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Actually what's needed was outlined very nicely in Starship Troopers by Heinlein many decades ago. We're not there yet of course but with faster and faster edge
by sfifs 5y ago
Actually what's needed was outlined very nicely in Starship Troopers by Heinlein many decades ago. We're not there yet of course but with faster and faster edge compute, it will get there.
> Jump really hard and the suit’s jets cut in, amplifying what the suit’s leg “muscles” did, giving you a three-jet shove, the axis of pressure of which passes through your center of mass. So you jump over that house next door. Which makes you come down as fast as you went up . . . which the suit notes through your proximity & closing gear (a sort of simple-minded radar resembling a proximity fuse) and therefore cuts in the jets again just the right amount to cushion your landing without your having to think about it. And that is the beauty of a powered suit: you don’t have to think about it. You don’t have to drive it, fly it, conn it, operate it; you just wear it and it takes orders directly from your muscles and does for you what your muscles are trying to do. This leaves you with your whole mind free to handle your weapons and notice what is going on around you . . . which is supremely important to an infantryman who wants to die in bed. If you load a mud foot down with a lot of gadgets that he has to watch, somebody a lot more simply equipped—say with a stone ax—will sneak up and bash his head in while he is trying to read a vernier.
- richardfey 5y agoNow you're making me want read the book!
- crooked-v 5y agoThe book is good, but there's a certain amount of black comedy when you look at the context of how it was written and how, among other things, the military strategies it argues for (de facto universal conscription, terrorizing enemy civilians into submission, using shock-and-awe campaigns and targeted strikes instead of needing to occupy territory in depth, etc) have been repeatedly discredited since its release, and even at the time of release had obvious failures in the Korean War just a few years before.
- ianmcgowan 5y agoIt can still be a good book with terrible politics. If you need a palate cleanser when finished, The Forever War by Haldeman is a direct rebuttal..
- shrikant 5y agoI'd argue that if you need a palate cleanser after reading Starship Troopers, go watch the Paul Verhoeven film Starship Troopers which is "surely you can't be serious about this!" take on Heinlein's book.
- moomin 5y agoAlthough, ironically, he removed the powered-mech suits. Recommendations: If you want modern powered-mech suits military action, read The Red Trilogy. If you want a cracking sci-fi novel from the same era but very different politics, “Rebel in Time” is a corker.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y agoNobody should take Heinlein's narrators words for granted. He is deservedly famous for being very diverse in presenting the viewpoints of his characters - coming from very different societies.
- eslaught 5y agoCan you give us an example of one of Heinlein's books with an apparent narrative that is very opposed to Starship Troopers? I ask because when I read it (way back when), I definitely got the impression this was Heinlein speaking in his own voice / his own opinions.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago> I definitely got the impression this was Heinlein speaking in his own voice / his own opinions. That's exactly what I'm talking about! Read another book, and he'll be speaking his own voice/opinions, to, but they'll be very different. On books, Heinlein's must read, in my opinion, is "The Moon is the harsh mistress", "Stranger in a strange land" and "Starship troopers", all three being very different. But the one book I would recommend reading first is his lesser known novel, "The door into summer". It is not groundbreaking, but very warm and charming.
- jasonkester 5y agoA word of caution: start on an evening where you don’t have to work the next day. You’re going to end up reading the whole thing in one sitting. The entire book is like an extended version of the quote above.
- Brave-Steak 5y ago