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Re: erm... power armour

From: Los <los@c...>
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 21:00:56 -0400
Subject: Re: erm... power armour



tom.anderson@altavista.net wrote:

> only actual line i can remember from the book! anyway, if you can do
that (which you might not be able to), then maybe when you suit up you
switch off your regular muscle memory (some sort of
chemopsychoneurohypnolinguistic programming or summat) and go over to
suit mode. anyway, read the book, it's dead good.
>

I'll look for it. Right now I'm churning through an EXCELLENT newly
published book called  the "The Brandenburgers: Global Missions," by
Franz Kurowski. It's about german special forces in WW2. It's absolutely
amazing some of the stuff they pulled off.

> > But that's
> > pretty advanced chemistry, shutting off all muscle movement while
> > keeping the brain and sensation of balance, feeling, etc. 100%
sharp.
>
> > And while you are at it, you will have to shut down the flow of
> > adrenaline and other chemicals that are sent to the body by the
brain to
> > get those muscles cranking.
>
> this hormone is present in smaller quantities, so it would be easier
to stop. a plastic implant in the jugular vein coated with
enzymes/antibodies to neutralise the hormone might do it. or we could
just switch off the neurosecretory fibres in the pituitary which produce
it.
>

> > The neural net is a great idea for anyone operating a piece of
military
> > equipment
> >  It should strive to reduce our actions in combat back down to
"stick
> > and rudder" or "seat of the pants", which is how humans were
designed to
> > operate.
>
> i cannot disagree more. the human being is an unrivalled thinking
machine, and will be so for a long time (i count aliens as human). i
don't think Jon Postel or Tim Berners-Lee used the seats of their
trousers much in developing the internet and web. i don't think Monty or
Eisenhower, or Beatty or Nimitz, used theirs when they won their
campaigns. the neural net, a simple simalcrum at best but with immense
computing speed behind it, is used to take over some of the low-level,
gut-instinct, trouser-seat stuff.
>

You are using all the wrong examples. Talk to me about Micheal Wittman,
Audie Murphy, Dick Meadows, Nathan Bedford Forrest, Joshua Lawrence
Chamberlain, Jackevencko or John Basilone, not these guys you site that
don't get within 10 or 100 miles of an exploding shell. We are talking
about fighting and dying here, FEAR and Panic competition and hate all
happening at the same time, Information overload, think fast and do
faster. We're talking the guy that's going into to clear a building,
first in the door, not somone who exist in a sterile lab environment
dreaming up theoretical solution to global netwroking problems. The
baser instincts of man. You want to hook the CinC up to some brain
scrambler, fine. He's not required to deal with split second reactions
to immediate threats, He is, for all intents and purposes, playing chess
in an office somewhere. Though even at the level you are talking about
that level of command is more about interpersonal networking and staff
management
then combat leadership.

Just take fear for instance. Management of this emotion is a primary
requirement for success in combat. Lest you say we will isolate that
emotion and remove it, absence of fear is alao a sure sign that you will
be killing yourslef and otehrs as soon as the shit hits the fan. This
one emotion is a double edged sword, vital to the success of one man
fighting another.

Seriously though, you still haven't shown me why this is at all superior
to standard Power Armor. What does short circuiting 90% of teh human
body buy you over a "regular" (We're talking SF here so i use the term
loosely <g>) power armor kit? To me it's anti-intuitive.

> hang on, a gross is a dozen dozens, right? you have 288 small black
arthropods? as it says in the GenLeg BBV rules, "if you have this many
minatures on the table you need to seek professional help."!

I already know that. But yeah, a gross is 144. I'm thinking SST so if
you wnat to do a scenario like that then you need Bugs! Mister Rico!
Millions of them. (well a few gross)

Shit I'd love to speak on this some more but my kinds crying upstairs.
Will have to continue later.

Los

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