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

Rob Paul wrote:
> 
> At 06:15 PM 7/13/97 -0400, you wrote:
> >Allan forget your central computer brain running the ship and imagine
> >this:  Throughout the ship are linked robots each capable of
operating
> >independantly.  Much like say, Terminators from the movies,
distributed
> >throughout the ship linked togethor in one large network.  When
linked
> >together they have their combined intelligence and storage to run the
> >ship.  This way one hit doesn't destroy the ships 'brain'.  Also
imagine
> >a turret cut off from the rest of the ship but still able to function
> >because one or more robots is still linked to it.  This goes along
with
> >todays trend of moving from host based systems to a more distributed
> >style of processing.
> >
> >One argument I can see is, well why not just distribute the 'brain'
> >throughout the ship?  Well by having individual robots you have a
ready
> >made boarding, damage control and defense force.  I'm getting chills
> >just imaging those Terminators just standing still with just the
flicker
> >of activity lights to show that anything is going on.  Kinda makes
the
> >Borg collective laughable in comparison.
> >
> 
>	  This discussion has taken in a great many different things,
from simple
> automata up to Culture Minds (which I like, being a Iain Banks fan). 
Even a
>  Culture drone is _way_ above most of the AIs in this thread, and a
Mind is
>  so powerful it stays mostly in hyperspace (so it can operate faster),
leaving
>  only a few thousand tons in normal space.  Using its fields, it is in
a
> real sense
>  present throughout it's ship, which also tends to have a large human
and drone
>  "crew" many or most of which are simply guests and friends.	The Borg
> Collective would be a fairly typical Hegemonising Swarm, the sort of
thing
> the Culture puts a stop to on a regular basis (not necessarily by
violence- not
> enough opportunity for a Mind to show off how clever it is...).
> 
> I can't recommend Banks' work too highly-  "Use of Weapons" is my
favourite.
> 
> cheers
> Rob Paul
> PS:  Culture ships have some of the best names in SF!
> 
> "
> Rob Paul
> Dept. of Zoology
> University of Oxford
> South Parks Road
> Oxford
> (01865) 271124
> 
> rpaul@worf.molbiol.ox.ac.uk
> 
> Once again, villainy is rotting meat before the maggots of justice!
> "

This reminds me of a campign i was running for a while, this vast
intersteller society had fought this really massive war with these
beings called the darklings, they could posess ppl, then infiltrate
society and begin to cause its downfall.  well the ancient society
eventually found a way to detect the possession via telepaths, and set
about to fighting a more conventional war.
after the war, the society set up a truly massive computer AI, to govern
society and prevent another darkling war.  Only the built the computer
to closely mimic real human intellengence to over come some of the side
effects (lack of intuition, learning curve, etc...).  They did so good a
job, that the computer actually developed telepathic abilities and was
eventually invaded by the darklings, which cause the downfall of there
society.  
it was a shame my players never got far enough into the campign to start
learning things about there universe

oh well

chris "daomn am i off topic" pratt
valen10@flash.net