The REAL Kakakakaka!!….. Yaaaahhhhh!!!! ….. BOOOOOOM!!!

Here is the real Kakakakaka!!….. Yaaaahhhhh!!!! ….. BOOOOOOM!!! post that I sent to the editor at National Geographic. The stuff that is RED is the stuff he took out.

Pop Omnivore: What is Medabots all about?
Caleb: It’s about a boy named Ikki Tenryo who doesn’t have a robot fighter like all the other kids in school. One day a gang of thugs comes and challenges his friend Erika to a robo-battle, but she doesn’t take the challenge. So Ikki runs to a shop that sells Megabots and buys a very old robot because he couldn’t afford the new kind. Ikki names his robot Metabee—for metal beetle. Metabee is especially strong and powerful because of the special medal that Ikki put into him. (The medal is like the brain and soul of the robot.) In most of Ikki’s adventures, he does not end up in a fist fight, but a robattle where Metabee fights another robot until one of them isn’t functioning anymore. They fight. One robot wins. Next episode, please.

Pop: Do you like the show?
Caleb: It’s okay. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 3 or 4, maximum 5.

Pop: What’s the coolest part of the show?
Caleb: When a metafighter—a person—beats somebody, they get part of their opponent’s robot’s body.

Pop: What’s the lamest part?
Caleb: Probably the bad guys. They steal rare and powerful medals, and they have Medabots that aren’t that good.

Pop: What special powers do Medabots have?
Caleb: Here are some Medabot powers:
- They can shoot bullets out of their arms.
- They can swing chains with balls at the end and wallop their opponent.
- They can shoot gravity beams that can pin you down to the ground.
- They can fight with swords.
- They have cape shields that protect them from bullets.
- They can shock their opponents with electric shock.
- They can talk to people.


Pop: Can real robots do all those things today?
Caleb: I thought you would ask me that, so I emailed questions to a man named Dr. Rodney Brooks. He is a Professor of Robotics at a school called MIT. This is what Dr. Brooks told me: “Some robots can talk to people today, though not as naturally as two people talking together. If they wanted to, they could make robots shoot bullets from their arms and shock people with something like a taser. But some of the other things would require a change in the laws of physics as we know them. Don’t expect gravity beams to be built by a bunch of engineers.”

Pop: What will robots be able to do in 20 years?
Caleb: Dr. Brooks told me that in 20 years or so there will probably be robots that help old people around the house so they can stay in their home longer. I think he means that robots might do the laundry, make dinner, go to the grocery store, walk the dog, feed the dog, make the beds, and stuff like that.

Pop: Would you like your own Medabot?
Caleb: Yes.

Pop: What power would you want your Medabot to have?
Caleb: The power to do my homework. I’d make him invincible. He’d also be able to turn himself into fire and water. And he’ll be able to shoot lighting, make a plant grow, and throw someone with a gravity force field. Also, maybe you could use a Medabot to download all the math facts from zero to ten into your head.

Pop: How much is 8 times 7?
Caleb: 56.

Pop: Would you like to live in a world where people could instantaneously download math facts and other information from the Internet directly into their brains?
Caleb: No.

Pop: Why not?
Caleb: You’d get bored.

Pop: Doesn’t this TV series remind you of a game you used to play?
Caleb: Yes. It reminds me of Pokemon. The characters cry the same, are drawn the same. And the story is the same. They have fights, and go Kakakakaka!!….. Yaaaahhhhh!!!! ….. BOOOOOOM!!!

Pop: Do you think it would be good to have robots fight your battles—and all battles—so people wouldn’t fight any more wars?

Caleb: Medabots don’t hurt humans, so at first you’d think people wouldn’t get hurt and there might be world peace. But think of this example: Japan wants to take over America. They send in a bunch off Medabots, but America doesn’t send out any Medabots to fight. The Medabots from Japan think the American Medabots are hiding, so they start blowing things up. They start a forest fire, lots of forest fires. And the firemen can’t put them all out, so it spreads all over the United States. Then all over North America. And slowly the world turns into the new sun.

So sure, I guess that would be peaceful. It also would be very hot—the world’s biggest bar-b-q!