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

At 04:12 PM 7/12/97 -0700, you wrote:
>I think in general though Sci-FI
>writers assume (perhaps correctly) that AI will never achieve the
ability
>to replace man in battle where all is chaos.

I personally think that is a human bias. Studies of combat show that
HUMANS
have major problems fighting in the chaos of combat. The Marshall
studies
after WWII showed that only about 20% of all troops in combat fire their
weapon efficiently. The rest either fire blindly from cover, don't fire
at
all, run away, or are too busy writhing in pain or dying. Human mistakes
and
frailties abound in war. Much of a wargame is dedicated to making your
troops fight less effectively than optimum. Try this as an example: play
a
game of DS2 but let one player ignore the morale rules...

Having said that, I think that I agree with this perspective in the
timeline
cited in Full Thrust.

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