AI -Smart Ships

[sabredog]

That's why the ad copy says you can have the personality customized to your specifications. The idea was to have the players decide what the personality would be like and then I ran it as a character.

Mainly these are rare IMTU and when they are encountered it is as some noble's yacht, or as a way to augment the sciences section of a deep exploration vessel.

The idea also came up in one really late night session involving a lot of beer and too much anime where a player thought he eventually imagined his character becoming in old age a Cpt Nemo-esque guy flying around in a large exploration cruiser operated by the personality of his much beloved, but now dead wife (she and his daughter had been killed in an incident involving his archnemesis long ago in the campaign and his current ship, a 400 ton privateer is named after her).

But I laughed so hard I nearly choked to death imagining his character all gothed-out and brooding on the bridge in this huge sentient battlecruiser that nagged him about taking out the garbage and picking up his dirty socks.

 

[Drakon]

I've been toying around with the idea of a sentient ship. She would handle a lot of the paperwork, admin and bookeeping, maintenence sheduling, etc. Acting like a software agent or expert systems, and over time, due to its neural net software, (including the ability to rewrite its own programming) it would evolve into a near enough approximation of sentience as to make no difference.

There are certain differences between her psyche and that of humans, mostly due to the fact that she is a ship and people are people. Her experiences would be different than humans, which would generate different responses. We don't have sentient critters running around our innards.

Creativity was stipulated as a proof of sentience, but if you think about it, the central concept behind creativity is simply the ability to ask "what if?" "What if I picked up a cargo of IPods at Heya and sold them at Yorbund?" That would require some model of the external universe, and an ability to choose among alternate potential outcomes. Sometimes it can be as simple of crashing two ideas or concepts together. "What if lizards had wings and spit fire?"

 

[rancke]

I've been toying around with the idea of a sentient ship. She would handle a lot of the paperwork, admin and bookeeping, maintenence sheduling, etc. Acting like a software agent or expert systems, and over time, due to its neural net software, including the ability to rewrite its own programming, it would evolve into a near enough approximation of sentience as to make no difference.

There are certain differences between her psyche and that of humans, mostly due to the fact that she is a ship and people are people. I mean her experiences would be different than humans, which would generate different responses. We don't have sentient critters running around our innards.

"If you don't stop tickling me, I'll make your fresher run backwards the next time you use it!"


Hans

 

[sabredog]

There are certain differences between her psyche and that of humans, mostly due to the fact that she is a ship and people are people. I mean her experiences would be different than humans, which would generate different responses. We don't have sentient critters running around our innards.

You could look at it as a commensel parasitic relationship between the ship and her crew, or rather, she would view it that way. The crew helps keep her running and she takes them places and keeps them safe.

 

[rancke]

I've been toying around with the idea of a sentient ship. She would handle a lot of the paperwork, admin and bookeeping, maintenence sheduling, etc. Acting like a software agent or expert systems, and over time, due to its neural net software, (including the ability to rewrite its own programming) it would evolve into a near enough approximation of sentience as to make no difference.

You'll have to decide on the answers to a number of questions:

* Where does the computer come from?
* Are sentient computers common, rare, or practically unknown?
* How valuable is such a computer?
* Does anyone else know about the computer?

In the OTU, for instance, sentient computers are still only at the prototype stage and any civilians who had one on their ship would have gotten it from an unorthodox source in an unorthodox way.

Maybe the computer was salvaged from a derelict Old Darrian ship and installed in the PCs' ship. Even at TL16, sentient computers wouldn't be standard, merely a very expensive option, so no one would know that it was sentient until it began demontrating non-nonsentient behavior (Like asking "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ).

Suggestion: The ship's computer suffers a fatal breakdown as the ship is landing on Spirelle and winds up (thanks to conssumate piloting) more or less in one piece, but in one of the Droyne enclaves. The Droyne tells the PCs not to worry, they'll repair the ship. "We have an old computer that we salvaged from a wreck some time ago lying around somewhere..."

Just be sure your players won't sell the ship when they discover that the computer is a couple of orders of magnitude more valuable than the rest of the ship...


Hans

 

[Drakon]

You could look at it as a commensel parasitic relationship between the ship and her crew, or rather, she would view it that way. The crew helps keep her running and she takes them places and keeps them safe.

You are right, a symbiotic relationship is exactly what it would be. Most ships don't have arms. Makes it hard to fuel itself, or handle its cargo, or replace its parts.

Hmmmm... would advances in robotics allow such a ship to buy its own crew? Serve as like the queen of a robotic hive mind?

 

[Drakon]

You'll have to decide on the answers to a number of questions:

* Where does the computer come from?
* Are sentient computers common, rare, or practically unknown?
* How valuable is such a computer?
* Does anyone else know about the computer?

IMTU, it would be common, but the question of a ship's "rights" varies from system to system. And how the captain regards the SI differs from ship to ship.

(Like asking "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" ).

Okay, why?

 

[aramis]

You are right, a symbiotic relationship is exactly what it would be. Most ships don't have arms. Makes it hard to fuel itself, or handle its cargo, or replace its parts.

Hmmmm... would advances in robotics allow such a ship to buy its own crew? Serve as like the queen of a robotic hive mind?

Only if it is a legal person; if not, then not legally, tho practically, it's possible a ship might coerce humans to buy bots for it...

 

[DaveChase]

You are right, a symbiotic relationship is exactly what it would be. Most ships don't have arms. Makes it hard to fuel itself, or handle its cargo, or replace its parts.

Hmmmm... would advances in robotics allow such a ship to buy its own crew? Serve as like the queen of a robotic hive mind?

NOooo, not a new version of the old story of TNE Virsus. NOOoo.

Dave Chase

 

[Gadrin]

It *might* ( and I do mean might) be interesting for a GM who had a group of players with a certain mindset to unravel the mystery behind an AI-ship that isn't damaged, insane, murder-ific, (IOW the usual sci-fi stuff ) and have them unravel the fact that their leader IS the ship, and not a sophont.

Imagine first uncovering that information, then having that leak across the sector and finally to Core/Capital and see what transpires.

Maybe as a one-off if you don't mind flying in the face of convention inthe TU.

>

 

[Peter Schutze]

>whether it 'went mad' or logically concluded that it needs to kill you, is irrelevant

Hate to disagree but if there is a logical reason, there is a good chance that whatever triggered the decision can stop applying and thus the need goes away.

If its mad then the question becomes how much effort is it willing to expend ?

>their leader IS the ship, and not a sophont

perhaps the ship runs a cyborg as its physical presence that disguises the source of the deep thinking. The cyborg hires them as the rest of the crew for a small trader type ship

 

[sabredog]

The cyborg could plug directly into the ship computer systems for flight control, and disconnect to walk around elsewhere. The ship might even have a separate intelligence of it's own. A symbiotic thing. Plugged in the player sees with the sensors, speaks with the comm systems, and runs with the drives.

In "Ensign Flandry" by Poul Anderson, the enemy Mersians took a trooper of thier's that had been so badly wounded he was basically just a head, arm, and upper torso. They lied to him and told him the radiation from the blast made it impossible to regenerate so they fitted him out with the gear needed to plug himself into computer, ships, vehicles, etc.. He became a perfect spy.

Such an arrangement with a ship designed for it could be useful as a secret agent type thing. Or an interesting role-playing opportunity for a player who's character wants to do something different.

 

[Patron Zero]

I've toyed a bit with the idea of a smart ship having an 'extension' of it's self aboard in the form of an android or other cybernetic form, the need or justification for such is still being debated.

Examples from popular TV-based SF of Data of ST:TNG or Rommi of Andromeda do illustrate the advantages of a crew member being so 'connected' to their respective ships and such being a useful tool in said application.

I've had a fondness for the Bishop character of the Aliens film franchises, mind he 'operates' independently of a vessel's systems but that could be seen as an advantage. I could see that sort of android-artificial person as an extension of a starships medical-science bay facilities easy enough.

 

[Drakon]

NOooo, not a new version of the old story of TNE Virsus. NOOoo.

Dave Chase

I have to admit that never crossed my mind. I was thinking more whether it would be a viable economic concern.

Reproduction would not be an issue, as that would entail creating completely new self aware entities and utilizing them aboard. The "crew" would essentially be remote controlled by the ship. Bringing new independent entities aboard kind of defeats the purpose of having a hive mind.

Killing or defrauding potential customers, (or friends of potential customers) would be bad for business. Attempting to aborb their ships would also give one a bad reputation, causing folks to take defensive actions which again could be bad for business.

 

[Drakon]

>whether it 'went mad' or logically concluded that it needs to kill you, is irrelevant

Hate to disagree but if there is a logical reason, there is a good chance that whatever triggered the decision can stop applying and thus the need goes away.

If its mad then the question becomes how much effort is it willing to expend ?

Or able to expend. Again it comes down to how much control of the ship does the AI have.

I think I see what you mean in that if its logic you are fighting, you have a potential opportunity to "talk the machine out of it". But does that not also apply if it is "mad" as well? If you can understand the madness, its symtoms and how it is treated, wouldn't that be essentially another form of "talking them out of it?"

Just like in people, the thought processes goes on "inside the box" outside of objective observation. We worry about another person's thought processes only because the actions they generate. The cause is unobservable, but the effect can be devastating, or rewarding, depending on the situation. And really it is the effect that we worry about, because of the objective impact that action can have.

 

[boomslang]

I've toyed a bit with the idea of a smart ship having an 'extension' of it's self aboard in the form of an android or other cybernetic form, the need or justification for such is still being debated.

The original CT rules for robots made it very cost-effective to have a single "master" robot brain tele-operating multiple drone "slaves"... I fiddled with the concept of maintenance 'bots controlled by a central software process running in a virtual robot brain on a ship's mainframe (as seen in tropes ranging from Red Dwarf to Farscape), but this was back in the days before Virus... and Virus left me with a distaste for it all in the end.

MTU still has a higher-than-norm-for-Trav presence of cyborgs, but most of my vehicular robots are little more than modestly-smart autopilots with big, clearly-marked, easy-access manual overrides; much like modern airliners and spacecraft.

 

[Patron Zero]

I've always seen the drones, Huey. Louie and Dewey, as presented in the film, Silent Running as a most reasonable 'compromise' between remote operated machines and autonomous AI-sentient droids such as Star Wars' R2D2 and C3PO.

A trio of such capable tool-bots would greatly extend the ability of a ship's engineer to do simple maintenance and respond to emergency repair situations. Not to overlook the advantage of a 'no-risk' hull inspection conducted by the diminutive little wrench-turners when such would endanger anyone attempting that task in a vac suit.

 

[Ranana_occutt]

Last Page

you can see all the pages a visitor looks at when browsing the visitors and clicking the look for the last page and thats the last page they browsed, is that what you mean?

 

[Blue Ghost]

If you're looking for ideas Anne McCaffrey's Brainship story series might have some ideas for you. Not exactly AI but analogous and touches on your "soul" idea.

Read the first book in the series, and wasn't too impressed. IIRC it was the mind of a deformed woman placed into a ship.

 

[aramis]

Read the first book in the series, and wasn't too impressed. IIRC it was the mind of a deformed woman placed into a ship.

More correctly, the "brains" are children with major deformities that would preclude functioning in society, think thalidomide caused birth defects, who then get put in shells, and get used to using the external bodies supplied to them. The best of the best get installed in the brain-brawn ships.

There are at least 4 books in that line (Ship who sang, Helva, Ship who searched, city who fought and at least one other I don't remember)... and BB ships make occasional appearances in other works of McCaffrey.