Infojunky said:
Lets start there, Stronger, I will concede that point. But Faster? How so? Driving the legs faster means exponential increase of muscular and skeletal failures. Also remember fatalities start to spike after 25 mph (40 kmh). Also with the extra mass reacting around one, the reflexes would slowed by at least the ination phase of the armors exoskeleton but probably also by it's mass.
When you are wearing something that amplifies your STR/DEX/END you, the wearer, don't have to exert yourself anywhere near the level you would trying to attempt to do that without enhancement. So assuming you were an exceptional athlete and you could run a 4min mile... the human body cannot take that level of effort to do two miles. But a machine can.
There's no reason to assume you cannot make a machine's reflexes faster than a human. Humans have physical limitations due to genetics, gender and the underlying architecture of our bodies. We know with the right drugs we can enhance and increase certain areas, but we still have limitations. A machine's limits are the designers imagination, power, and material sciences. It's easy to make materials stronger than human bone and muscle. It's easy to make a machine respond faster than a human body, and we can make machines that can go for days at top speed where a human cannot.
Infojunky said:
Ok, increased availability of sensor data, note; wouldn't that imply the need for the sensors skill rather than Battledress Skill. Also you are implying more machine intelligence than the setting often allows for. But I will give a wider range of electronic options, though are probably all available to other Armor suits as options as well....
If you are video gamer you can see how information overload is possible. Or talk to fighter pilots who have to not only fly, but worry about locking on to enemy aircraft, triggering self-defense, monitoring the status of their aircraft. It's a lot to do for just one person. We already automate some of that today.
The sensor skill is learning how to operate them, not learning how to utilize them. And you wouldn't have the same functionality present. That would require too much attention. You would have voice-commands to tell your expert system what you are looking for. Plus it would be pre-programmed to alert you to specific threats or certain environmental variables, and do it with or without required interaction with you.
Infojunky said:
Not sure of your point here, remember a single man is still that....
-Daniel- had it right in what I was looking to explain. Synthesizing the actions and responsibility of a crew into an AI allows the Battledress armed person to concentrate on the tasks at hand. There would be two difficulties I would see specific to Battledress. The first is learning how to interact with the world in both an enhanced and non-enhanced mode. Using my tank example, you actually DO have to learn how to drive an armored vehicle in combat situations, but also in very normal, very safe situations as well. The same would be true for Battledress. That's going to be a skill just like it is today. The second issue is going to be learning how to do all that while being bombarded with data and having to make very fast decisions based on your sensor data (including your Mk. 1 eyeball). Sensory overload is a very real thing which some people experience today. The Battledress sensors are going to be feeding you a great deal of information. Some of that can be handled by your suit AI, but the person inside still has to make decisions on what to do, how to interpret it, and when to try and get more, or less info for an action.
When you combine all this it shows (or should) that Battledress is so much more than a simple vac suit. You can take bits and pieces out and put them into other arenas (combat armor with 'smart' helmets, vac suits designed for hazardous environments, etc. But taken all together creates something totally different.
And that's why Battledress skill should be separate from vac suit skill.
