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[Frumple]

Found knife (been missing for a good month or so, before), headphones, mp3 player, and triple A battery. Happiness quotient now no longer as far below zero as it was, yaay~

Will become slightly less negative when I stop needing my ears for the night. Decent afternoon, huzzah.

[Pnx]

Funny you should mention Starship Troopers. I'm actually watching Starship right now.

It's a parody of Starship Troopers and some scifi in general. They do a parody of the knife scene in Starship Troopers, and hey, guess who the commander looks like?

[alway]

Well actually I pretty much can guarantee we'll make big advancements in target recognition to the extent where in 50 years or so we'll have remote commanded micro-tanks that can go around the battlefield shooting up enemy soldiers and soaking up the worst of the casualties.

Of course, that doesn't mean they'll actually get much use. They're going to be pretty damn expensive for quite a while, and you'll still need soldiers to go in after the tanks to sweep up and secure the area.

The 'they're going to be pretty damn expensive' is the point. There's little chance that the government's going to be interested in putting out that much money when they can train a soldier and arm him or her for a lot less. They might buy a handful, but not nearly enough to fight a war.

The hell are two you going on about?
1. Unmanned systems are almost always cheaper; they can be made smaller, lighter, faster, and less armored because they don't need to contain and protect a human inside.
2. Training, equipping, and feeding/supplying soldiers is very expensive. That whole "logistics" thing which makes up a lot of the cost of war.
3. It's not 50 years from now, it's 5 years.
The Ripsaw unmanned tank costs $760,000 from what I've found. An Abrams costs $6.2 million.
Then there's the Black Knight.
The Guardium has already been in use by the Israelis for border
patrol uses for almost half a decade.

[TheBronzePickle]

And for some reason we're still using footsloggers. And I personally have no doubt that we're going to keep using human into the far future, probably for no good reason.

[Solifuge]

In semi-related news, a company is designing unmanned drones to target platinum and hydrogen-rich asteroids in range of Earth, and mining them. It's pretty cool.

[JoshuaFH]

In semi-related news, a company is designing unmanned drones to target platinum and hydrogen-rich asteroids in range of Earth, and mining them. It's pretty cool.

Gotta claim them before anyone else does, you know.

[Sowelu]

Re: military tactics on Pandora, I present for your consideration:

1) Vietnam.
2) The plants and animals are bigger.
3) And they want to kill you.
4) You can't even breathe the air.

[Frumple]

Re: military tactics on Pandora, I present for your consideration:

1) Tungsten light pole from orbit.
2) Tungsten light pole from orbit.
3) Tungsten light pole from orbit.
4) Unmanned drones.

Kinetic kill is one of the better kills

[Knight of Fools]

-called by telemarketers-

Are you sure they weren't just trying to get information on you? There are a fair few companies out there that will try to find out personal details associated with your phone number so they can sell the information off to scammers and/or telemarketers.

Nope, they didn't ask for any information beyond that random soldier, and I didn't provide any.

You have forgotten that you were created to be a genetically modified super soldier! 

I dunno why, but I'm caught up in this fantasy now.

Turns green, goes off to smash things.

[Aklyon]

You'd better bring more than 3 damn poles if you're going to fly all the way to Pandora.

[Frumple]

Man, if I was expecting hostile natives, I'd have an entire cargo hauler dedicated to tungsten light poles, because nothing says, "Mine now." like the functional equivalent of the fist of an angry god.

[Skyrunner]

Why are you talking about tungsten light poles? o_o...

What's so special about them?

[Trapezohedron]

Well actually I pretty much can guarantee we'll make big advancements in target recognition to the extent where in 50 years or so we'll have remote commanded micro-tanks that can go around the battlefield shooting up enemy soldiers and soaking up the worst of the casualties.

Of course, that doesn't mean they'll actually get much use. They're going to be pretty damn expensive for quite a while, and you'll still need soldiers to go in after the tanks to sweep up and secure the area.

The 'they're going to be pretty damn expensive' is the point. There's little chance that the government's going to be interested in putting out that much money when they can train a soldier and arm him or her for a lot less. They might buy a handful, but not nearly enough to fight a war.

The hell are two you going on about?
1. Unmanned systems are almost always cheaper; they can be made smaller, lighter, faster, and less armored because they don't need to contain and protect a human inside.
2. Training, equipping, and feeding/supplying soldiers is very expensive. That whole "logistics" thing which makes up a lot of the cost of war.
3. It's not 50 years from now, it's 5 years.
The Ripsaw unmanned tank costs $760,000 from what I've found. An Abrams costs $6.2 million.
Then there's the Black Knight.
The Guardium has already been in use by the Israelis for border
patrol uses for almost half a decade.

Not related to the topic, but the Guardium totally beats every tank (barring the Abrams, because they look nice and iconic) you listed there in terms of aesthetics.

[Descan]

All the fun of a nuclear explosion without the fallout.

It's called the Rod of/from God for a REASON.

[Rose]

In semi-related news, a company is designing unmanned drones to target platinum and hydrogen-rich asteroids in range of Earth, and mining them. It's pretty cool.

You forgot the part where one of the founders of the company is the same guy who made Avatar.