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"...a few centuries of coherent humanist thought, set against a million odd years of evolved killer ape tendency. No-one's going to give you very good odds on humanism, are they?"
- Richard Morgan

Remotely Operated Auto-targeting Gun (ROAG)  
  A weapon able to pick out its own targets; it's action can be remotely initiated.  

Soldiers in the near-future Iraq of the novel had access to the latest in weapons.

The Humvee had a ROAG - Remotely Operated Auto-targeting Gun - a rapid-fire twenty millimeter mounted over the roof like a small steel sewage pipe.
Technovelgy from Quantico, by Greg Bear.
Published by Vanguard in 2007
Additional resources -

In an interview with Technovelgy.com, Greg Bear had this to say about the ROAG:

    Technovelgy: You also write about an ROAG. Have you seen the work they've been doing on [autonomous] sentry guns?

    Greg Bear: "No, I haven't. I've seen some of these things on the military Discovery channel. Some of that stuff is astonishing; the self-targeting bullets, the flechette technology. I discussed flechettes back in the 1980's - man, it's really happening."

    T: For self-targeting bullets, [Michael] Crichton directed a movie in the 1980's - Runaway - that showed self-targeting bullets. [see smart bullets]

    GB: "I think they did that in [Who Framed] Roger Rabbit, too. [Laughs] I don't know if you've listed that."

    T: I don't think I listed that...

    (Read the rest of Greg Bear's interview on Quantico.)

A very early (possibly the earliest) reference to this kind of weapon is the automatic gun from Michael Crichton's 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain.

Be sure to take a look at these real-life autonomous sentry guns:

Also, take a look at the Handwear Computer Input Device Combat Glove (which was demonstrated at NextFest 2006).

Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Quantico
  More Ideas and Technology by Greg Bear
  Tech news articles related to Quantico
  Tech news articles related to works by Greg Bear

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