You must accept this: we are at the point, technologically, where every new robot larger than a cat is going to scare you. They are only going to get faster, better, and stronger. It doesn’t mean an apocalypse, but it also doesn’t mean not apocalypse. The best thing we can do is stay smart, stay vigilant, and…oh we put a machine gun on one of them, great.
Meet MUTT, or Multi-Utility Tactical Transport. It’s the latest in a line of military robots that has us running for the EMPs. The gun-toting MUTT in the video above, made by General Dynamics Land Systems, was tested on the shores of California by the US Navy in May. It’s a unit known as a “force-multipler” — more or less a weapon that greatly increases the effectiveness of the soldiers its being controlled by. The MUTT certainly looks the scariest with the machine gun, but the machine also provides cover, protection, and hundreds of pounds of payload transportation.
The Terminator comparisons are obvious — MUTT looks surprisingly like the HK-Tank — but the MUTT won’t be rolling over human skulls anytime soon. The vehicle is still controlled remotely by a human pilot, much like an aerial drone, and therefore there will still be a person deciding what is right and wrong behind the tank treads.
But of course that’s not going to stop everyone from shouting “the end is nigh” like my crazy producer in the video, so let us know what you think. Is the MUTT the beginning of the end, or just, you know, a robot? Tell us in the comments below.
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Images: General Dynamics Land Systems
