Forget Asimov's laws, forget R2-D2, forget AI altogether. These technocidal machines were born to kill. On the left stands Buzzcut, a walking robot whose Weed Eater motor drives a byzantine assembly of rods and rubber belts. On the right is KMM, a very different animal, its machinery protected under a rounded golden shell of graphite woven with Kevlar. KMM sports a pair of crablike metal pincers to grab its victims, which it then hammers into submission with a spiked metal tail.
Techno music pounds from giant speakers as the machines are made ready in an asphalt arena.
The robot owners retreat to safety, clutching their radio-control units. Atop a rickety wooden platform, three judges wearing earplugs signal that they are ready for combat to begin. KMM zooms forward, snapping its pincers. Buzzcut revs his motors, whirls his saw blades, and starts hopping around on his bouncy rubber feet. Imagine a fight between a paraplegic slithering on his stomach with an ice pick strapped to his back, and a hyperactive infant restrained so that he can only jump up and down and bite people.