Forget the grey goo...
Good news, steampunk fans!
The culture and society -- along with its signature technology and infrastructure -- that you've always wanted is about to become a reality.
I just stumbled across a relevant article -- let's read along...
Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies
It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology - and a 20th-century horror movie.
A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find - grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.
Robotic Technology Inc.'s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot - that's right, "EATR" - "can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment...
...
Uh...
What?