An elderly Australian man kills himself through a home-built, armed robot

Suicide Booth The Futurama version of machine-assisted suicide 20th Century Fox

An 81-year-old man constructed a machine that allowed him to remotely fire a .22 semi-automatic pistol, then set it up in his driveway and killed himself. Reportedly, the man's relatives had been encouraging him to move out of his home and into a care facility.

Instead, he did some research on the Internet and built what was only described as a complex machine—the local paper that broke the story is keeping wraps on how it actually worked.

Technovelgy, a site that covers the intersection of science fiction and the real world, used the news to cite a number of interesting fictional takes on the suicide machine subject, notably the animated series' Futurama's comical suicide booth. But this real-world example is far from funny. The body was quickly discovered after construction workers next door heard the shots.

Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!

6 Comments

actually, this is very funny.

"the man's relatives had been encouraging him to move out of his home and into a care facility."

After that he conveniently constructs a suicide bot to kill himself.
Fishy to say the least...

My thoughts exactly... How does an octogenarian build a suicide machine under the noses of their family?

It reminds me of that scene in the original Willy Wonka's when Gene Wilder tries to stop Mike TeeVee:
[unenthusiastically] "Stop. Don't. Come back."

Crazy Stan

from Vancouver, Washington

And why won't the newspaper explain how the machine worked? Do they think that by telling people they will kill themselves. If they wan'ted to kill themselves anyways they will do it using normal means. By telling them how the machine worked it might incline them to build their own but the end result is the same, a dead person. Heck, having them take the time to build the machine will give family members that much more time to get the person help.

wheres a lab rat when you need one

suicide bots today. homicide bots tomorrow. like i been saying all along. i see the basic designs of terminators here. i wonder if he called it the T-1000?
what the @#$%? how did he build this "complex" robot under his family's nose (in the driveway no less) without anyone thinking...hmmm. i wonder what he's doing?
by the way, if the paper printed details of how the robot was built, they could be held liable if someone built one to kill themselves with. at least i'm sure there's a lawyer out there that could make them look liable enough to convince a judge or jury. after all, johnny cochran got o.j. off the hook for double murder.



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


December 2009: Best of What's New

In our December issue, Popular Science names the 100 best innovations of the year: bombproof wallpaper, self-parking cars, the fastest helicopter, and 97 more. Plus inventor profiles and videos.

Check out the best of what's new here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!
tags_sprite.png
POP_embeddedForm_cover_May09.jpg