HRogge Wrote:I think quite a few AIs will keep an eye on this... creating useful "non-sentient/sapient) expert systems is one thing, giving them learning capabilities might put them right onto the path of a "dumb/retarded full AI"... which will result in all kinds of unpleasant questions.
It's more or less how I assumed adaptable Expert Systems actually worked. How TITANIC mostly worked..... being sort of a chaotic agglomeration and construction of the various open-source expert systems and VI's out there. (And possibly the largest and most powerful one in existance). And more specifically, exactly how the VOOMER core systems at the heart of the Knight Saber hardsuits are supposed to work. Although at the same time, VOOMER core is structurally different with a different origin in a way that'll be partly familiar to anyone who's watched Bubblegum Crisis 2040... and knows how Mackie was created.
I assumed VI's as a whole would be more common, and more generally available from different sources. And be the usual option for those who felt uncomfortable with the 'just wave an AI' approach to system control and monitoring.
There's one other disadvantage to adaptable VI's.... it takes them time to adapt to their new user, and there's a real possibility that a new user can be working at cross purposes with their VI, or spending more time correcting output from the VI than doing what they're supposed to be doing before the system adapts to their specific characteristics. For your average pilot, it can be annoying until they both merge. For a combat pilot, it could potentially be a lethal distraction, and introduce variances in control and behaviour between two spacecraft, ostensibly of the same type. (More than there might normally be)
There's also the potential for an adaptive system to pick up 'bad habits' from its users over time. But any adaptive system is vulnerable. Once you've got the ability to learn and adapt in there, there's no guarantee that it'll learn the 'right' thing to do. There's a joke I had in mind, about an autonomous, VI driven car built by Nekomi Motor Club. When it comes time to demonstrate it publicly, they take it out onto the streets of Kandor city.... only to find that instead of braking for a yellow light, it accelerates. It tailgates. It speeds everywhere. It cuts people off and generally drives a bit like a dick. The punchline being "Mackie's been driving it recently"
In Heavy Gear, 'Gear Trainer' is a specific profession of skilled Gear Pilot's, specifically to prevent new Gears from learning bad habits from their first pilots. While subsequent pilots are still capable of teaching them bad habits, to the point where older Gears can be pretty quirky.
It was also the reason why the individual Knight Sabers were specifically chosen. They had personalities specifically compatible with their hardsuit cores, which meant for less adaptation to the existing Stingray designs which are built around 4 specific people. VOOMER cores just aren't as adaptible.
VI's can also get in the way of a true expert on the topic - who will know where and how the limits can be exceeded, or when the standard 'best practice' will be exactly the wrong thing to do, or have developed their own techniques beyond what the expert system knows. Or for that matter, get in the way of a person's development and prevent them from becoming a true expert on the subject. They learn how to use the expert system and operate with its crutches, rather than actually learn what they are really doing. (It strikes me that this argument has been made before, many times..... whenever anything makes a 'computer' easier to use)
As an aside, someone in universe might also make the argument that an experienced X-Wing pilot might well have more (or more recent) direct combat experience than an A-wing instructor who spends the majority of their time transitioning pilots between types, or teaching newbies how to fly. For a proper, controlled test, the same combat trial would need to be run without the VI aiding the X-wing pilot..... but if you're trying to sell something you don't need a controlled test.
Not criticising or complaining, mind. Not at all.
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--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?