Re: Ceasefire and Summary (was FT Background)

At 02:32 2/17/98, Ground Zero Games wrote:
>>>----------
>>>From: Allan Goodall <agoodall@sympatico.ca>
>>>To: FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
>>>Subject: Ceasefire and Summary (was FT Background)
>>>Date: Saturday, February 14, 1998 11:26 PM
>>
>>Speaking of autonomous fighters... anyone read "Ender's Game" by Orson
>>Scott Card?
>>That had a pretty neat twist on the whole fighter philosophy
(instantaneous
>>communication with fighters at the alien home-world sorta thing), I
just
>>don't remember if they were remotely piloted or human piloted. I
believe
>>they were remotely-piloted (that was the point.. having children
control
>>them (better reflexes) all the while thinking they were playing a
game.. ).
>
>
>Haven't read this personally, but it made me think of a tiny throwaway
line
>in one of my all-time favourite SF novels - M.John Harrison's "The
Centauri
>Device".  A very, very "nasty" book in places, with some wonderful
ideas
>and very evocative writing. Look it out if you haven't read it. The
passage
>in question was that the Government "bad guys" used kids of ten or so,
>hyped on combat drugs, to pilot their low-orbit interceptors.

I'm assuming the name Centauri in this case has nothing to do with B5?
Is
such a book available stateside?

There was also a choice bit of satire by Isaac Asimov, called 'The
Feeling
Of Power' I think, in which humans had totally forgotten how to manually
do
even the simplest math, relying totally on computers. As such, all
weapons
of war were unpiloted and totally predictable, leading to a stalemate. A
professor points out that a properly trained man can do calculations in
his
head, and the military promptly straps live suicide pilots onto their
bombs, as humans would be less predictable.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Jim 'Jiji' Foster / jfoster@kansas.net / Jiji @ AnimeMUCK / TIP #28

"That's the way we all begin," said Tom Platt. "The boys they make
believe
all the time till they've cheated 'emselves into bein' men, an' so till
they die--pretendin' and pretendin'."
    Rudyard Kipling, _Captains Courageous_