2 replies to this topic

[Sean Lang]

www.nogutsnogalaxy.net
Podcast #21 Live!

The guys chat about Phil’s new job, Book of the Month, the latest Dev interview for MechWarrior: Online, the Marauder in the premiere of ‘Mech of the Week, interesting forum posts, and of course answering listener questions.

[Cattra Kell]

Got to love that new opening. Dang it Bomb, why you got to do some cool stuff?

[Strum Wealh]

So... I'm a long-time (from the beginning) listener and first time commenter!

I was listening to Podcast 21 today...

1.) Thanks for having the Marauder as the 'Mech of the Week!

2.) As far as "What is a robot, and are BattleMechs robots?", a "true robot" generally meets three criteria:

• sensory capability: the machine in question has to be able to receive information about its environment - presence of persons and objects, environmental conditions (temperature, humidity, etc), its own status (position and movement), and so on
  
• autonomous information processing: the machine in question has to be able to interpret the incoming sensory data, process said data, and come to a conclusion on its own
  
• autonomous environmental interaction: the machine in question has to be able to act on the conclusion(s) that the processing unit has reached, and affect the environment (and/or objects therein) of its own accord

Generally, if the machine in question normally has all three of those, then it would typically be considered a robot.

By "normally": I would imagine that a sci-fi style android or gynoid that had all of its limbs removed would still be considered a robot, even though it has largely lost the means for environmental interaction that it would have under normal conditions.

Though, it is not unheard-of for teleoperated machinery (like TALON, for instance) - having sensors and environment affectors, but little or no autonomous information processing, and little or no capability for autonomous action - to be considered robots (or, at least, "robotic" or "robot-like").

As far as BattleMechs and many other brands of mecha, another poster pointed out that many mecha are actually "armored fighting vehicles", while very few are actually true robots...