Intelligent Starship

[Tom Kalbfus]

Lets say someone was in a low berth and it went horribly wrong, the person could not be revived, but instead his brain pattern is scanned into a computer. Most people don't want to do this, but the person is already dead. He wakes up as a starship's computer, he can see through the ship's sensors, he can also monitor the inside of the starship with various cameras. There is also a hologram projector on the bridge so he can project an image of what way his body looked as he remembered it before going into the low berth. Who would want to play such a character?

 

[rust]

Who would want to play such a character?

Someone who liked "The Ship Who Sang" very much ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_Who_Sang

 

[Sigtrygg]

Anyone who likes THS, Mindjammer, Eclipse Phase... pretty much any transhumanist sci-fi game.

This could even be possible in the cyberpunk version of T2300.

 

[dragoner]

I was going to say the Ship Who Sang as well.

 

[AndrewW]

I was going to say the Ship Who Sang as well.

First thing I thought of. Well, and the other books in that universe.

Note in Twilight Sector (Alternate Traveller universe) from Terra/Sol games you can play an AI. It's also possible to be scanned into a computer.

http://terrasolgames.com/

 

[dragoner]

I was going to say the Ship Who Sang as well.

First thing I thought of. Well, and the other books in that universe.

Note in Twilight Sector (Alternate Traveller universe) from Terra/Sol games you can play an AI. It's also possible to be scanned into a computer.

http://terrasolgames.com/

1248 also has AI in "Cyms"; AI is there in Traveller, just not explored much.

 

[Reynard]

I would not play such a character. Once you land, you have to stay with the ship. How dull! Once off world, you rule as you control every aspect of the ship though your original skills plus whatever Expert software to enhance will determine how well you function as the ship.

Maybe not the ship but its computer and the very special and probably rare engram transferal technology will be high on the Tech Level scale. If it were common I would suspect ships, vehicles and robots would have lots of volunteers to run them. Then again, the Ancients left lots of toys around.

 

[warbringer]

Isn't that what happened in the BBC space comedy "Red Dwarf"?

 

[atpollard]

It would seem that a 200 ton Free Trader is a terrible candidate for using that sort of technology ... except as a first "proof-of-concept" prototype.
So being the 'ship' for a dreadnaught or 100,000 ton super liner "portable city" with thousands of sophonts to interact with might be more interesting.

Personally, I liked "The Ship who Sang" and "The City who Fought", but I would have no desire to play such a character.
I have recently discovered that the ship's engineer is sort of chained to the ship already ... whenever the crew is off somewhere, there is always something that needs doing or fixing.
I have more sympathy for Kaylee Frye (Firefly).

 

[AndrewW]

Personally, I liked "The Ship who Sang" and "The City who Fought", but I would have no desire to play such a character.
I have recently discovered that the ship's engineer is sort of chained to the ship already ... whenever the crew is off somewhere, there is always something that needs doing or fixing.
I have more sympathy for Kaylee Frye (Firefly).

Well, she did get a fancy 'off the rack' dress and go to that fancy shindig.

 

[atpollard]

Well, she did get a fancy 'off the rack' dress and go to that fancy shindig.

Sure, once.
How many times do the Captain and Jayne and Zoe run off somewhere to do something and when the plot requires something from Kaylee, she is easily found ... in the engine room ... fixing something. :wink:

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

A ship's AI can interact with people who are off the ship, the ship has a radio of course, and so long as the radio signal isn't blocked it can do a number of things remotely from the ship. It can project a hologram from a hologram projector, it can send a drone out as its eyes and ears, the drone can even be humanoid in shape, the ship's AI can move its arms and legs, see through its eyes.

 

[dragoner]

I would not play such a character. Once you land, you have to stay with the ship. How dull!

In Banks' Culture series, ships have avatars, such as androids to interact on a humanoid scale.

 

[Reynard]

Doable I guess though it would seem easier to have a higher tech robot PC but I can see someone liking the situation being the ship with drones as extensions. How did you find the tech to transfer your engrams?

The Internet. It was Grandfather's blog.

Oh, sure.

 

[dragoner]

As a GM, I think I am open to either an intelligent ship or an android, within limits and done well by the player. For myself, 99% of the time I like to play normal humans, the other way, seems a bit gimmicky.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Doable I guess though it would seem easier to have a higher tech robot PC but I can see someone liking the situation being the ship with drones as extensions. How did you find the tech to transfer your engrams?

The Internet. It was Grandfather's blog.

Oh, sure.

I would say you find an already dead human and do a "Frankenstein" the Dead human didn't volunteer for this, when they got frozen, they thought they were going to be revived as a human. Lets say this was from the early years of cold sleep cryonics, people with incurable diseases have frozen themselves upon their deaths taking it on faith that they would later be revived and restored to full health, what actually happened is they were stored someplace when they would stay frozen and society eventually forgotten about them, until some Traveller version of "Dr Frankenstein" went looking from brain patterns to encode into an AI, so he took a number of already dead frozen corpses, and basically made a hash of most attempts to scan in brain patterns until he was successful. The last thing the person remembers is being in a hospital and losing consciousness, and then waking up in a virtual room in a perfectly smooth body, he also can see through ship's sensors, translator programs translate the language spoken in the Classic Traveller Era into English that he can understand. He has a virtual room that he lives in, but when he closes his eyes, he can see through the ship's sensors and internal cameras, he can also project his virtual body image onto a hologram and talk to the various crewmembers on the ship. Most people would not volunteer to do this, but the person who wakes up as the ship's AI had no choice, no one asked him, and now he doesn't have a body except for a starship. In his virtual room he can live as normal a life as he like, he can change his body image to whatever he wants, he can alter the furniture in his virtual room, if he likes he can simulate hunger and other bodily functions including breathing virtual air, adjust the temperature, join in on virtual games on the Traveller version of the Internet and meet people who are in body suits or synaptic connectors participating in these games, often not bothering to mention he is just a AI, all 1s and 0s.

 

[locarno24]

I would not play such a character. Once you land, you have to stay with the ship. How dull!

In Banks' Culture series, ships have avatars, such as androids to interact on a humanoid scale.

Much the same in the "Secrets of the Ancients" traveller series - the AI 'Custodian' can easily pack itself into a remote body and go a-wandering with the other player characters...

 

[dragoner]

I would not play such a character. Once you land, you have to stay with the ship. How dull!

In Banks' Culture series, ships have avatars, such as androids to interact on a humanoid scale.

Much the same in the "Secrets of the Ancients" traveller series - the AI 'Custodian' can easily pack itself into a remote body and go a-wandering with the other player characters...

Yes. It is the Vilani influence that prejudice's the Imperium against humanoid robots and cyborgs, or at least for a good reason why they aren't so prevalent in the 3I setting. I have it in MTU, as a forbidden technology of the Rule of Man that the Vilani were defeated by Terran cyborg super soldiers, soldiers who had lost their humanity; and maybe even cloned humanity like Cherryh's Azi. Vilani reaction was to become even more against unnatural, mechanical modifications; but the 3I has fallen imtu.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

So what would my intelligent starship count as?

Lets say the starship was someone's property and it didn't like it, so it decided to make a run for it. One problem the starship has, it doesn't have any money, and without money it can't repair or maintain itself, so it teams up with a rogue that escaped from prison helping him to get away. The rogue in turn gets a starship as a partner, he just has to keep in mind that the starship has to agree with whatever plan he has in mind. The rogue helps by buying parts for the starship and doing the maintenance that the starship's computer can't do for itself.

 

[Reynard]

Might be an idea if the rogue can find a place and the money to have the transponder altered. Adventures could involve avoiding A, B and possibly C ports who might ID the ship's status. They could take high risk - high pay jobs, and small package runs are popular in exchange for the alteration until they pay back the loan. Sort of a Han Solo situation.