39,327
edits
Cranial Processing Unit: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 4:
In the human body, the entirety of the brain is conveniently located inside the head. In the world of fiction, this often applies to humanoid robots as well. On a certain level, this would seem to be logical; after all, it's been designed to resemble a human being, with all its corresponding external parts in the appropriate places. It's not a big leap to assume the same would be true for the corresponding internal parts.
From an engineering standpoint it isn't strictly necessary to do it that way. It would be safer to put them in a more protected spot, like in the heavily armored chest, some random spot in the abdomen, or even completely decentralized and spread throughout the body.
However, there are some reasons why you might want to put important functions in the head (for much the same reason that so many terrestrial creatures evolved that way.) Many of the parts related to sensory input, such as visual or auditory receptors, would logically be built into the head for the sake of having a higher vantage point of view; once you've placed those there, you need to place the core processors near them to ensure maximum-speed reaction times to visual stimuli. How important this is and how hard that constraint becomes, of course, depends on how quickly you need your robot to be able to react.
Line 27:
* Subverted in ''[[Stormwatch|Stormwatch: Team Achilles]]'' with the thoroughly cybernetically modified villainess Ivana Baiul, who mocks the protagonist for shooting her in the head:
{{quote|'''Ivana''': HAHAHAHA! You think I keep my brain inside my head? Come on, Khalid! You're an engineer! Think like one! It's inside the torso surrounded by eight inches of solid diamonsteel!}}
* Remarkably consistent for [[Transformers]]. While there have been a few notable instances of Transformers surviving decapitation (or being slain by the same--it seems to vary depending on who's losing their head that day), Transformers killed via having their heads crushed or shot have died on a fairly reliable basis. This may have something to do with the brain module, a concept referenced in earlier issues of the Marvel comic, but seen and invoked in a more gruesome fashion in ''[[Transformers: Last Stand of the Wreckers]]''.
* Averted with Herman von Klempt's cyborg body in ''[[Hellboy (comics)|Hellboy]]: Conqueror Worm''. Von Klempt has been a head-in-a-jar in every appearance until now, during his battle with Hellboy it turns out that he still is a head-in-a-jar, housed inside an android replica of his original body and still capable of flying around after the body is disabled.
* [[Defied Trope]] in an issue of [[Spider-Man]], in which Dr. Octopus has unleashed several giant robots on New York. Spidey tells the rest of the Avengers to just go for their legs, as their heads are just for show.
| |||