I don’t need to tell you things are bad, everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. A dollar buys a nickel’s worth, shop-keepers keep a gun under the counter.
We don’t have heroes and with an obstinant minority of people in the government working hard to obstruct spending on innovation, who knows if we’ll even have a NASA anymore?
Well, there is a new campaign that has applied to Kickstarter and I think it’s a dream worth having.
It’s been proposed that we crowd-fund a project to build a fully operational AT-AT. And why not? All of our best technical innovation has come from thinking of the end-game and not knowing how we were going to get there. A tumblr has been started and this is what it has to say about the whole project:
We were once a country that made things: giantmetal cars, Hoover Dams, non-AutoTuned popular music.
But now we are stuck in an economy in limbo, surrounded by our Internets, our hipsters and our arguing politicians.
Nerds, I have a great idea to make America great again. We can show our brain power, our manufacturing prowess, our organizational skills and our geek-fueled eye for detail.
That idea: an AT-AT for America.
Now I have an idea, but no money and a total lack of mechanical aptitude.
That’s why I am hoping this project spreads like wildfire, inspiring the nerds, makers, geeks, motorheads, sportos, dudes, steampunks, Jedis, halfwits, greasers and geniuses to band together for one goal.
To build a fully fuctional, full-scale model of an AT-AT Imperial Walker from The Empire Strikes Back.*
Impossible? Perhaps. Inspiring? Of course.
The AT-AT would become an instant monument of America’s obsession with popular culture and our ability to be awesome.
Why not prove our might by building an AT-AT? As long as our enemies don’t figure out repulsor technology and tow cables… But seriously, If nothing else, this could become an attraction of incredible proportions, at best we could develop all kinds of new technological breakthroughs and get an amusement park ride out of it. At worst we’ll have a life-size shell of an Imperial Walker.
My suggestion? Build it near Utah’s salt flats. It’ll give you lots of wide open flat space to test out its legs.
But maybe my reasons for that are just selfish.
And I bet this is something that would make the entire R2-D2 Builder’s club membership drool with delight. Let’s make it a reality. I’ll be monitoring the website to see if they make it on to Kickstarter and will let you know when they do.
(Thanks to Kyle Newman for bringing this to my attention)