[Fwd: [semi OT] P.A. was women wargamers]

Here was my reply
tom.anderson@altavista.net wrote:the trouble we have here is that we all
thing of

> something different when we think of power armour. for
> me, power armour is some sort of structural mesoskeleton
> wrapped around the wearer, then a layer of actuators -
> hydraulic, electromolecular, something space-age and
> with a high produced force per unit mass, then some
> armour. the actuators are controlled by a computer,
> which is in turn controlled by neural jacks. the user's
> muscles don't have to do anything except climb in and
> out of the suit and move his eyeballs.
>

Well how do you "shut off the muscles?" If the guy has to think about
running in a way that he's actually running then how do you circumvent
the actual function while still giving him the fine motor control hat
comes from actually doing , balancing, etc etc? Seems to me that
even in your scenario, If I'm going to wear power armor I still have to
run jump flip someone the bird, etc. The only differnce between your
version and the standard version is that instead of basing the actuators
on a negative feedback net, they are based on a nueral jack
right into the brain or CNS (BTW, this is sort of how Space Marine armor
works, interfacing through their carapace.)

If the guys not doing anything and you are going the "Firefox" route.
Why put him in the suit? Save the dough and make the suit RPV with a
reliable link from pilot to suit. Or make a big suit and stick him
safely in the middle with arms and legs tucked in and safe from harm.
This is has been pointed to be Joe Halderman in Body Armor 2000 (I think
that'sthe title) he gives a few good examples of this. The suit also has
a liquid metal type appendage that can shape iteself in to various
weapons etc.

> if the user want to run in a line at 60 mph for five
> hours, she just thinks 'control-meta-k', and the
> computer runs a macro which does the running. the user
> goes to sleep for the duration. the computer will deal
> with varying terrain (within limits) and wake up the
> user if something untoward happens.
>

So what's the point of a PA suit? Sounds like you have invented a tank
that's RPV'd ala "Firefox". The advantage of a suit is that it's
intuitive to use and wear with accustomization. Now I've got to think of
actual macrocommands commands to get the suit to do stuff instead
of just twitching a finger or moving naturally. If I want to run five
miles I'd rather just run. It's much more natural given the confines of
a suit as opposed to a vehicle.

Now your commnd scheme is actually a good idea to augment the natural
movement abilities of the body. I move along as I normally would but I'm
humming at 60mph. I want to activate ECM deception mode to look like a
deer on the radar or visual (holo) so I think 'control-meta-k'
instead of keying some damn switch with my tounge. Hmm now you've given
me some ideas. Eventually my Rot Hafen story will come to a real land
battle including PA, so now you've got me thinking!

I hope this formatting is coming out OK. I haven't changed anything in
my mail. Are you haveing a problem with et way it is looking.

Los

p.s. enjoyable conversation