"Amazing..." Mantou watched the dangerous Wanderer walking back and forth delivering drinks in the bar, completely mesmerized.
"How can you guys keep the bipedal balance so well? How did you do it?"
In reality, not to mention prosthetics, up till now, no one has succeeded in creating a bipedal robot that can walk and run normally. The balance problem alone has cost many people their hair, and any movement can lead to major disasters.
Even now, the reason why humans can walk steadily, run, and climb without falling is because they repeatedly go through the process of falling and standing up, which doesn’t work for machines.
But in the game, the bipedal balance issue had long been solved; here it’s just a common mechanical structure.
Arthur, who was drinking in the bar, was somewhat perplexed. Isn’t this basic knowledge one should learn in university’s bionics program?
Moreover, robots from various big companies are everywhere on the streets. Even amateurs should be able to buy professional books, so why ask such basic questions?
The person before him was inserted by the boss. At first, everyone thought he was a person with connections, so they weren’t keen on him.
But after a few days of interaction, they found this guy often asked quite interesting questions, more like a student from school rather than a frontline engineer or Mercenary.
And his attitude was good, which slowly changed their perception.
"Utilize control programs to adjust joints in real-time based on gyroscopic data, keeping the limb’s center of gravity balanced... otherwise, how do you think street robots move?"
"Though it is indeed troublesome; overly complex intelligent programs might lead to the emergence of AI, so besides big companies, few dare to make humanoid robots."
Since the 1970s, mechanical bionics has been thriving for over a century; solving walking problems should be easy as pie.
However, as a designer from Military Science, Arthur knew a lot of dark secrets unknown to outsiders.
Just like what Mantou thought, humans and animals are almost born to walk, crawl, and run. The brain controls countless muscle nerves to maintain balance, which is generally expensive to replace with mechanical and program designs...
And sometimes, humans are indeed a very cheap resource, including their brains...
Though still confused, Li Jiangang at least knew there was absolutely no problem in making bipedal robots in the game world.
"In that case, can’t we design our own robot?"
"Why design that thing? It’s boring."
Arthur poured himself a drink, starting to immerse bit by bit into this oddly styled place.
Although there are many rules and many mercenaries seem mentally unstable here, you’ll find yourself feeling quite good if you dive in with your heart.
No unique company plotting, no decadent indulgence unique to Night City’s entertainment venues, no violence from gang mercenaries. Though people might be a bit neurotic, it gives him an exceptionally clean feeling.
Everyone can laugh out loud, as if never worried about corporate oppression, nobody fears what to eat tomorrow, freely investing resources into their hobbies.
Even if those hobbies seem utterly silly and impractical.
This mindset made Arthur very envious.
While working in Military Science, their job was to design killing machines and find ways to design the most efficient killing machines at the lowest production cost.
For that, they had to give up all shame and conscience, watching their manufactured weapons efficiently harvest lives.
Those despairing eyes of the dead became their nightmares, but they had to continue working the next day.
Pressure from bosses made it harder to breathe compared to nightmares.
Colleagues competed and fought, as failing performance metrics led to expulsion, turning them into the street folk they despised the most.
Reporting each other, plagiarizing, stealing ideas, exposing—their interactions resembled treating each other as enemies.
Sometimes Arthur thought these company dogs were actually no different from street Mercenaries.
All lived under the threat of no tomorrow just for the seemingly generous numbers dropped into their account monthly.
Finally, their last bit of creativity was drained by numb work before being kicked out the door like stray dogs by the company.
Can’t say they gained nothing.
At least, there were loans they could never finish paying.
Initially thought things would improve after leaving the company, but in the end, he still had to serve the gangs for food, which knocked on his door incessantly for troubles.
He never felt happy about his work.
"Why design a robot?"
Mantou was also rendered speechless by the question; it was like asking her why study mechanical engineering at school.
"Do it if you want, why think so much?"
Her old man provided her with loads and loads of "inspiration," just waiting to try and recreate it in the game.
Arthur initially wanted to say something more, but seeing the Wanderer walking in the bar, he cut to the chase and asked directly,
"What kind of robot do you want to design?"
"A robot, huh..." ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ Nove1Fire.net
Mantou recalled the discussions she had with her old man.
"Definitely something multi-functional, ideally able to replace humans in dangerous jobs—able to run, jump, swim, ensure security, defense, dry clothes, and have high intelligence. It’s too absurd to still send humans for those highly repetitive, technically unchallenging, dangerous jobs when the technology is so advanced."