Re: Nanotechnology

Chen-Song Qin writes:

@:) Hmm... If ships are completely run by AI's, then they have a
@:) pretty nasty weakness.  (like the episode in Dr. Who with the
@:) Daleks and the other robotic race in a war that's grid-locked
@:) because of the AI commanders.)

  Dr. Who is a fine television programme but if you base your
understanding of science (computer or otherwise) on it you will be in
for a rude awakening when you enter the real world (like say your
typical fifth grade science class).  Perhaps a more instructive
example would be the recent series of chess matches between Kasparov
and Deep Blue, in which Kasparov managed to defeat, rather soundly, a
chess computer that, for a few games at least, appeared to be his
equal.	He did this by exploiting some apparent weaknesses of the AI
which a human would probably not exhibit.  Still, the very fact that
Deep Blue beat Kasparov in several games indicates that it's a pretty
damned good chess player.  By whenever it is that Traveller happens, I
think we can be as sure as we can be of anything that AI will have
completely transcended anything we can even imagine.  As will the rest
of science, probably.

-joachim