Re: AIs and such...

At 11:03 AM 7/17/97 +0000, you wrote:

>Any ideas as to how to tie this philosophical argument with the game 
>mileu or the rules?

Funny enough, I was thinking that it was about time to pull the thread
back
to FT. I started the thread as an attempt to justify what we see in FT
based
on an extrapolation of AI technology. To my mind, the idea of small
ships
and fighters having horrifically high casualty rates is no problem: they
are
merely run by computers and just a loss of hardware.

The idea for the thread was to try and come to some group consensus on a
use
of AI in the FT universe. This would give anyone wanting to write
scenarios
or fiction a common ground. I'm not sure that special rules need to be
brought in, except perhaps for disallowing certain classes of ship from
having to make morale checks. 
Actually, if there are drone fighters and drone escort ships, I could
see
drone tanks in DS2 and SG2. That would be kind of cool. I'd imagine it
would
be very low and sleek to present a tiny profile. The main gun would be
mounted on a swivel mount on top with maybe some armour protection.
There
would be no need for a big turret. That would be a cool figure for GZG
to
produce.

So, can there be any kind of consensus on AI in the FT universe? SHOULD
there be any consenus? For that matter, I'd like to know what Jon thinks
of
this AI discussion, and how he sees it in the context of his universe.

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