons tech advances faster than armor tech and is *always* cheaper than protection needed to defeat it. Again, endless loop.
Edit: it should be noted this is a well understood concept in military circles. An excellent example is Heinleins starship troopers. What makes them effective is extreme mobility and comparatively small target silhouette. Even then, if they go to high or stand still for any length of time they get smeared as easily as an aluminum can.
Someone should put together a list of your "first rule of combat" sayings.
It would take a while, but I definitely support this
I recall making a list a few months ago, but I'm not sure where it is now. I'll edit my comment if I find it.
I did one a while back, these are the "notes" I took:
Since combat wrecks stuff, try to do it far away form your stuff.
Avoid recruiting for the enemy.
Never pick on someone your own size, or larger.
Your gear will break, especially if it's costly or important to the mission.
Know how to use your equipment.
Pyrrhic victories aren't.
Don't lose battles... unless doing so wins the war.
Don't let the enemy see you
Caffeinated troops are alert troops, decaffeinated troops may mutiny.
Avoid using weapons that are likely to kill their user.
Avoid getting shot.
Plan for Everything.
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
Always outnumber the enemy.
Don't encourage the enemy to shoot at you.
Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
I think that's all the ones brought up so far. Unfortunately I didn't put down which episodes they were in.
@@alexanderlundberg2150 Thank you! Great work.
@@alexanderlundberg2150 excellent job A+
And this is why i love WH40k since they actually have a good reason for useing knight and titian class walkers....
Their mechs design wise were never meant for combat but instead were primarily used originaly by collonists for labor porposes during the stellar exedous some 20 plus thousand years prior to 40Ks time.
Simply put human war walkers are retrofitted contruction and mineing machines repurposed for military applications since there really isnt anyone left alive who remembers what they were originally used for or how they were originally made.
3-10m tall mechs might be useful in rough terrain and urban enviroment, which tanks can't easily handle. They also might have more agility, as they can change direction in a matter of seconds. It would have a very specific use case, but that is okay.
Also, that idea of an armored soldier with his robo-buddy sounds cool.
I think the strong point of (humanoid) mecha is flexibility: They are basically excavators and bulldozers if you give them a shovel, but they can also place fortifications, wield knives, or swap to a suitable ranged weapon at a moment's notice. While a tank can be converted towards various purposes, it often requires a fairly long time to implement. Basically, a mecha is best suited for engineering tasks while still being suitable for combat.
Anyhow, you might want to check out Patlabor, which focuses upon slice-of-life coverage of law enforcement. With mecha, of course.
ua-cam.com/video/2-3E0D5o1N4/v-deo.html
All this talk about the first rule of warfare reminds me of Sun Tsu's first rule: " To win without fighting is best". I think a video on the future of warfare that examines how technology may eliminate the need for warfare (particularly from the perspective of a former soldier) would be interesting.
According to Stellaris they [Giant Death Robots/Mega-Warforms] are most useful, if you are a robot yourself...
They are also really expensive, take a long time to build and exposed in transport.
What if machine civs get a tech that allow them to turn corvettes into ground units? Super imba I know but just imagine.
Combat Megamech that can move around the stars all by themselves.
Mech control via nural up link. Did you see GenLock ??
They need to give hiveminds an equivalent.
@@lancerhalsey4816 Like a Reaper.
Can't click thumbs up enough times! awesome as always! Arthursday is the best day.
next, do a video on Sexy aliens
😂🤣😂
There is something you could do with your mecha between wars.
better, do a video on you doing a sexy alien
Just do a video on alien boobs
Up-voted... Because... Well, duh!
It's eight in the damn morning.
and everyones allready been up for like 3 hours because reality.
@@metalskirmish Truth.
@@SomeKindaSpy some people are still up lol
I was at work by then, quit being lazy shaym
No, it's 1 pm. Not everyone lives in your city.
24:15 The titans of the Mechanicus WILL march!
AVE OMNISSIAH!
You dig giant robots!
I dig giant robots!
We dig giant robots!
Chicks dig giant robots!
Mecha: The Rise & Fall of Giant Robots ua-cam.com/video/H6OHVrQ5tcw/v-deo.html
MEGAS XLR
Nice
True, but the giant robot chicks dig vibrates...
skrv Nice
*All you need are*
*THE GREY KNIGHTS !!!*
*The Emperor Protects.*
Get that Dreadknight away from here.
What terrible, terrible person designed it, anyway?
@@Tounushi Remember W40K have magic. So logic no find.
protecc
Emperor protects my battle brothers
Death to all heretics
A good book featuring humanoid robots is "all you need is kill", which is also the "edge of tomorrow" movie is very loosely based of. The book goes into a lot of detail about the interaction between the pilot and the vehicle, highly recommended.
So I wasn't the only one watching Robotech before school
I'm 40+ years old and I have the entire series on DVD.
Here's an idea for circumventing the power source issue. (until we figure it out)
Wireless power transfer via short range masers. Put a battery onboard the power armor, doesn't need super high capacity, even half an hour is sufficient. On the back you have a replaceable, deployable receiver dish. When you need a recharge you ping the system and the local generator at your base fires a maser at a drone orbiting the theater, the drone bounces it to you and recharges your battery.
A generator complex with multiple emmiters and a few dozen drones in the theater could allow a force to stagger recharges of multiple teams. (I say maser, but that's just what came to mind first...probably a better option)
I feel like you missed someone of the advantages with the traditional mecha, like the fact that having legs instead of wheels and tracks makes you way more able to deal with all kinds of terrain. Also a pretty big advantage of having arms and hands is versatility since you can lift almost everything meaning that a mecha can be an extremely versatile machine. Plus like a lot of mecha aren't exactly human and in Gundam they often have more than 4 limbs because that's just useful. Some look superficially human but really they're not.
“Having legs instead of wheels and tracks makes you way more able to deal in all kinds of terrain”
…no. There’s one GLARING flaw in your assumption here: ground pressure exists. The size and weight of mechs makes it so that you will sink into the ground before you are able to cross any meaningful distance of any terrain because of the insane amount of ground pressure you will be imparting on the very swampy, muddy terrain. I don’t know where this myth came from and why people keep regurgitating it, but it’s just false.
“A pretty big advantage of having arms and hands is versatility since you can lift almost everything meaning that a mecha can be an extremely versatile machine”
Cranes do a much better job than mechs in that capacity, and tanks, or even just tracked and wheeled vehicles in general can be easily outfitted with many modules that make it just as, if not more versatile than mechs. Even if mechs were somehow still more versatile, it’s generally not worth all of the other trade-offs you must accept for mechs.
After looking at this episode, all of the giant alien kaiju, who monitor earth's culture are saying - "Well after we arrive on earth. Isaac is going to be so happy that were're going to answer all his questions of The Fermi Paradox, the usefulness of Giant Robots, space combat, future pets, Clark Tech, etc."
kinda interesting how the original gundam actually answers ALOT of those problems, in very inventive and logical ways, from why humanoid form, to the dogfighting aspect of combats, all the way to the need for melee weapons.
It's interesting that you mention armor in Dune because during at least one book they do specifically mention suspensor assisted armor, however they also talk about air inside personal shields getting very hot as the shield is put under stress, because airflow through the shield barrier is still reduced significantly. I'd imagine wearing a suit of armor underneath a PS would simply be too exhausting, your soldiers would be dropping from heat exhaustion like flies.
Mister Arthur, I love your videos, but I grew up on Transformers, Macross and Battletech, and will love big bots until the day I die, and I WILL write giant robot fiction! Kudos on mentioning Micheal Stackpole.
I think even in a future where giant mechanized robots are never used in combat, I could absolutely see large robots piloted by humans used in other areas of a futuristic society, weather it be in construction or other industrial fields, or even in entertainment. Imagine entirely new sports or even Olympic games being invented for giant robots and mech suits competing for the championship title of Ultimate Mecha Fighter. The money people would pay to see that would more than make up for the cost.
I think Isaac would really like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Or it's sibling series, Pandora in the Crimson Shell.
Or Rideback. We're so close to achieving Rideback, it's not even funny... Boston Dynamics' Handle, but ridable like a motorcycle.
@@SLLabsKamilion rideback story is kinda meh, but damn the concept of the rideback is awesome.
@@secondsein7749 Totally agree. Only the first two episodes are worth it. The race is meh. The battle is meh; other than the military history of the rideback, in-world.
@@SLLabsKamilion yeah. I find it funny that it doesn't know what it wants to be; either a show about rideback sport or how the rideback changed the form of warfare so much that it being superior to anything that existed before...which I find it funny due to it being implausible, and I'm a mecha lover! They would make for great combat for sure, but not to the point that it trumps over everything.
Robert Heinlein's book Starship Troopers is about power suits, mecha! the "Mobile Infantry" I actually liked that description in it because its one of the few stories outside standard mecha franshises like Battletech, Robotech (and alot of other anime/manga) etc, that uses Mecha or robot suits. They didnt use this part in the movie though (sadly), except for mentioning and teasing about it in the movie "Starship Troopers 3".
Just a hint. The book is alot of fun! ;)
Love Gundam.
Gonna say, the Mobile Doll Unit turned out to be a bad idea.
This was a big theme of the Gundam Wing series that looked at this problem from multiple angles.
It was the cause for the coup with Treize Kutrinada, a single operator with the Mobile Doll Unit proved extremely vulnerable, and allowed crazy space generals to unilaterally control an army without concern of those orders being questioned. Unfortunately, we are currently dealing with this issue in current day. Right now, we have AI drones capable of deploying ordnance without a final command or pilot - or even a remote pilot. Seeing as arguably the conflict presented in Gundam Wing was caused by the introduction of an automated military power, I hope the DOD and DARPA doesn't push us all into a Gundam Wing size conflict.
There is nothing like the feeling of marathoning old episodes of SFIA during a workout, only to find a new episode is out!
23:48 brings to mind Armored Trooper VOTOMS. It didn't look like the dudes in the mechs were any kind of elites, and the opening scene to one of the series was basically Operation: Overlord. With mechs instead of soldiers.
Great episode as usual. I don't know if you mentioned this, but the primary reason for a big ass robot or tank might be to enable use of a mobile potent power and energy source, i.e. a nuclear reactor, on the battlefield. This because warfare involves delivering lots of energy to the enemy, and fission or fusion is at least six orders of magnitude better than chemical energy.
Many years ago I read a sci-fi story about the final battle for Armageddon. Robots and AI where sent in to battle the demons from hell. At the end the humans watched on as God raised the robots and AIs up to heaven. Always felt there was a moral to that story.
"The only thing cooler than wearing power is having a pack of robo-panthers or cyber-hounds with you"
Power suits will be used as soon as the power problem is solved for a couple reasons that could have been expanded on:
Infantry scale weapons are relatively easy to armor against. A large power suit could reasonably become resistant to anything smaller than an M2, while bringing significant firepower, and more importantly comms and sensors, along for the ride.
The other big reason: warfare isn't just about killing people, and the easier it gets to kill people, the less that remains the focus. It's the other objectives, capturing high value targets and intel, good will/face time missions, protective/intimidating presence patrols, etc. This is why infantry will always be present, and if they need to be there, then we will find ways for them to be as top of their game as possible.
3:07 I had the "Falcon" Aerial Attack-500 E-frame toy as a kid. Don't know how many hundreds of hours of fun I got out of that thing.
Love the shout-out for Michael A. Stackpole. Brother and I grew up on his Rogue Squadron novels and comics, while my Battletech buddy grew up on his Battletech books.
I figure you'll probably always want someone with an actual brain on the ground, in case the enemy jams you or something like that.
Ideally yes, though 'someone' can be a fairly broad definition with AI, and of course while you can't jam a brain on the ground, you can jam a bullet into that brain and achieve the same goal plus bag a skilled soldier, which the jamming scenario doens't allow, just damaging equipment instead..
yeah, I wasn't really excluding just having AI there. and the soldier can obviously be countered, too - but it requires different tools. jamming isn't gonna do anything to the soldier, and bullets would probably not be as effective against drones, so you achieve some redundancy by having both.@@isaacarthurSFIA
Did "Robot Jox" (1990) come to mind for anyone else when Isaac started talking about duals?
I love that movie but I've met very few people who've even heard about it.
I would like to recommend my two favorite books on the subject of power armor(not giant robots)
John Steakley - Armor
Joe Haldeman - The forever war
Steakley...A good read.
Man that mech render that kinda looks like REX is awesome. And exactly the type of mech like Gungriffon I would love to see today in videogame form, with a more simulation than mechwarrior and long range combat. Well to be serious I can definitely see man sized drones of various shapes being significant forces on the battlefield. Maybe even with one soldier armed to the teeth being the puppeteer like a necromancer commanding skeletons and spiders. More so in urban environments. As for big armoured warfare, drone tanks and fighter\bomber aircraft drones remaining the big thing.
In the original Gundam there were two plot devices which make the use of giant robots logical. Number one, such machines were used for building the large O'Neill cylinder space colonies. Secondly is the go-to McGuffin -- Minovsky Particles, which render RADAR and radio frequency communications unusable. Without that, it would be harder to justify some of the choices made by the military industrial complexes of both sides, namely Anaheim Electronics for the Earth Federation and The Zeonic Company for the Principality of Zeon.
Some future tank design ideas; Instead of one track on each side either a main track down the center with outriggers at the sides where the tracks now are OR five tracks of equal length for cannibalization with one at the bow for going up things as this is a target for defenders to disable the tank, three on each side in case one is lost so that the tank can still move, & one as a spare at the back.An idea for ships as well as tanks would be multiple concentric shields so that the all can be rotated to one threat or separately moved to protect from multiple threats as needed rather than heavy shielding protecting from the front with less from the sides/rear. Can also go up against attacks from above.There are of course others.
Will Shinji get in the robot now?
Put the target in the center, and pull the switch.
It seems Rei will pilot it again
Just- Ge- GET IN THE DAMN ROBOT, SHINJI!
You're thinking way too small.
These robots are way too small.
- Isaac Arthur, before he got in the robot instead of Shinji.
@@johnbash-on-ger You are right! This is SFIAA! So we should be thinking O'Neill cilinder transformers! AUTOBOTS, TERRAFORM AND ROLL OUT!
@Isaac Arthur
Even though the title of this episode is Giant Robots & Power Suits, you mention relatively little about the latter. I was, however, really surprised that, concerning power suits, you did NOT mention some early originators of the concept.
POWER SUITS
(1) Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein
(2) The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman
REMOTELY CONTROLLED HUMANOID DRONES
(3) Forever Peace (1997) byJoe Haldeman
(a) For land warfare: "soldierboys"
(b) For sea & undersea warfare: "waterboys"
(c) For air warfare: "flyboys"
man no nod to "Robot Jox" THE movie on future states using Gladiator style combat to settle conflict, or "Crash and Burn" for big industrial robot discussion?
I thought I did use a clip from that, ah well, maybe I forgot.
I remember that! 😊 I am that old 🤔
some things are better left forgotten :P
@@isaacarthurSFIA Entertainment of the future? Perfect place to slip that in.
@@isaacarthurSFIA but how could you forget *ROBOT JOX*!? the name alone is just so 80s it makes me nostalgic for a decade that happened before I was even born, so I can't even imagine what it does for a man your age... or maybe it has that effect on me specifically because of my younger age... or just because I've fallen in love with so many other old "retro/pulp" Sci-Fi properties over the past couple years...
Love the 40k references and Dan Abnet books are truly great.
You like Michael A. Stackpole?! You are truly a man of culture, Isaac.
The X-Wing novels are what made me fall in love with the Star Wars expanded universe. They showed there could be EU-exclusive characters that were just as good (or better in some cases) than the movie characters. I never got that into the Battletech novels, but from what I read they seemed of similar quality.
The most important thing for big humanoid robot, is physical warfare against anyone physically in the field with it. Or worse against civilians if you get a few in a city.
yay! Space Whales are coming!
are Dyson Sunflowers too?
I’d love to see something like the armored giants in Titanfall, or even a Starship Trooper type battle suit. The mobility alone would be a huge factor in deployability and speed of movement. Such a system would have to be ridiculously hardened against a penetrator, or thermal directed energy weapons. Protecting the targeting and life support systems needs to be a big consideration before it is deployed in theater. Good work Isaac! I like your comparison of the pros and cons of each type of platform. In the world of someone who has been on the pointy end of warfare, flying by the seat of your pants doesn’t cut it.
Power suits manned by cats, convinced that the opposition is mice. Small, deadly, and absurdly patient. Isaac, how would you feel having your cat outrank you?
He already thinks he does anyway :)
Isaac Arthur: all cats think so. And they might be right! If they had thumbs...