This is going to go well... Image Credit: YouTube / ThrowFlame
Ohio-based company Throwflame is now selling its terrifying 'Thermonator' robot, complete with flamethrower.
While it's easy to imagine purchasing a robot capable of helping out around the home, carrying heavy loads or completing mundane tasks, one firm in Ohio has just brought out a robot that is definitely more like The Terminator than it is Bicentennial Man.
The quadrupedal contraption - dubbed 'Thermonator' - is essentially a robotic dog equipped with a fully functional flamethrower capable of spewing out a 30ft jet of flame.
What's more, you can actually buy one for the princely sum of $9,420.
The device is apparently legal everywhere in the United States except in Maryland.
Interestingly, Throwflame doesn't actually market the robot as a weapon, instead maintaining that its main purposes include agricultural management, wildfire control and ice removal.
For many, however, it's likely that the Thermonator will be picked up as more of a toy than a tool.
The robot is actually capable of operating autonomously (which could spark some renewed debate about autonomous weapon systems), but it can also be manually controlled using a smartphone.
You can check it out in action in the video below.
Having a few thousand of those things out in the general population with no oversight, it won't be long before folks will be looking back on the "good old days" when mass shootings were the worst terror they had to worry over.
Well, maybe the solution is just more of them. If everybody had one, think how that would cut down on robberies rapes and murders, as in these good old days.. How many school shooters would go up against a teacher with a flame thrower dog? Me, I'm gonna wait for the lap dog sized one you can carry around in a baby carrier or handbag. Or maybe squirrel sized ones that will fit in a concealed holster, run up an attacker's leg biting all the way then melt his face. How sweet would that be?. Who will regulate them, the NRA or the AKC? Oh, but are you seriously concerned about this? T... [More]
Flame throwers are legal in the U.S. and sometimes used to fight forest fires. They even have drones that can shoot gasoline or drop self-igniting balls. I can see the robot flame throwers useful in starting backfires and reduce exposure of firefighters to dangerous situations.
Sure. They sell them at gun shows, also. The difference is that those things are simple devices that are made for clearing land or killing weeds. The nonsense of the preposterous Left Coaster above, aside, this kind of device serves no other purpose to balance the danger it could be used to inflict. I have no doubt though that the same watchdogs that strain at the leash to grab guns will quickly shut down this little business inspiration. On my worst, most obsessive day, I don't worry about such things as much as you folks do about simple firearms in the hands of 99% of Americans.... [More]
Its just another concept as time marches on. Somewhere up the road there will come a system with biometric sensors to detect hostility in surrounding beings and sudden motions, a body mounted weapon platform that could aim, target, and fire upon command of the sensor array. Face it bud today's assault rifle is just about that far from a single shot muzzle loading smooth bore rifle. The technology to kill will continue to advance as long as we perceive a need for it.
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