AI in FT (was Re: Be gentle...)

At 12:04 PM 7/8/97 -0700, Jeff Shoffner wrote:
>
>Rod, the best thing I've found to handle scatterguns is try to stay out
of 
>the way.  The next best, (and this is inhuman from a real life POV) is
to 
>send fighter squads and small escorts in to force them to use them up.

Not inhumane at all, unless... You're not telling me your fighter squads
and
small escorts are controlled by HUMANS are you? That's what computers
are for!

This brings up an interesting point, and one that will have to be
addressed
if Jon is thinking of sanctioning a line of FT-based stories: what level
of
AI use--if any--exists in the FT universe?

I've noticed a preponderance of SF combat stories that have huge ships
run
by human and alien crews without any kind of explanation for the lack of
AI
usage. This isn't surprising for Heinlein and his contemporaries, who
were
basically writing WWII novels before the era of the PC, but a fair
number of
recent writers have glossed over the use of AI so that their ships can
be
filled with human cannon fodder. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle were
bad
for this in the 70s (and with the sequels to those earlier books) but
more
modern writers have fallen into the same trap. 

I personally belong to the camp that believes a sapient AI is simply a
matter of engineering. Humans have intelligent minds. In the FT
universe,
several alien races are also intelligent. These minds developed
naturally
due to evolution. To my mind building an artificial intelligence is a
mechanical (electro-mechanical or bio-mechanical) problem that has yet
to be
solved. 

There are some modern SF writers that have taken this into
consideration.
Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers are a good example. So are the Minds in
Iain
Banks' Culture books. I don't mind it so much if they have a good REASON
for
not using AIs. In Saberhagen's universe--as an example--I can understand
the
humans not wanting to build AIs since that's what they are fighting. A
certain amount of AI hatred is natural.

Okay, now I KNOW why the SF writers don't like putting AIs in their
combat
stories. Human conflict is interesting; reading a story about AIs
clashing
is not (well, actually it can be, but good stories based on artificially
created characters are few and far between). For story purposes they
want
humans on board that ship.

Once again, what level of AI use is in place in Full Thrust? The FT
universe
is only about 200 years in the future. That's long enough to make a
true,
sapient AI still an unobtained goal. However, there should be no reason
for
manned fighters that far in the future. The next generation of aerial
fighter under design in the US and Europe will probably be unmanned. The
rigors of battle and advances in computer science and aeronautics are
resulting in humans being the weakest point of an aircraft. Certainly
today's aircraft can survive G loads well beyond the limits of their
human
operator. I don't see why fighters need to be controlled by humans ala
_Babylon 5_ in the FT universe, when it's likely we will have automated
fighter aircraft by the first or second decade of the next century. The
same
can be said for the small escort ships in FT.

So, here's my proposal for automated system use in the FT universe. This
is
probably not what Jon had in mind if, indeed, he had considered this at
all.
However, I think it makes a reasonable starting point:

1) All fighters are fully automated craft. They are the direct
descendants
of the automated combat aircraft of the 21st century. This very neatly
explains the incredibly low survival rate of fighters in the FT
universe. :-)

2) Most cruisers and larger ships in the various navies are human manned
but
heavily automated. All sensor sweeps, targeting, and firing are done by
computers set on automatic (similar to--but far more advanced--than the
Phalanx system onboard modern US warships). Most damage control systems
are
automated, but humans are still needed to do maintenance and repairs in
areas not easily accessed by robots. Most outside repairs are done by
robots. 

3) Humans still run the big ships in the fleet. This is because human
scientists have not been successful in developing true sapient AI (sort
of,
see point 6). Humans still direct the ships (with suggestions from
strategy
algorithms) and humans still direct the overall course of the battle.
Human
crews are TINY compared to those in naval ships 2 centuries before. The
average dreadnought has a crew of about 100. (I'm thinking Nostromo,
here.
If it only took a crew of 7 to run a large tug boat AND an oil refinery
the
size of a city, you're not going to need a 2000 person crew for a
carrier.)

4) About half the smaller (escort class) ships in the fleets are human
controlled, with the others running automated like the fighters.
Independant
scouts, destroyers and frigates on convoy protection, sentry duty, and
survey missions are human operated. Escort vessels in fleets are often
NOT
human operated, particularly when going up against the Kra'vak (there
you
go, Jeff, no need to worry about the inhumane treatment of escort crews,
and
this also neatly explains Jon's affinity towards high casualty rates
among
escorts).

5) Sa'vasku not using artificial intelligence should be obvious
(actually,
the artificial intelligence is part of the biological ship). Do Kra'vak
use
AIs? Might explain why their ships are so nasty...

6) Humans actually HAVE developed sapient AIs in secret military labs.
However, they can't get any of them to risk their artificial selves to
fight
a war (I've actually got a story idea for this scenario). Lacking the
human
"frailties" of love, pride, hate, and personal sacrifice, they simply
won't
risk themselves. They KNOW they don't have a soul and that for them
there is
nothing beyond this "life," so they damned well won't risk themselves.
Those
that have been programmed around this problem have become functionally
insane. 

7) While ships can be programmed to fight in space, the overwhelming
number
of variables in ground combat mean that humans must still do the work
dirtside. Computer advances have resulted in single man tanks and
artillery
vehicles. Grunts are still grunts.

So, there's a little treatise on AIs and the FT universe. The idea was
not
to ignore the whole idea of spaient AI development in the universe, but
to
explain why it hasn't happened. As a side effect, it also neatly
explains
some things that happen in a typical FT game. Any comments? 

Allan Goodall:	agoodall@sympatico.ca 
"You'll want to hear about my new obsession.
 I'm riding high upon a deep depression. 
 I'm only happy when it rains."    - Garbage