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Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Friday, October 19, 2007

PARANOIA in the Real World: Robot cannon revolts 

During a live-fire military exercise in Kimberley, South Africa, "A female artillery officer risked her life on Friday in a desperate bid to prevent members of her battery dying from their own anti-aircraft gun," reports The Star (South Africa). "But the brave, as yet unnamed officer was unable to stop the wildly swinging computerised Swiss/German Oerlikon 35mm MK5 anti-aircraft twin-barrelled gun. It sprayed hundreds of high-explosive 0.5kg 35mm cannon shells around the five-gun firing position.

"The rogue gun began firing wildly, spraying high-explosive shells at a rate of 550 a minute, swinging around through 360 degrees like a high-pressure hose. The unknown officer tried to shut the gun down but she couldn't because the computer gremlin had taken over. "

More at Wired magazine's Danger Room blog, and Gizmodo offers video of a similar incident from some years back. (Caution: Comments on that Gizmodo blog entry include frequent profanity.)

Of course it would be tasteless to compare the unnamed soldier's genuine heroism to the far different situational goals that would motivate an Alpha Complex Troubleshooter. But it's safe to highlight the strong difference between this real-world tragedy and the PARANOIA equivalent: namely, that in the real world, people were surprised this happened. Whereas Troubleshooters....
Posted by: Allen Varney / 10:11 PM

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