RE: [FT]SML question

On Mon, 18 June 2001, "David Rodemaker" wrote:

> <Devil's Advocate hat on>
> 
> Why? (Though I tend to agree with you)

Simple physics. A machine can handle gees far in excess of that handled
by a human. Without a human, and its life support and extraction
machinery, the machine becomes much lighter (thus faster and more
efficient).

It's at this point I hear two comments: 1) humans are "unpredictable";
2) gravitational compensators will make g-forces inconsequential.

In answer to 1: humans aren't THAT undpredictable. In fact, a lot of
fields (marketing, social science, polling -- *ahem* --) are based on
that fact. Even if they were unpredictable, you still have the fact that
the machine can physically react faster, with less worry about g-forces,
than the human. Oh, and humans also tend to make mistakes, sometimes
grievous ones.

In answer to 2: an anti-gravity/anti-inertia device, assuming that they
are feasible, will still need to use some form of energy. Unless the
device also manages to break the law of conservation of energy, they
will probably have to expend energy in proportion to the gravity or
inertia they are compensating against. By this argument, it would take
less energy to make 25 gees feel like 20 gees than make 25 gees feel
like 2 gees. In other words, being able to handle a greater gee load
will still give the machine the edge, even if it's just in energy
expenditure.

This all assumes that a computer program can be designed to fight as
effectively as a human. We'll know if aircraft can be designed that way
within the next 10 to 30 years. This isn't even talking true artificial
intelligence.

Proponents of hard AI assume that the human brain is a biological
machine, and that duplicating its abilities is simply a matter of
(admittedly vastly complex) engineering. It would surprise me if
something approaching human intelligence wasn't around in 200 years,
particularly if we've already -- by then -- conquered gravity and the
light barrier.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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