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[wierd]

actually, Venter inserted a carbon copy of a nucleus of a different species of mycoplasma (genitalium) into a mycoplasma capricolum.  Closely related, but not the same species. The work not only showed the viability of fully synthetic dna, but did so while also completely changing the genetic personality of the cell.

The work you cite demonstrates the creation of a wholly new synthetic base pair. You do not need nor want that to make a new life form. The 4 we already have are quite sufficient, and more likely to be biocompatible with human biology.  The kind of work needed is much more in line with Venter's.  We arent designing space aliens here, we just want a virulent version of tinea that seeks out nervous tissue, and secretes signal hormones when it reaches the brain.

Some additional things that would make it much harder to treat would be the use of a 3 layer cellular membrane instead of 2, genes to detect early precursor molecules to human blood factors (Just past the H antigen stage of blood factor synthesis, where it becomes possible to determine biochemically what blood factor the host is) so that it can synthesize the correct membane antigens to fake out the immune system, and modifications to make use of cholesterol instead of ergosterol.

The argument against individuals seems compelling on the surface, but it conveniently excludes PhD students and other research students from consideration. Such people can leverage social engineering to gain access to the facilities and resources of peers and colleagues, and the acts of ordering the materials and securing the labtime for research projects would not attract attention.  There is valid research that could ne done/is needed in regard to human self-antigens and autoimmune disorders caused by environmental and bacterial sources. Such research has synergy with the development of such a thing.  The people most likely to be able to carry out something like this are such research students. They are not magically less likely to be sociopaths/psychopaths, and are certainly not immune to being recruited by any number of organizations that may have such interests.

This risk is actually not ignored by many people in that field of academia, and they are actively (right now) petitioning for stronger restrictions on access, just because the primary barriers to such development are being brought low, and they realize the danger that represents.

[Amperzand]

Power armor seems relatively plausible to me, assuming better batteries + usage. On the other hand, it's (probably) expensive. Linking to the user and stuff... the size would also be of note. You'd have good armor and weaponry, that's for sure, so it seems like power armor = 40k Dreadnought.

Both power armor and exoskeleton suits aren't that difficult to build. I think the discussion is whether they run into what I like to call the "flying car issue", namely that while it might be doable, there doesn't seem to be a terribly good use for it. Flying cars would need a pilots license and probably tend to occasionally crash into buildings at Mach 9, heavy power armor has an overly small contact area for its presumed weight and eliminates much of what gives the humanoid form an advantage over a tank through sheer mass.

Which is not to say I don't think it's awesome and intend to use it in fiction, but hey. The discussion remains in progress.

[wierd]

light exoskeletons for assistence with carrying heavy payloads on foot have substantially more application on the battlefield.

The outstanding issues are cost per unit, maintenance costs, and fuel needs.

The lockheed one solved one of those: it still aids the wearer even whe totally out of gas. The questions of maintenance and unit cost remain though.  if it is cheaper to send a squad to carry a heavy payload than it is to send a single soldier in an exosuit, guess which one will win out?

protip: humans on the battlefield are more expendable than ordinance.

[NullForceOmega]

Re: Power armor

I've made this point before, I'll probably have to say it again:  The U.S. Army has spent billions of dollars on Power Armor development, starting in the nineteen-seventies.  If they have been pursuing the technology for forty years and are still convinced of its viability, then it will be implemented as soon as it becomes functional.

[Dirst]

Re: Power armor

I've made this point before, I'll probably have to say it again:  The U.S. Army has spent billions of dollars on Power Armor development, starting in the nineteen-seventies.  If they have been pursuing the technology for forty years and are still convinced of its viability, then it will be implemented as soon as it becomes functional.

During a screening of Predator in Washington DC, a general stood up and pointed at the stealth suit, "I want that!" And DARPA has been working on it ever since.

Was there an Ironman movie in the 70s?

[MrRoboto75]

Was there an Ironman movie in the 70s?

Alien came out in 79, where someone wrestles an alien in a loader mech

[Kot]

Power armour sounds fucking great. I mean, it won't proably end up as Iron Man or Anime mecha, but even a simple exoskeleton that would help soldiers carry stuff (including heavy kevlar or ceramic plates) would change the rules a good bit.
Also I imagine you could then easily attach an HMG like M2 to it (I mean, like to arm, though an idea of infantry guy with M2 on his back and his friend firing it actually looked pretty damn cool in my head) and maybe you could lock the joints to get a stable firing position in middle of field.
Let's not get into punching the walls down and so on.

The problem of power sounds like the hardest one to solve for me. For cost and maintenance it seems a bit less, since I'd see an exoskeleton as simple "frame" with servos and power source, which doesn't really sound THAT expensive after it gets on production lines, and existing equipment could be adapted to be put on it or something.  Each infantryman could also be put in charge of mantaining his own armour and ideally the repairs should be more in "Lego" style, with parts being interchangeable and stuff.

[NullForceOmega]

No, the real hurdle is the plating, current materials aren't light enough while remaining economical, we can build a unit massing around 500 lbs. unloaded for somewhere in the range of 20-23 million last I heard.  The power problem is also just an expense issue really, we've got good enough storage technology for several days of operation, but the battery alone is like a million dollars (generation is a different issue, we *can* build a power supply small enough, but the expense is staggering.)

It's doable, and the Army believes they can get the weight down to around 200 lbs. unloaded (I'm somewhat doubtful, but they have vastly better resources than me, so whatever they think is fine), but its probably a decade or two away.

And the maintenance really wouldn't be too massive once it becomes standard equipment, economy of scale and all that.

[Chevaleresse]

The earlier discussion on plasma as a projectile weapon makes me sort of embarrassed about a character I've been running on another site. Fortunately it's more of a science fantasy setting than science fiction, but still...

Basically a suit of power armor that focuses on flinging copious amounts of plasma at the target, whether in concentrated blasts or sprays of individual projectiles.

[wierd]

Does it have a compact dark energy reactor or something? Because having coherent plasma projectiles in a power armor sized system implies an energy density greater than uranium.

[Chevaleresse]

Given the theme of the character I'd go with some sort of hypercompact fusion reactor. Like I said, science fantasy. This is also a setting where the mech can be "summoned" and dismissed at will, disappearing into thin air.

Though if there were ways to sort of justify the whole thing, it would be cool. Go full theoretical here, as in "anything that could possibly come within the laws of physics as we think they work," assuming this is an arbitrary amount in the future so that extrapolating from tech isn't really a concern, if you get what I mean. Phrasing is hard.

[Amperzand]

Teleporting isn't really a thing, but assuming it gets lumped on with FTL as a standard breach in physics, the main thing you'd need to do is provide a really really large amount of energy, and also some way of dealing with the waste heat. Not sure what would give you either of those.

External wireless power transmission and some kind of superconducting uber-heat-radiators? Heat radiators would actually handily explain the weird-ass fin-things anime likes to put on mechs, though they'd need to be bigger and uglier.

[Dirst]

Was there an Ironman movie in the 70s?

Alien came out in 79, where someone wrestles an alien in a loader mech

That scene of was in Aliens from 1986.  Ironman was definitely at least in comic books in the 70s, though.

[Egan_BW]

Would magnetic boots be an actual practical way to move around in microgravity, or would they be impractical?

[Strife26]

The military industrial complex funneling terrifying amounts of taxpayer money into technologies isn't a great determinate of future value. Biodarts, nuclear ramjet cruise missiles, the Bradley, the Stryker, the F35 . . .