#Evolutionary Robotics

[ultimateoptimus]

UltimateOptimus Presents…

… The G4 Energon teen of the Autobot Teen Team 3…

… Autobot Powerlinx Kicker!

"It's MY way or NO way!" Kicker's Linxmaster Transformer robot form with the powers of Hyperlink to combine with 1 to 7 Powerlinx Autobots and Xevolution to genetag and Xevolve into new Transformer CNA modes with his EV-AC with which to transform into alongside his Energon blessings from Primus, his Street Action and Energon Saber Mini-Con Teams and his Xtreme Sportsboy fighting skills. Turborevving teen.

Strength: 7 Intelligence: 8 Speed: 7 Endurance: 7 Rank: 5 Courage: 10 Firepower: 5 Skill: 8

Power Parts Head: Energon Hypersense Super Mode Head: LinXmaster (Gold) Chestplate: Spark of Combination (Gold) Jumppack: Street Action Rocket Fists: Jet Knuckler Rocket Boots: TwinTurbo Kicker Belt: "Kickstart Up!" Leg: Secondary Spark Drain: Plushiehide

Autobot Powerlinx Kicker, Chad "Kicker" Jones' Powerlinker/Xevolver Alter Ego, is the ultimate in Y2Ks Boys' Action Toys powerlinked from

Transformers Energon, Circa 2003-2005 (Generation 4)

Powerlinx Autobots and Combiners

Xevoz (Build, Battle, Xevolve)

Power Rangers, M.A.S.K. Rider and Tokusatsu

Y2Ks PC Video Games and Toy Website Games

Y2Ks Super Robot Anime and Tokusatsu

by way of the UltimateOptimus-Brand TransformerTech Megablender set to "Mutant Megamax Mix".

(Another one for you, CoolFireBird.)

[garyconkling]

Dogs: Mankind's Evolutionary Partner for All Time

Your dog is more than a pet, companion or best friend. He or she is your evolutionary partner in a conjunctive venture stretching over millennia through glaciers, floods, pestilence, famine, war, migration and domestication. Humans and wolves share history as carnivores hunting in packs for food. When early man discovered fire, wolves ventured into their camps for meat scraps and warmth. A…

[danieldavidreitberg]

🌟 Evolutionary Computation is shaping the future of AI! 🚀 Dive into Daniel Reitberg's insights on how algorithms evolve and innovate. Don't miss it! #AI #EvolutionaryComputation #FutureTech #Innovation

[mello-when-hi]

I’m like if a girl loved a guy who was made of love and sunshine and warmth (how could you not love him when he embodies the very meaning of love)

[literaryvein-reblogs]

hi hello! hopefully what im asking for isn't too obscure, but do you think i could i get resources/tips on how to write a being that was synthetically made/and or coded? Much thanks in advance/for the chance!

Writing Ideas: Synthetically-Made Characters

some character tropes

Artificial Human: A human being who was created artificially rather than born naturally.

Artificial Animal People: Human-like animals or animal-like humans created through science.

Artificial Intelligence: In fictional works, AI most usually refers to artificial general intelligence — a sapient, self-aware computer system capable of independent thought and reason.

Bioweapon Beast: You create your own attack animal, genetically engineering existing organisms or creating your own. Maybe this new organism would rather just be left alone, and refuses to actually fight. Maybe it goes feral and becomes a dangerous monster roaming the wilderness. Maybe it actually works perfectly, but those in charge of it are far from ethical.

Clockwork Creature: May be purely mechanical, or, if in a fantasy setting, there may be a blend of mechanical and magical elements.

Mechanical Lifeforms: A race of robots or robot-like creatures that are also considered a honest-to-goodness species of living things. They're just like your everyday living organisms, except they happen to have metal for skin, wires for nerves, and so on. They're often silicon-based as well. These may be robotic animals, plants, micro-organisms, or sapient creatures. If they are sapient, they would never wish to Become a Real Boy because, as far as they can see, they are as real as that boy. The origin of such creatures is often never elaborated on or unknown to the characters. It's not uncommon for them to have creators Shrouded in Myth and mystified or outright denied in a sort of reversed creationism that are later further explained in plot-relevant and shocking revelations, similar to precursors for organic species. Sapient mechanical lifeforms tend to react as one would expect when they learn the nature of their origin, usually in some kind of denial and anger. There has been a trend of portraying mechanical lifeforms as formerly organic races that roboticized themselves either as the next Evolutionary Level or simply to survive some world-ending catastrophe that affected them in the past. However, it's also common for such creatures to simply arise without a creator in a process comparable to evolution.

Puppet Permutation: A person changes into a living puppet. They sometimes can control themselves, but this is usually not the case. These puppets are often controlled by outside forces.

Examples

Frankenstein's Monster is one of the most classic and well known examples. While it is stressed at certain points through the original Frankenstein novel that the monster is an entirely unique species, he certainly has a human intelligence and personality. It is left ambiguous whether creating the creature was actually a bad thing or not. The creature suffers (and subsequently causes suffering to his creator), not because it was created but because the creator abandoned it afterwards.

Celtic Mythology: Blodeuedd, the woman created from flowers to be the wife of Lleu Llaw in Medieval Welsh mythology.

A Greek myth tells the story of Pygmalion, a man who shunned real-life women but craved that his beautiful sculpture of one would come to life. He loved it so much that he prayed to Venus/Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, to grant him that wish. After he kissed the ivory-carved statue's lips, Venus worked her magic and it came to life. This is seen as a literal "Breath of Life".

Pandora in Greek myth was a sculpture that the Gods made and brought to life.

Japanese Mythology: Any non-electronic item can become a Tsukumogami if it's cared for and becomes old enough, which are Animate Inanimate Objects. This can also happen to toys, giving rise to the Living Toys trope.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: An alien civilization created at least one sentient supercomputer, Deep Thought, for the purpose of answering philosophical questions regarding the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

The Hunger Games: During the rebellion which led to the creation of the titular Games, the Capitol bred a number of genetically engineered animals called muttations (commonly abbreviated to mutts) which were used as living weapons against the districts. From the Tenth Hunger Games onwards, they became a regular feature in the arena, with the Gamemakers using them either to kill the tributes directly or to drive the tributes together and force them to fight each other. Examples of mutts seen in the Games include poisonous snakes which are programmed to attack anyone whose scent is unfamiliar, carnivorous squirrels which attack in packs and werewolf-like creatures which have been created to resemble fallen tributes.

Victor Frankenstein (2015): Victor proclaims to Igor that they will create a man after their own image. The process involves stitching together dead body parts and reanimating the corpse with lightning.

Isaac Asimov often averted this trope quite harshly in his Robot Series and related works, preferring to think of robots as tools rather than people. He only imagined robots being roughly humanoid when they needed to be able to perform tasks which human tools for already existed and it wouldn't make sense to replace every piece of equipment when one robot could be made to use them. They were always built to the job, and sometimes that job made for very unusual designs instead.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hi, here are some related tropes you can use as inspiration. More examples and information on these in the sources linked above. Hope this helps with your writing!

[tellyouily]

does anyone remember that one drodcast where dream talked about the future of ai and how humans might eventually turn into robots if we take it too far and concluded by saying it's an evolutionary benefit to love

[geyfrog]

Our bodies are so unoptimised for the consciousness. They’re optimised for some evolutionary goals completely separate from what I want. I got dropped in this machine which perpetuates some random objective I don’t give a shit about and I’m trying to wring satisfaction out of it. It’s like coming into being as a conscious assembly line robot

[raccoonfallsharder]

I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to how rocket is designed. It's his legs. Mcu and edios both got it right, but telltale and rivals didn't. I haven't read the comics due to not having much time but by the looks of it it's generally 50 50 wether or not they get it right. Whenever I see his legs and feet designed in a more canid/feline style I cringe HARD cause that's not how raccoon anatomy works, and what would be the flarking point for whomever created him in whatever universe to make

i'm not gonna lie this ask made me cackle. mostly because i had the cartoon on in the background and holy hell, cartoon-rocket's got some majorly feline leggies (they almost look actually alien to me). i'm so sorry that this grates on your last nerve (i know what it's like to be annoyed by something like this - it drives me crazy that comic artists so often draw him with three fingers, even though i know it's just because it's supposedly easier/quicker to draw - it makes me want to angry-cry every time).

but... may i play a little devil's advocate? on behalf of artists trying to figure out how to draw anthropomorphized raccoons lol

to be honest, i understand the different takes on rocket's legs/feet. (i apologize!) when i first started drawing him, i did hours of research and my first rocket fan art had a similar, if more understated, take.

here's the thing. i'm no vet, but raccoon skeletons and cat skeletons do seem to look pretty similar, at least to the untrained eye. And there's so many photos of raccoons walking and standing on the balls of their feet, which can give them an almost-felid look. From what I can tell, raccoon feet only seem fully flat to the ground maybe half the time. I think the real question you've posed here - did whoever make him (the high evolutionary, halfworld robots, whatever) decide to lengthen his tarsals and metatarsals and lift the calcaneum to make him taller (???) or did they decide fully depress the calcaneum to the ground to give him a more human stance? - could genuinely go either way. his creators did a lot of fucked-up shit to his body and i'm sure none of it feels right to him.

[cat skeleton on the left, raccoon skeleton on the right]

like obviously rocket's calcaneum are way too high and exaggerated, but i can see what they were going for?

all that said... it is a goofy look and as someone who tried to draw it a few times in the beginning, it also makes figuring out the character's center of gravity a real pain in the ass lol. like, weight distribution when your legs are like that is weird. plus, you're right: i'm not sure how much research his various artists have done over the years. (we all probably think a lot more about rocket than most other people, particularly folks who are guardians-focused and not rocket-focused, you know?). and some of the comic artists - i dunno it honestly seems like they don't even know what a raccoon is

Annihilators (2010, Issue #1) - why does he have a pug-nose? why are his ears? what is happening?

that all said, i'll admit it - i'm partial to the more-humanoid stance as well. ♡

anyway thank you for this ask! it was an excellent rant and it was fun to go through so many of my old reference photos, too ♡♡♡♡ thanks for giving me something to think about today!

[danieldavidreitberg]

Explore how evolutionary computation is shaping the future of AI research in this insightful article by Daniel Reitberg. #AI #EvolutionaryComputation #TechInnovation #AIResearch #MachineLearning

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere Iron Valiant with trainer Darling Concept?

It's a bit difficult as there isn't any PokeDex entry I can go off of. So this is speculation on my part. Sorry for image quality, it's a close up of a Pokemon card... couldn't find good official art.

Overprotective! Iron Valiant with Trainer! Darling

(FT. Gardevoir or Gallade)

Pairing: Platonic (With Rivalry Elements)

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective behavior, Violence, Implied murder, Blood, Clingy behavior, Forced/Dubious companionship.

Iron Valiant is a Future Paradox Pokemon that appears to have combined features of a Gardevoir and Gallade.

They are robots that we can assume were meant to act as guardians for humanity in the future.

Perhaps you caught this Pokemon once it was sent to the present?

Or... since they are a robot... you helped fix them up?

Granted, any major injury/damage can't be fixed perfectly... but you try your best.

I like to imagine Pokemon Violet's Paradox Pokemon are more robot than Pokemon.

Which means, When you fix the robot they register you as their new master.

Pokeball or not, this Iron Valiant follows you around like a maid or butler.

Technically they're both.

Imagine if you already had a Gardevoir or Gallade in your care?

They'd be so confused about their robotic counterpart.

Even more so if your new Iron Valiant tried to replace them.

Y'know what, to prevent all these Overprotective Pokemon concepts from feeling the same... you have either a Gardevoir or Gallade as your Pokemon partner.

Imagine if your Iron Valiant saw your original Pokemon partner as inferior.

They are far superior, a combination of the best parts of the evolutionary line.

Why do you still care for these... biological creatures?

Your Gardevoir/Gallade often gives you concerned looked, seeing how the glowing pink eyes of the robot scan them up and down.

You can try to make them get along... but your Iron Valiant is often the problem.

You can order them... but there's always tension between them and your original Pokemon partner.

Your robotic partner always judges your partner, glaring at them with glowing pink irises.

For the most part, they're behaved.

Although... your current Pokemon partner probably won't stick around for too long.

What I mean by that is... You Iron Valiant may just get rid of your Gardevoir/Gallade.

After all, why do you need them?

Unlike robots... they can die.

With a robot partner you'll always be safe.

So... that means your current partners are inferior...

Which means your Iron Valiant will exterminate them for you.

Imagine waking up one day and all your partners are gone.

You're looking everywhere... but they're just gone.

However, when you call for your Iron Valiant... they respond.

With an excited beep or two, the run up to you with a happy gaze...

Covered in blood.

You stay silent... staring...

They don't seem to care.

If you try to run, they'll follow.

You can't escape them... you're trapped...

After all, they're superior!

Their master only deserves the best.

[generic-sonic-fan]

Omega's Observations: Shine/Treat

Summary: Omega prefers to leave Rouge and Shadow to their peculiar organic rituals.

For @teamdarkweek. 652 words.

Omega is an observant robot. 

Mobians have this tendency to. . . groom each other. The connotation of that word in his dictionary is associated with mindless animals. It has to do with only the most base of instincts to keep clean and to satisfy an evolutionary urge for touch amongst social species. 

He finds himself averting his optics when he catches Rouge and Shadow on the couch brushing through each other’s fur or pulling out ingrown hairs or combing through quills. Products and oils slathered over their fleshy bodies. Papery masks with artificial fragrances that Rouge buys on the internet paired with fresh vegetable slices over their eyes. His olfactory sensors can barely make sense of it, let alone his optics. 

One would think they would wait until he was out of the apartment, or at least out of the room before they commenced. Rouge has started leaving the comb out on the end table. She will pick it up and start digging into Shadow’s quills without warning. Omega knows better than to deprive them of this ritual, just like food and water and sleep and all the other functions they get strange about when he asks.

So he leaves them to it.

This is not the end of their unusual behavior. 

Omega is an observant robot, and is thus not ignorant about the fact that Rouge just bought a buffer and car wax despite not owning a car. He is not ignorant about the fact that Shadow just returned home with paint brushes and a bucket of paint- the Ultimate Lifeform has never touched any art supplies before beyond Rouge’s old knitting materials since Omega had known him. 

What he is ignorant of is the purpose of such things. A week goes by and neither of them mention it. Then, one sunny weekend, they spring upon him with all strange objects in hand. 

“Surprise.” Shadow says, holding up the can of paint.

“Spa day!” Rouge cheers, wielding the buffer. 

“I HAVE NO FUR OF WHICH TO CLEAN.” 

“We know that. That’s why we bought these!”

“Leaving you out felt wrong.” Shadow says, quieter. 

“. . . ELABORATE.” 

“You always leave when we start.” Shadow continues. “I should have noticed sooner.”

“Now that we’ve got the right hardware,” Rouge brandishes the buffer as if it were a chainsaw, “it’s time for you to join the fun! We should have figured you’d want to look good too.” 

Omega ratchets his optics to the buffer, then to the paint can. The paint is, told by a drop of dried paint on the top, a close match to his original coat. The buffer’s purpose is more obvious.

“ARE YOU IMPLYING I DO NOT ALWAYS LOOK GOOD?” He taps a claw on the edge of the rotary pad.

Instead of laughter, Shadow grimaces immediately. “That was not our intent. I’m sorry.”

Shadow is treating this situation with the sort of seriousness with which he regards other highly emotional subjects. The markers Omega registers in his facial muscles point to as much. 

Mobian grooming ritual, associated with social species, he realizes. 

He did not assume that they would apply that ‘social’ label to him. 

“APOLOGY ACCEPTED.” He replies as quickly as he can. He throws in a “MARGINALLY” to reduce suspicion. 

“Come on, you dum-dum. Let’s get you outside to hose you off. Unless you think you can fit in the bathtub?” Rouge says.

“NEGATIVE.” 

“Figured. You’re going to be shiny head-to-toe once we’re done with you!” 

Shadow grasps Omega’s wrist and gently lifts until his claws are even enough for him to hang the paint can off of. Omega doesn’t stop him. 

“You’ll like it.” Shadow pats his hand.

“Consider it our treat, big boy. A thank-you of sorts.” Rouge takes his other hand.

“MORE RECOGNITION FOR THE ULTIMATE ROBOT IS ALWAYS IDEAL.” He rumbles, before helping them transport the rest of the ‘spa day supplies’ out of the apartment. 

[b-yg0ld]

ok but like, if heavy body mods like half robot or like upgrading / addons to your body existed the first things on my list wouldnt be just off-putting enough eye color, or getting some weirdly cool glowing veins in very specific places, sure theyd be priority next on the list,

BUT FIXING SIMPLE EVOLUTIONARY FAULTS WOULD BE FIRST

like, changing the fact that JUST MAYBE AIR AND FOOD GO DOWN THE SAME FUCKING TUBE ????? who thought that was a brilliant idea ??? or that humans are more prone to back issues because of being bipedal ??? or that our feet are just developed weird ??

[niqhtlord01]

Humans are weird: Evolutionary Adaptability

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)     When Kel had petitioned the human worlds of Jora, New Foundland, Davin VI, and Tesla’s Retreat he had thought he knew what to expect.

Though humans were still relatively young in the grand scale of galactic empires they had the most interesting, if not confounding, habit of setting up shop on any world they could find. Be it a dust ball with no atmosphere and three hundred degree sunrises, or a water world filled with ravenous creatures; humanity had shown their grit and made these worlds into new colonies and homes regardless of the danger.

Acting as a representative of his people Kel had reached out to each of those four worlds to establish trade routes. The possible wealth from each, let alone all four together, would be enough to sustain his world’s economic boon for several dozen generations.

He had been delighted when the transmissions came in one by one and each of the human worlds had agreed to meet on Kel’s homeworld to discuss the arrangements.

The first signs that things were running off the tracks was when the Jora delegation had arrived.

Kel had done his research after gathering many texts and documents regarding the human homeworld and thought himself prepared to handle the humans as they exited the landing ships. To say he was surprised when instead of tall slender bipedals massive mechanical suits ducked between the loading doors and on to the landing field would be an understatement.

These constructs were easily nine feet in height and four feet wide standing on two pairs of sharp metal legs that gave them a more insect appearance. Their hands were likewise far more different as they only had three metal talons that clicked and clacked as the machines approached him and Kel saw his reflection in the polished steel bodywork.

As if that was not enough the bodywork suddenly split open and Kel saw a fluid sack inside of the machine holding a frail looking human with numerous wires and tubes sticking out of them.

The human inside nodded to Kel in greeting and their mechanical suit mimicked the motion as well; to which Kel returned after an embarrassing moment’s hesitation.

Before Kel could inquire about the state of the Joraran’s they spoke through a robotic speaker built into their suits. It was then Kel learned that because the gravity of Jora was nearly ten times lighter compared to their natural homeworld the humans had needed to construct mechanical suits to move and live across the any other planet’s surface. If they had attempted to exit the suits and walk normally the gravity of Kel’s world would crush them like tin cans. Thinking to himself Kel imagined that was why the humans inside the machines looked so frail in comparison to their Terran born brethren.

---------- After the Joraran’s came the New Foundlanders some thirty minutes later.

This time the humans did not need to lower themselves to exit the shuttle craft. In fact, they barely came up half way inside the doorframe forcing Kel to tilt his head down and look upon them.

In contrast to the Joraran’s, the New Foundlanders were short and muscular built; coming up to Kel’s waist in height. They wore normal looking clothes standard to human fashion but the fabrics appeared strange as they New Foundlanders approached. It was as if the fabric was remaining static and unmoving despite the motions their wearers made.

Kel extended his hand in human custom to shake in glorious welcome, but to his shock the humans looked amongst themselves and shook their heads.

When Kel inquired if he had offended them somehow they stated that he had done nothing of the sort, and that their reluctance to shake his hand was more for his own safety.

Something of confusion must have cross his face as the lead New Foundlander motioned for one of Kel’s aides to toss him a pen. With a nod from Kel the aide handed a pen to the leader who promptly snapped it in two with the smallest of motions.

Kel learned that in opposite of Jora, New Foundland had gravity ten times heavier than that of earth forcing the humans who lived there to develop squat like bodies of raw muscle. On a lighter gravity world like Kel’s the mere flick of one of their fingers was enough to violently amputate the arm of anyone.

Kel thanked them for the warning and hurriedly sent the new information on to his waiting staff to ensure no one died from a handshake later that day. ---------------------

Next to arrive were the Davinites.

Kel was thankful that when the shuttle doors opened the Davinites were much like the human material he had researched prior to their meeting. They stood between 5 and 6 feet in height, were slender in body shape, and did not walk with mechanical suits or seemed overly careful what they touched.

The strangeness only began to reveal itself when Kel looked closer and saw that underneath the formal clothing the Davinites were wearing a full body bodysuit made from a strange black material. This covered every inch of what would have been exposed skin with even their eyes shielded behind large black goggles.

They shook Kel’s hand in human custom but then insisted that they leave the landing pad as soon as possible. When he asked why they were in such a hurry it was revealed to Kel that Davin VI was orbiting a red dwarf star that provided little light compared to most worlds. The day and night cycles of their world were a constant shroud of soft light, barely enough to see your hand in front of your face let alone the stars themselves.

As a result the Davinite skin had become increasingly pale in the absence of sunlight and their eyes had adapted to the lower light levels to see. Standing out in the open in natural daylight, even with the reflectors on their face, must have been like standing on the surface of the sun.

With great haste he ushered them inside and had his aides blot out the windows and greatly reduce light levels of their rooms for the duration of their stay. -------------------- The final delegation was by far the most unusual of the group in Kel’s eyes.

Unlike the previous delegations, the Teslins arrived in their own spacecraft specially designed on their homeworld. It was a massive freighter like construct easily five to six times larger than any shuttle that had arrived prior.

When the doors opened Kel was greeted by five Teslins all wearing environmental suits he had previously seen in dated records for human space travel.

They slowly walked towards Kel and shook his hand. Their leader was rather friendly and welcoming in their own right and matched him custom for custom as was befitting a delegate.

Kel had tried to resist asking about the suits they wore but thankfully they must have encountered this problem before and demonstrated the need for their suits.

With a nod from their leader one of the Teslins removed the gauntlet from their suit and exposed their hand to the open air. Nothing happened at first until Kel heard a rustle from behind him.

One of his aides was fiddling with their data pad; swatting it with their hands while they rolled it front and back. They caught Kel looking at him and said that it had suddenly died on him and that he was not sure why. The batteries had listed fully charged just a moment ago and now the device refused to power on.

Kel turned back to the Teslins and saw the previous member return their gauntlet to their suit with a loud click followed by the chime of the data pad powering up again.

The Teslin leader explained that the surface of Tesla’s Retreat was plague with frequent and violent electrical storms. The very air you breathed had a sub layer of constant energy in it regardless of where you were on the planet.

Their bodies had adapted to the electrical currents and were able to absorb and pass on energy in the surrounding area through their own bodies; much like a power relay passing on power from a power station to a waiting city.

The grandeur of their ship was a necessity as it contained multiple power units. In the event of a suit breach the Teslin’s could drain the power from a ship midflight and send everyone plummeting to their deaths; but with their design the backup generators would kick in and ensure a somewhat smooth landing.

Realizing the danger the Teslin’s presented while standing in a busy spaceport Kel ushered them inside while he tried to find transportation for them that would not kill them. -------------------------

Each of the delegations were so vastly different from what Kel had been informed of human genes and species type, and yet each of them still claimed to be just as human as the next of their kin, regardless of the vastly different features they wore.

It was a notion that Kel made scrupulous notes for future dealings with the humans, to which the delegation core all but awarded him a medal from the mounting confusion his notes would resolve in later negotiations.

[osakanone]

Hi, I'm Osaka

I'm a hobbyist designer, and I research esoteric concepts on the periphery of mecha to find new views nobody else is writing about. I also am obsesed with trying to push the genre forwards.

I also took up programming to build a game faster than ACFA, more airborne than Ace Combat, and more "art of the blade" than Zone of the Enders 2 by studying mecha games through the lens of published declassified military grade airwar and psywar human factors engineering and psychology concepts.

I want to make this game about mechposting and the trans experience, but I need your help: not money, but to speak with you about mecha.

The writing is simultaniously equal parts thesis to microfic a lot of the time, so your milage may vary.

Scroll through the mess below and find what suits you best.

Please.

Mecha Theory Writing

A comprehensive explanation of the evolutionary path from conventional ground and air vehicles, including a comprehensive outline of a functioning control-design based on the inceptor/software model seen in unmanned drones and 5th gen aircraft, complete with explanations.

The evolution of the walking thing called “mecha"  (original)

Chapter 0: Establishing terminology & Concepts Part 1: Defining "the mechaness" of something: the 8 principles of mecha Part 2: Feisability: Mecha aren't realistic, but not for the reason you think

Chapter 1: How does "mecha" come into existence/why would you want one? Part 1: An evolution from ground vehicles of today Part 2: Skating, to walking, to running, to flight Part 3: “Why transform in the vacuum of space?”

Chapter 2: Cockpit & Software Design Control Theory Part 4: On Mecha Control Theory: Considerations Part 4a: On Mecha Control Theory II: OKAWARA Part 4b: On Mecha Control Theory III: TOMINO  Part 4c: On Mecha Control Theory III: NAGANO

The World of Armored Core

An exploration of the world of Armored Core, using research into real phenomenon and engineering systems to infer how the world may itself function

Kojima particle physics (part 1): What are they? Kojima particle physics (part 2): The Human Consequences NEXT cockpit design (part 1): AMS and Lynx NEXT Cockpit Design (Part 2): G-force Tolerance Technocrat is SpaceX, and the legacy of Musk’s father (lmao) I am a 4th gen douchebag, and I love it (love-letter to ACFA) 4th gen shitpost: white gopnik

How To Domesticate Your Pilot

A husbandry guide for handlers, consisting of opinions and thoughts from various trainers and operators, as well as pilots. Includes practices, procedures, articles, stories and snippets.

I'm currently testing the waters with snippets and will likely be posting it out of order. I am extremely hungry for any and all possible feedback

If anybody knows the original source of the image of the eyes (which I first saw in a youtube ad) I'd love to know. I very much would like to commission them.

Inspired by mechposting

Chapter 3: Do not Abuse Your Wolves (Psychological patterning) Part 1: Action patterning (Initial Phases) Part 2: Action Patterning (Risks) Part 3: Once upon a mechanism

On mecha design: My personal thoughts on the assemblies of shape, form in the context of motion, action and function 1. Does anybody else have physical characteristics they find the most appealing? 2. Thoughts on self-altering dynamic form, and proportion designs 3. Shoji Kawamori and Armored Core: designers hallucinate, but do they hallucinate too? 4. Why is Gundam Gquuuuux called Gundam Gquuuuux?

Mechsploitation thoughts

#Mechposting

My personal thoughts on piloting culture, and mechanical design

1. The eroticism of the machine: Megastructures 2. Beyond pilebunker: The Grind-blade and the legacy of Overweapons 3. FLAT/Touchscreens are an act of hate: I will teach you love 4. You do not need to pick between a big hammer or daggers if you are a robot 5. O'Socks combat mix (tw: substance abuse) 6. Team dynamics, addiction, conflicts of interest and marketing 7. Commuication is hard, and mecha feet are cool 8. Morrigan Aensland is mecha and you cannot change my mind 9. re: Last Exile is not dieselpunk; its post-steampunk deleuzian dreams 10. Mecha PMC promotion is back, in pog form 11. Bodies, corporeal schema, and the body language of pilots 12. The blessing of the hounds; main system engaging combat mode 13. Exotic doctrine: Grappling & Booster-fu // torsion, aspect and control 14. Osaka, why do you always want to talk about ACFA? 15. You walk, so they can run

# Miscposting: Immacullate vibe-topia Pilot, for you: Love. Love. The sound of the ideal cockpit Left Hand/Right hand [gone]-- Mechposting vibes soundwall 🇸​​🇮​​🇨​​🇰​​🇧​​🇪​​🇦​​🇹​​🇸​ ​🇹​​🇴​ ​🇸​​🇪​​🇪​​🇰​ ​🇦​​🇳​​🇩​ ​🇩​​🇪​​🇸​​🇹​​🇷​​🇴​​🇾​ ​🇹​​🇴​: A #mechposting playlist [ongoing] Cicatrix: A writing playlist Sounds for violence: Mecha games vs FPS games

# Pilotcore: Dress & attire 1. Attire concept (includes #mechposting patch list) 2. Crew attire for things other than piloting a giant robot 3. Singleton over-jacket 4. Radios, straps and whips 5. Wearable keyboard for pilots 6. What color should a flight-suit be? (#AskOsaka from @siveine)

The Learning Tree

Reading this will help you grow as a person, or ask questions

"I experience depression as a failure of resource allocation systems" Adult social skills 101, because the world broke our ability to understand eachother Mental health: Things I wish I knew in my teens, my 20's or even my early 30's ​Sex-positivity, associations, critical thinking & deradicalization Crossing the hrt libido event horizon without libido heat-death by making biscuits Fool!: Your nostalgia isn't real: Your past has been stolen from you! Why Linux diehards are morons, and so is everybody else too On the ecology of slurs and the evolution of language Individualism can mean many things. The three fetishes of the human condition The real meaning of "you will not be an anime girl, you'll be your mom"

Nothing, but content for contented malcontents

Insightful, but stupid.

The collapse of the anime ecology's biodiversity Cycles of Nostalgia: Nobody is going to be nostalgic for Corporate Memphis Europe doesn't teach the Odyssey: Americentricism's fetishism is already its downfall Feeling used: The eternal disappointment of the Sawano Drop Lame? Bitch please: Clubbing deserves to go extinct every pmdd transmasc is that badass hot painting of satan crying The reviewer made a major error The Maid's Paradox Bread real

The horrors

Robo ComBAT: Cactus Jaque (original)

The Fear

Concerning plunges into the ne plus ultra culture of tomorrow

Humbert complex: When people prefer what they imagine to what's really there White Diamond, fascism, projection, ego, how Steven Universe botched its end. Sandwich names: the internet sucks now and smartphones are to blame! Gatekeeping is weird and knowledge-checks are arbitrary nonsense "The internet feels gross now", a trajectory of human events Providing feedback is also a skill and not everybody has it. AI isn't evil but it does embolden the worst people economics is just twitter brain for worth Do you?

My actual projects:

Art (I'm kind of private about my output and don't post often, sorry)

Pixelart: A very silly computer design that makes me smile idk

Games:

Project Force: 6dof aerodynamic high speed robot action [ongoing] Inspired by Armored Core For Answer, Freespace 2, Zone of the Enders 2 & Ace Combat 3, this game aims to merge their elements into a high speed mech sim.

e: yeesh this pinned post is getting kinda huge, I should break it into sub-pages or something so nobody can ever see any of it lol

[dcdreamblog]

Can you tell us anything about the Creature Commandos? I read a brief blurb about them in a book of "Weird War Tales" with other stuff like the GI Robot and the Boy Commandos, but trying to google anything on them just leads to debates as to whether or not they were actually supernatural or some kind of science project.

Oh dammit, James Gunn's little Inglorious Bastards-esque cartoon just came out didn't it? Jokes on you guys though, I actually ordered and read the appropriate books ahead of time! You're not slick!/s

Thank you for providing the image for this one so I don't have to go looking for it. (I truly hope you did not watch the old TV movie this was made for though. My god this poster it the best part of it)

To answer the most pressing question, they're a science experiment. Buckle in because if you thought your opinion of the US Army could not get any lower!

The Creature Commandos were formed in 1941 under the auspices of an outfit known as Project M which was the pot the US Army threw money into with the expectation it would use them to come up with super weapons to end the Nazi threat with no oversight or ethical constraint. They were responsible for the construction of G.I Robot as you mentioned and one of their failed experiments even granted New York native Joan Dale the powers she would use to become Miss America.

The Commandos specifically were the brainchild of one Dr. Myron Mazurksy, a real mad scientist type with the pet theory that the tales of monsters and ghouls making up the bulk of human mythology were the triggers for an kind of evolutionary fear, his hypothesis was that altering subjects through chemical and surgical methods to resemble these monsters of legend would give them an edge on the battlefield. (Of course we know now that these stories are not psychological misinterpretations at all but instead tales of actual beings that really do exist)

The Creature Commandos were made up of four founding members:

Private Warren Griffith was diagnosed with psychological lycanthropy and so was remanded into Project M's custody where he was surgically altered into and actual wolf man with very little conscious control of the time of his painful metamorphosis. He had committed no crime other than being considered psychologically unfit for service.

Pilot Officer Vincent Velcoro, a member of the Royal Air Force convicted of high treason for striking a well connected superior officer. Remanded into American custody without any due process under British military law he was given the choice of a 30 year sentence or experimentation which turned him into a human vampire, forced to drink blood at least once a day and only able to stomach consuming raw meat.

Private Elliot "Lucky" Taylor, a newly minted marine who was nearly killed by a land mine during a war gaming exercise. Surgically reconstructed by Project M his vocal cords were severed by the procedure, his family was told he was KIA and Taylor himself was never consulted about the procedure nor was he allowed to leave after the fact. Again he had committed no crime and was not even unfit for service, simply fed into the mill for the sake of "progress"

and Dr Myrra Rhodes who, when operating upon a wounded soldier within Project M's compound was mutated by a poorly secured batch of mutagen chemicals, transformed into a living medusa. She was also unable to leave military custody and was listed as KIA, losing her entire life due to Project M's negligence.

They were placed under the command of one Lieutenant Matt Shrieve who noted in his later unearthed war journal a personal loathing for his "freakish" subordinates whom he treated with inhuman disdain. Providing for their needs only reluctantly and below the standards of what they would have received in a brig back home. They were sent on what were, frankly, suicide missions, managing to survive time and again based on good luck and the members' trust in one another above all.

A truly demonstrative directive, unearthed by a freedom of information request submitted by their families well after the fact showed that the Creature Commandos were under command from the highest echelon that their existence be kept an absolute secret from the All Star Squadron or any of its members. A personal note, written by a redacted command officer at the bottom of the ledger opines

"The long underwear freaks would just get their bleeding hearts in a twist anyway."

Meaning that the army specifically kept the Commandos a secret from the Squadron, KNOWING that the Squadron would object to the less than human conditions and expectations of the Commandos and most likely would have seen to their emancipation under Squadron protection.

As the war drew to a close, the Commandos were marked for execution by firing squad. No trial or crime was ever given as reason. "Spared" from execution they were sent in a rocket toward the then ongoing battle of Berlin to do some final "good" or die trying.

Their presence is not noted at the battle and their bodies, or indeed their trails have never been found. Make of that what you will.

[scifigeneration]

Early visions of Mars: Meet the 19th-century astronomer who used science fiction to imagine the red planet

by Matthew Shindell, Curator of Planetary Science and Exploration at the Smithsonian Institution

Living in today’s age of ambitious robotic exploration of Mars, with an eventual human mission to the red planet likely to happen one day, it is hard to imagine a time when Mars was a mysterious and unreachable world. And yet, before the invention of the rocket, astronomers who wanted to explore Mars beyond what they could see through their telescopes had to use their imaginations.

As a space historian and author of the book “For the Love of Mars: A Human History of the Red Planet,” I’ve worked to understand how people in different times and places imagined Mars.

The second half of the 19th century was a particularly interesting time to imagine Mars. This was a period during which the red planet seemed to be ready to give up some of its mystery. Astronomers were learning more about Mars, but they still didn’t have enough information to know whether it hosted life, and if so, what kind.

With more powerful telescopes and new printing technologies, astronomers began applying the cartographic tools of geographers to create the first detailed maps of the planet’s surface, filling it in with continents and seas, and in some cases features that could have been produced by life. Because it was still difficult to see the actual surface features of Mars, these maps varied considerably.

During this period, one prominent scientist and popularizer brought together science and imagination to explore the possibilities that life on another world could hold.

Camille Flammarion

The 19th-century astronomer and writer Camille Flammarion. Av Ukjent/The New York Public Library Digital Collections

One imaginative thinker whose attention was drawn to Mars during this period was the Parisian astronomer Camille Flammarion. In 1892, Flammarion published “The Planet Mars,” which remains to this day a definitive history of Mars observation up through the 19th century. It summarized all the published literature about Mars since the time of Galileo in the 17th century. This work, he reported, required him to review 572 drawings of Mars.

Like many of his contemporaries, Flammarion concluded that Mars, an older world that had gone through the same evolutionary stages as Earth, must be a living world. Unlike his contemporaries, he insisted that Mars, while it might be the most Earth-like planet in our solar system, was distinctly its own world.

It was the differences that made Mars interesting to Flammarion, not the similarities. Any life found there would be evolutionarily adapted to its particular conditions – an idea that appealed to the author H.G. Wells when he imagined invading Martians in “The War of the Worlds.”

An illustrated plate from ‘Astronomie Populaire – Description Generale du Ciel’ by Camille Flammarion. This map of Mars shows continents and oceans. In this, his best-selling epic work, Flammarion speculated that Mars was ‘an earth almost similar to ours [with] water, air, showers, brooks and fountains. This is certainly a place little different from that which we inhabit.’ Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

But Flammarion also admitted that it was difficult to pin down these differences, as “the distance is too great, our atmosphere is too dense, and our instruments are not perfect enough.” None of the maps he reviewed could be taken literally, he lamented, because everyone had seen and drawn Mars differently.

Given this uncertainty about what had actually been seen on Mars’ surface, Flammarion took an agnostic stance in “The Planet Mars” as to the specific nature of life on Mars.

He did, however, consider that if intelligent life did exist on Mars, it would be more ancient than human life on Earth. Logically, that life would be more perfect — akin to the peaceful, unified and technologically advanced civilization he predicted would come into being on Earth in the coming century.

“We can however hope,” he wrote, “that since the world of Mars is older than our own, its inhabitants may be wiser and more advanced than we are. Undoubtedly it is the spirit of peace which has animated this neighboring world.”

A plate from ‘Les Terres du Ciel’ (The Worlds of the Sky) written by Camille Flammarion. The plate is an artist’s impression of how canals on Mars might have looked. Science & Society Picture Library via Getty Images

But as Flammarion informed his readers, “the Known is a tiny island in the midst of the ocean of the Unknown,” a point he often underscored in the more than 70 books he published in his lifetime. It was the “Unknown” that he found particularly tantalizing.

Historians often describe Flammarion more as a popularizer than a serious scientist, but this should not diminish his accomplishments. For Flammarion, science wasn’t a method or a body of established knowledge. It was the nascent core of a new philosophy waiting to be born. He took his popular writing very seriously and hoped it could turn people’s minds toward the heavens.

Imaginative novels

Without resolving the planet’s surface or somehow communicating with its inhabitants, it was premature to speculate about what forms of life might exist on Mars. And yet, Flammarion did speculate — not so much in his scientific work, but in a series of novels he wrote over the course of his career.

In these imaginative works, he was able to visit Mars and see its surface for himself. Unlike his contemporary, the science fiction author Jules Verne, who imagined a technologically facilitated journey to the Moon, Flammarion preferred a type of spiritual journey.

Based on his belief that human souls after death can travel through space in a way that the living body cannot, Flammarion’s novels include dream journeys as well as the accounts of deceased friends or fictional characters.

In his novel “Urania” (1889), Flammarion’s soul visits Mars in a dream. Upon arrival, he encounters a deceased friend, George Spero, who has been reincarnated as a winged, luminous, six-limbed being.

“Organisms can no more be earthly on Mars than they could be aerial at the bottom of the sea,” Flammarion writes.

Later in the same novel, Spero’s soul visits Flammarion on Earth. He reveals that Martian civilization and science have progressed well beyond Earth, not only because Mars is an older world, but because the atmosphere is thinner and more suitable for astronomy.

Camille Flammarion looking through the telescope at the Observatory at Juvisy-sur-Orge. duncan1890/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Flammarion imagined that practicing and popularizing astronomy, along with the other sciences, had helped advance Martian society.

Flammarion’s imagined Martians lived intellectual lives untroubled by war, hunger and other earthly concerns. This was the life Flammarion wanted for his fellow Parisians, who had lived through the devastation of the Franco-Prussian war and suffered starvation and deprivation during the Siege of Paris and its aftermath.

Today, Flammarion’s Mars is a reminder that imagining a future on Mars is as much about understanding ourselves and our societal aspirations as it is about developing the technologies to take us there.

Flammarion’s popularization of science was his means of helping his fellow Earth-bound humans understand their place in the universe. They could one day join his imagined Martians, which weren’t meant to be taken any more literally than the maps of Mars he analyzed for “The Planet Mars.” His world was an example of what life could become under the right conditions.