Addressing the ongoing outbreak in Texas that has infected at least 124 state residents and killed one child, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed Thursday to make measles deaths so common that they wouldn’t be upsetting anymore. “When President Trump appointed me, I pledged to desensitize Americans to preventable death by making it such a normal, everyday occurrence that people would just shrug it off,” said Kennedy, who added that the current epidemic, which is considered Texas’ largest in 30 years, was the first step to one day fully numbing citizens to the experience of watching each other die painful measles-related deaths.
“DOGE is not about efficiency. It is about erasure. Democracy is being deleted in slow motion, replaced by proprietary technology and AI models. It is a coup, executed not with guns, but with backend migrations and database wipes.”
So I was looking at retro robots and I found a robot that looked…familiar.
The robot pictured is the Mobot Mark II, making it’s debut in 1961. It was created by the Hughes Aircraft Company, a company founded by Howard Hughes. And then it dawned on me…Howard Hughes, the man that Mr. House was based on? Holy shit! No wonder it looked familiar! The arms and claws reminded me of a Securitron!
I’m almost sure that the Fallout design team took at look Hughes’s robots and incorporated some design elements from his past inventions. Some other similarities between the Mobots and Securitrons:
Both moved around on wheels
Both had the label of Mark I and Mark II models/upgrades
Both could be operated remotely (exclusively in the Mobots’ case and with Securitrons being directed by Mr. House)
TV monitors on the Securitrons might be inspired by the TV signals that were used to operate the Mobots remotely, the TV cameras that the Mobot used to “see” or maybe by the TV/computer monitors that were used by remote operators.
And while they were never used as weapons, the Mobots were invented to perform jobs too dangerous for humans (such as handling radioactive material), with the hope that one day, they would be sent into space!
Also apparently their “touch” was quite gentle. So take that as you will Yes Man/Victor fans. :)
I’ll put more pictures of the Mobot under the cut, if you’re curious! (Apparently it was dexterous enough to paint fingernails and brush the model’s hair, so I like to think Securitrons are capable of doing that too):
