The future dragon

[blueskydragonFX]

As many of you have seen.... technology is evolving rapidly. Now we have things that where 10 years ago still fiction. As you can see robots are getting smarter every year that, lets say.... 50 years, they can walk like humans and think like humans. But as I said... it evolves. If a man can build it small then he can also build it big. Mechs are born. With the upcoming idea's about new generation energy it is possible to let these machines walk the earth. There will be new types of jobs coming up like robot technicians, inventors, creators, etc. Lately I looked something up on the Internet and I found this: Robot With A Biological Brain: New Research Provides Insights Into How The Brain Works. So it works, merging a brain with a robot. What will be the next step? Human brain inside a robot? It isn't that hard to make that possible. Nerves are like small electrical wires. They sent small electrical shocks trough them making your body feel things. So if you connect that with a machine it should possibly do the same. In the future there will be lot of companies building these massive mechanical creatures. So why is there not a chance that they will build mechanical dragons? For military purpose it would be excellent. If there is a soldier dying, and they would give him a chance to live longer and make him stronger? then they could give the mechanical dragon a brain. Let it think on its own, make its own decisions.

Before that comes I have my brains frozen in, thats for sure.
_________________
My mind is like a steel trap, rusty and illegal in 37 country's

[Monarth]

Yup, that's how it goes... technology advances, but I don't like it in a way. The weapons get stronger and stronger which, means it's for a man easier to die. Like mechs: they get bigger and heavier and can crush easily under it's feet. If that would happen, people would need their own mecha suit to survive and have some resistance against the warfare.

Mechanical dragons, well, they would be cool, but still dangerous. If they would have feelings, they could start stand against us, extinct us if they want. To be sure it wouldn't happen, before using they should build a remotable shutdown option in the mech dragon.

I've had my own image of a mecha dragon. Shine, red laser eyes, weaponry hidden throughout the body. Though, it seems pretty impossible to make the whole body of a mecha dragon flexible. The mecha dragon couldn't fly without any flexibility in the body. If it would fly with jet engines... it would move only forward, up and down. Though, if the wings would be like plane wings instead of the dragon wings, the turning and moving in the air would be ok, but not as useful as with dragon wings. The turns would go couple of miles away before turning back to the target location. And landing seems impossible with jet wings, unless the mech dragon has wheels on the bottom of it's feet. (It would look stupid to me xD)
_________________
Why do we avoid the rain? It feels different on our skin, it feels cold, but still, it's part of our nature, part of us and yet, it creates life... We don't have to avoid it...

[Jasriella]

I do not like the idea of merging biology with computers. I can guarantee that I would not like to be stuck as a robot, even with all 5 senses still in play, just to live longer. Can you imagine the feeling? Not to have a heartbeat, to breath, all of which I cherish in this life. Even if they aren't necessary for a robot, I wouln't feel alive, I'd feel hollow and empty.

Which is why I have chosen cremation instead of a burial or cryogenic preservation. That also has something to tie in with my beliefs as a dragon but thats for another time and subject.

By the way once the brain shuts down and the body dies, it is nearly impossible revive the brain because the cells start dying almost instantaneously and by the time it is frozen most of the cells would be dead. So even if you would be able to put your brain into a robot and physically function, you would have the IQ and mentality of a fetus.

As for the mech stuff. I don't know. I suppose it could eventually happen and I may have the unfortunate experience later on in life to see them in action with the way technology is progressing. I just don't like the idea of giant mechanical machines. I love nature and life and with these I fear that more of our last open forests will be gone, most likely all of them, and the only open lands will be deserts. The rest will all be metropolises and such that have man-made parks and forests, but I think that wont come within my lifetime here at least. It will be a miracle that the human race doesn't kill itself before then.
_________________
I am trapped between heaven and hell. My wings carry me upon the winds. Above lies heaven, below hell. Yet I must land in hell to soar in heaven. I am a Dragon!

[Rayadragon]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080813175509.htm

Interesting research, although it's a bit of a strech to call what the robot has a "brain" (for those who haven't found the article, it states that the brain is actually 60 cultured neurons [it's not mentioned if they're from a primary source i.e. animal or from an established cell line]). Interesting early data though.

It's still a bit early though to use this as a springboard for making mecha of any sort, let alone of dragons. One of the things that I have trouble getting with mecha is their actual feasability. The production costs of such a thing would be huge, and I'm just not sure what advantage a mecha would have over, say, a highly mobile smaller unit. One friend argued a demoralizing psycological effect, but I'm not buying it. In the case of a solider, why not just transplant the brain into a human sized mechanical body? There'd be no retraining of neural pathways and the like that would be necessary for suddenly managing something like wings.

On a side note, one of my favorite authors, Anne McCaffrey, explored some of this idea with "The Ship Who Sang" group of novels. Except (I think) it was a disabled individual who then became the core of a space ship. I haven't read them yet so I don't know the exact details.

Monarth, with the mechanical dragons do you really think they'd start a war just because they were dragons? Springboarding off of bluesky's original post, the mechanical dragons could have human brains, which would still make them human in a way. If we're making an artificial one (which is many, many, many years in the future) wouldn't it make more sense to give them conditional training so that they won't turn against us?

A final comment, the brain freezing/reviving later combo is still technologically beyond us. There's a critical issue that's hard to overcome. Ice takes up more physical space than water. When you freeze something, the ice crystals expand beyond the original boundaries of the cell, destroying the membranes and the cell in the process (if you've ever thawed frozen berries or fruit, you'd've seen then resulting liquidy good). Although we can quick freeze things to initially prevent the distortion, we can't quick thaw, and prior to fully thawing the ice crystals would've expanded and ripped holes in everything.
_________________
"People who are easily offended need to be offended more often."
"Do on to others as you would have others do on to you."

[Monarth]

[Ragnarok]

[Jasriella]

[Rayadragon]