Here's an old movie plot: To minimize the human impact of war, the nations of the world agree to have robots do the fighting. Of course, one side is bound to not like the outcome ("It wuz fixed...we wuz robbed") and so may start a war over that.
The plot may be fiction, but the robot battle is real. Marc Thorpe is waging the first "Robot Wars" on August 20 and 21, 1994 at Fort Mason in San Francisco. "I don't feel uncomfortable about destruction," says Thorpe. "Promoting combat between robots instead of people is a healthy alternative. That it's aggressive, combative, and survival-oriented gives it a kind of energy that professional football has."
Thorpe has launched a PR blitz for "Robot Wars," inviting mad mechanics, technophiles, and movie special-effects teams to build radio-controlled robots designed to rip, punch, and impale each other to scrap metal and frayed rubber while onlookers scream like ancient Romans at the Colosseum. And if mere robot opponents aren't enough, hydraulic shears and presses placed within the 40-by-60-foot arena will chomp, stomp, and sayonara any dull-witted robot who happens to linger too long in the wrong place.
There are three contests: one-on-one survival of the fittest, a mob scene, and the neatest, where your bot has to escort a defenseless dronebot across the arena. The three weight classes were set up so your delicate, 25-pound, eighteen-legged centipede doesn't have to face a 100-pound crusher with a snorting chainsaw for a beak. And it's not quite "anything goes" - no explosives, corrosives, fire breathing dragons, or "untethered projectiles" (guns); no radio jamming or interfering with the other human operators allowed. Entry fees per robot are US$50 for individuals and $500 for corporations. (It's a business expense: Put your logos where the TV cameras can see them.)
For details and an entry form e-mail robotwars@aol.com, or phone +1 (415) 453 6305.
ELECTRIC WORD
Telegeography The Balance of Global Telecommunications
Robot War Games
The Interactive Electric Sumo Scream Show
