Okay, let's say we solve the square cube law and build mecha. Are there any non-arbitrary reasons why tanks aren't better? If not, what are some bullsht reasons I can use for stories that aren't that absurd?
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Replying to @BootlegGirl
The square cube law is a pretty fundamental mathematical fact and if you've "solved" it that means we no longer live in the real world in a lot of ways that make it impossible to answer this question
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
I guess one way to read this question is to imagine that we're making machines that are human sized and asking what the advantages and disadvantages are to having humanoid bodies vs human sized tanks on treads
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
But you keep coming back to the fact that we didn't invent human sized vehicles like that because we don't need to because we are humans and can just do those tasks ourselves
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
And the real life reasons we think of "vehicles" as being shaped a certain way in the first place is we built them to be bigger than us in order to carry us and therefore they have to distribute weight differently from us
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Without getting too handwavy and Panglossian ("everything that exists is already the optimal way it should be"), humans and dogs and horses are pretty much the right shape for what they are (legs are much more versatile than wheels)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
But cars and trucks and tanks are also the right shape for what they are (wheels and treads are comically easy to get stuck and useless for a human sized thing, but a tank-sized thing *has to have them* because legs would break at that level of weight)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
An interesting historical note here would be to read HG Wells' "The Land Ironclads", which predicts the idea of tanks incredibly well in a time before gasoline engines were even commonplace The one thing he got wrong was failing to imagine the caterpillar treads
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
He did imagine that on a battlefield wheels would be infeasible, which is why in his imaginary war between a lower tech and higher tech civilization the lower tech horse cavalry beats the higher tech soldiers who try to replace horses with bicycles
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But then they invent a steam tank that uses "pedrail wheels", which are sort of a primitive precursor of caterpillar treads (a wheel made of separate "feet", just lacking the continuous tread between them that keeps them from getting caught on stuff)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BootlegGirl
Neal Stephenson adores the cyberpunk version of those that selectively extend/retract with the terrain by themselves
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