7 ms·

Footage of giant RX-78 Gundam in Yokohama undergoing movement testing

45 points by refresher 6y ago

mahesh_rm 6y ago
It is interesting to think of a future where wars between countries could be fought through duels between "champion robots" with no loss of innocent people's lives. EDIT: I didn't expect this comment to be controversial/downvoted, and it is interesting that it is evoking some level of passive aggressive sarcasm.
- yetihehe 6y ago
  We could skip robots and use chess or better go.
- konart 6y ago
  >Gundam >no loss of people's lives Sure...
- markdown 6y ago
  USA vs Japan happened back in 2017.
- mondoshawan 6y ago
  Sounds more like Robot Jox than Gundam...
- pjgalbraith 6y ago
  Reminds me of the story of the Roman Horatii and Curiatii who fought in a duel to the death in place of their home armies. So I guess there is historical president for it.
  - Digit-Al 6y ago
    > So I guess there is historical president for it. I think you'll find you mean 'precedent' :-)
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  I'm thinking a china vs. india epic dance battle would be a good way to address the border issue. For cyprus, the greeks and turks could just speed up the music until some team loses the beat. Spratly islands could be sorted with synchronised swimming? Bonus clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twbuT1V5mFE&t=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twbuT1V5mFE&t=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2igZexpMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2igZexpMs
  - sdenton4 6y ago
    I mean, this is kinda what the olympics does, right? Show off how good you are at making soldier-like people, celebrate some nationalism, acknowledge that the other countries are also humans capable of training good soldier-like people, and then everyone goes home and continues trading.
- ranger207 6y ago
  That sounds like G Gundam. https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Fighter_G_Gundam https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Fighter_G_Gundam
- valuearb 6y ago
  Gundam are people too!
- jmnicolas 6y ago
  If people have to spill their blood to make war there will be a lot less of them. And even with robots, once you destroyed the enemy robots, what happens then if they don't surrender? Now your robots have to kill humans (or if you refuse you didn't achieve anything of consequence).
- mattlondon 6y ago
  This is the same idea as letting two sides play chess and see who wins. It might work for trivial matters, but when the stakes are high and the chips are down human nature is always going to lead to force to get what is important. "Ok so our robot beat your robot on some contrived fight. We're going to invade your country with a population of millions, take all of your money and possessions and force you all to work in the salt mines as slaves until you die an untimely and avoidable death. Please form an orderly line at the salt-death-mines tomorrow morning. This is totally fine since the robot your country sent to fight ours lost so you've just got to accept it without any resistance. Kthx Bai - signed your new overlords"
  - chrischen 6y ago
    Well if our robots beat your robots in killing each other, the logical next step is that the robots would kill the human opponents. So it’s not quite like a contrived chess game if the humans are reasonably inferior fighting machines. It’s more like proxy battles, and in real life we do this with expendable humans rather than robots. When a side decides to surrender it’s not necessarily when the last person is wiped out... usually done when the military is near or close to defeat. OP is suggesting that one day robots could outclass flesh and bone humans so much that real humans will be like the women and children of past society that will not have to fight in real battles.
    - TaylorAlexander 6y ago
      It’s already like that today. The robots are unmanned aircraft with missiles. The US kills a fair amount of people using this method, though it is not widely reported. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/14/122732/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/14/122732/
  - qppo 6y ago
    I think it was Kissinger that said (paraphrasing) war is a tool to achieve political objectives. The necessity, scale and manner of violence depends on what those objectives are and feasibility of success. The kind of political dilemma that would be solved by a mecha duel would probably not be the same one that requires invasion and enslavement in death mines.
jml7c5 6y ago
AFAIK this is not intended to be free-standing. It is more like a large puppet held up at the waist.
- senectus1 6y ago
  what its it, 3 Stories tall?
  - Hamuko 6y ago
    18 metres tall 1:1 replica.
- alfalfasprout 6y ago
  well, this is the first step no?
  - lloeki 6y ago
    Indeed, baby steps. At first I thought it was CGI because of the feet-induced cognitive dissonance but then I saw the waist-level support moving in the shadow behind. Still fascinating to see this towering thing in motion. I was never into Gundam, but Macross Plus had me hooked, and this brings back memories such as this scene: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SMMRs5ZIqd0/ https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SMMRs5ZIqd0/ Those YF-19 and YF-21 are still the best { variable fighters U mecha } designs to my eyes: simple, elegant, believable, futuristic yet practical. https://opuszine.us/_assets/stills/macross-plus.jpg https://opuszine.us/_assets/stills/macross-plus.jpg In hindsight there are so many anticipatory things in Macross Plus, it’s really good SF trying to reason from first principles: AR virtual canopies, neural link operated plane, deep AI generated musical arrangement from simple human composition, Kessler syndrome, drone vs human presence on the battlefield, overall human relevance in the face of emergent AGI...
- Animats 6y ago
  Yes, as you can see if you watch carefully. That's disappointing. Legged locomotion technology is far enough along to make that work standalone. Maybe they could get Softbank to get them some consultants from Boston Dynamics. BD has gone to electric robots, so the people who did the hydraulic machines may be available.
senectus1 6y ago
oh man, thats pretty cool. My wife would really enjoy seeing that.
justicezyx 6y ago
I cannot help to lament in the lack of ambition from Japanese people nowadays. They seem content with cute ideas which has little relevance to major global problems and tech advancement. They still have a top notch scientific and research system, and produce great results every year. But they seem completely lost the drive for building the actual things that can affect people. Put this in perspective, aside from a fan service, and commercial benefits, what’s the point of a actual size gundam model that can move?
- mft_ 6y ago
  Out of interest, since you’re in a mood to generalise, which nation’s people are worthy of your respect for their ambition and focus?
  - dmichulke 6y ago
    "There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcUs5X9glCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcUs5X9glCc
    - 082349872349872 6y ago
      The dutch only pretend to be tolerant so they can deviously spend all year learning your foibles and then remind you of them, at length and in company, come December. https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/11/20/no-53-sarcastic-sinterklaas-poems/ https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/11/20/no-53-sarcastic-... Burgermannetjes don't mind foreigners at all Because who could expect THEM to doe normaal? (Grapje, natuurlijk! We owe dutchies a great deal: the Puritans were afraid their children would grow up too tolerant in the netherlands, and consequently hightailed it to the New World...)
  - justicezyx 6y ago
    Anyone like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Zuck, even Bill Gates... Can you name 1 Japanese person who had similar ambition and commitment to large-scale projects?
NalNezumi 6y ago
It's cool and all but... wasn't it made to be a project to show off at Olympics? The project seems to be fairly delayed if that's the case. In any case, I really hope this project didn't receive ridiculous amount of funding. Japan used to be the absolute no 1 when it comes to robotics about 20 years ago, and have then been losing ground since. I hope the policy maker and people holding the money realize that it is far more valuable to take that lead back than create a big moving totem pole of the past that people can dance around.

45 points by refresher 6y ago

It is interesting to think of a future where wars between countries could be fought through duels between "champion robots" with no loss of innocent people's lives. EDIT: I didn't expect this comment to be controversial/downvoted, and it is interesting that it is evoking some level of passive aggressive sarcasm.

yetihehe 6y ago
We could skip robots and use chess or better go.
konart 6y ago
>Gundam >no loss of people's lives Sure...
markdown 6y ago
USA vs Japan happened back in 2017.
mondoshawan 6y ago
Sounds more like Robot Jox than Gundam...
pjgalbraith 6y ago
Reminds me of the story of the Roman Horatii and Curiatii who fought in a duel to the death in place of their home armies. So I guess there is historical president for it.
- Digit-Al 6y ago
  > So I guess there is historical president for it. I think you'll find you mean 'precedent' :-)
082349872349872 6y ago
I'm thinking a china vs. india epic dance battle would be a good way to address the border issue. For cyprus, the greeks and turks could just speed up the music until some team loses the beat. Spratly islands could be sorted with synchronised swimming? Bonus clips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twbuT1V5mFE&t=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twbuT1V5mFE&t=10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2igZexpMs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e2igZexpMs
- sdenton4 6y ago
  I mean, this is kinda what the olympics does, right? Show off how good you are at making soldier-like people, celebrate some nationalism, acknowledge that the other countries are also humans capable of training good soldier-like people, and then everyone goes home and continues trading.
ranger207 6y ago
That sounds like G Gundam. https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Fighter_G_Gundam https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/Mobile_Fighter_G_Gundam
valuearb 6y ago
Gundam are people too!
jmnicolas 6y ago
If people have to spill their blood to make war there will be a lot less of them. And even with robots, once you destroyed the enemy robots, what happens then if they don't surrender? Now your robots have to kill humans (or if you refuse you didn't achieve anything of consequence).
mattlondon 6y ago
This is the same idea as letting two sides play chess and see who wins. It might work for trivial matters, but when the stakes are high and the chips are down human nature is always going to lead to force to get what is important. "Ok so our robot beat your robot on some contrived fight. We're going to invade your country with a population of millions, take all of your money and possessions and force you all to work in the salt mines as slaves until you die an untimely and avoidable death. Please form an orderly line at the salt-death-mines tomorrow morning. This is totally fine since the robot your country sent to fight ours lost so you've just got to accept it without any resistance. Kthx Bai - signed your new overlords"
- chrischen 6y ago
  Well if our robots beat your robots in killing each other, the logical next step is that the robots would kill the human opponents. So it’s not quite like a contrived chess game if the humans are reasonably inferior fighting machines. It’s more like proxy battles, and in real life we do this with expendable humans rather than robots. When a side decides to surrender it’s not necessarily when the last person is wiped out... usually done when the military is near or close to defeat. OP is suggesting that one day robots could outclass flesh and bone humans so much that real humans will be like the women and children of past society that will not have to fight in real battles.
  - TaylorAlexander 6y ago
    It’s already like that today. The robots are unmanned aircraft with missiles. The US kills a fair amount of people using this method, though it is not widely reported. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/14/122732/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/05/14/122732/
- qppo 6y ago
  I think it was Kissinger that said (paraphrasing) war is a tool to achieve political objectives. The necessity, scale and manner of violence depends on what those objectives are and feasibility of success. The kind of political dilemma that would be solved by a mecha duel would probably not be the same one that requires invasion and enslavement in death mines.

jml7c5 6y ago

AFAIK this is not intended to be free-standing. It is more like a large puppet held up at the waist.

senectus1 6y ago
what its it, 3 Stories tall?
- Hamuko 6y ago
  18 metres tall 1:1 replica.
alfalfasprout 6y ago
well, this is the first step no?
- lloeki 6y ago
  Indeed, baby steps. At first I thought it was CGI because of the feet-induced cognitive dissonance but then I saw the waist-level support moving in the shadow behind. Still fascinating to see this towering thing in motion. I was never into Gundam, but Macross Plus had me hooked, and this brings back memories such as this scene: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SMMRs5ZIqd0/ https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SMMRs5ZIqd0/ Those YF-19 and YF-21 are still the best { variable fighters U mecha } designs to my eyes: simple, elegant, believable, futuristic yet practical. https://opuszine.us/_assets/stills/macross-plus.jpg https://opuszine.us/_assets/stills/macross-plus.jpg In hindsight there are so many anticipatory things in Macross Plus, it’s really good SF trying to reason from first principles: AR virtual canopies, neural link operated plane, deep AI generated musical arrangement from simple human composition, Kessler syndrome, drone vs human presence on the battlefield, overall human relevance in the face of emergent AGI...
Animats 6y ago
Yes, as you can see if you watch carefully. That's disappointing. Legged locomotion technology is far enough along to make that work standalone. Maybe they could get Softbank to get them some consultants from Boston Dynamics. BD has gone to electric robots, so the people who did the hydraulic machines may be available.

senectus1 6y ago

oh man, thats pretty cool. My wife would really enjoy seeing that.

justicezyx 6y ago

I cannot help to lament in the lack of ambition from Japanese people nowadays. They seem content with cute ideas which has little relevance to major global problems and tech advancement. They still have a top notch scientific and research system, and produce great results every year. But they seem completely lost the drive for building the actual things that can affect people. Put this in perspective, aside from a fan service, and commercial benefits, what’s the point of a actual size gundam model that can move?

mft_ 6y ago
Out of interest, since you’re in a mood to generalise, which nation’s people are worthy of your respect for their ambition and focus?
- dmichulke 6y ago
  "There are only two things I can't stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcUs5X9glCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcUs5X9glCc
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    The dutch only pretend to be tolerant so they can deviously spend all year learning your foibles and then remind you of them, at length and in company, come December. https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/11/20/no-53-sarcastic-sinterklaas-poems/ https://stuffdutchpeoplelike.com/2015/11/20/no-53-sarcastic-... Burgermannetjes don't mind foreigners at all Because who could expect THEM to doe normaal? (Grapje, natuurlijk! We owe dutchies a great deal: the Puritans were afraid their children would grow up too tolerant in the netherlands, and consequently hightailed it to the New World...)
- justicezyx 6y ago
  Anyone like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Zuck, even Bill Gates... Can you name 1 Japanese person who had similar ambition and commitment to large-scale projects?

NalNezumi 6y ago

It's cool and all but... wasn't it made to be a project to show off at Olympics? The project seems to be fairly delayed if that's the case. In any case, I really hope this project didn't receive ridiculous amount of funding. Japan used to be the absolute no 1 when it comes to robotics about 20 years ago, and have then been losing ground since. I hope the policy maker and people holding the money realize that it is far more valuable to take that lead back than create a big moving totem pole of the past that people can dance around.