Robotic ships

[sideranautae]

The average person will have the distrust both from history and general human unease with machine mimicking humans..

Yes, looking too closely like humans is universally disliked. Well documented. As far as the rest of it, it wouldn't happen on a large scale. Despite Marc writing it. I'm just pointing out something that wouldn't be as far as human nature goes.

 

[Reynard]

Oh yeah, the Traveller universe is so unrealistic than ours!

Go watch most sci fi featuring robots for the last century and tell me we have a universal love and admiration for 'bots.

 

[sideranautae]

Oh yeah, the Traveller universe is so unrealistic than ours!

Yep. From a sociological viewpoint. VERY much so. From the hereditary, all powerful nobility/monarchy in a POST Divine Right believing civilization and so on. :lol:

 

[DarkDawning]

Perhaps the issue with automatic ships is more of a legal issue

The imperium allows salvage claims, any ship without a legally recognized intelligence to claim ownership, might be able to be boarded and deemed abandoned and derelict .

Thus unless the imperium accepts AI as a legal person able to be the owners representative , boarding and taking the ship would not be piracy but legal salvage of abandoned property.

 

[Tea Rex]

Perhaps the issue with automatic ships is more of a legal issue

The imperium allows salvage claims, any ship without a legally recognized intelligence to claim ownership, might be able to be boarded and deemed abandoned and derelict .

Thus unless the imperium accepts AI as a legal person able to be the owners representative , boarding and taking the ship would not be piracy but legal salvage of abandoned property.

That sounds like a plausible argument. But ship owners operating fully automated vessels would presumably invest in appropriate safety systems that would make "unwanted salvage" more difficult.

On the other hand, it would be much cheaper to hire 1-2 intelligent creatures to plug this legal gap. The people would then only have to be on board and could do anything (or nothing). That might be a nice holiday job for pupils and students.

 

[Tea Rex]

Thank you for resurrecting this thread, Dark Dawning.

I am one of the people mentioned in this thread believing that you needed a sophont aboard a ship to be able to jump. I checked again the resources available to me (Traveller Corebook, Companion, several wikis) but did not find anything why I came to this belief. I know, you can not look into my head, but does anybody know where this idea comes from? Definitely, I did not invent it myself.

 

[Condottiere]

Attempting to send a ship through jumpspace without people on board enormously increases the risk of misjump, for reasons unknown. In addition to the DM-4 for the autoplot, a vessel suffers an additional DM-4 if there are no conscious minds aboard. Lowberth passengers are by definition not conscious and experiments with highly intelligent but non-sentient minds have produced wildly differing results.

Chartered Aliens, Too

 

[paltrysum]

I am one of the people mentioned in this thread believing that you needed a sophont aboard a ship to be able to jump. I checked again the resources available to me (Traveller Corebook, Companion, several wikis) but did not find anything why I came to this belief. I know, you can not look into my head, but does anybody know where this idea comes from? Definitely, I did not invent it myself.

Well, there is one technicality that supports that notion, but it might stem from more of an oversight than an attempted rule. The Virtual Crew software described in High Guard does not cover astrogation, so technically you would have to have a human astrogator aboard.

 

[Geir]

I am one of the people mentioned in this thread believing that you needed a sophont aboard a ship to be able to jump. I checked again the resources available to me (Traveller Corebook, Companion, several wikis) but did not find anything why I came to this belief. I know, you can not look into my head, but does anybody know where this idea comes from? Definitely, I did not invent it myself.

Well, there is one technicality that supports that notion, but it might stem from more of an oversight than an attempted rule. The Virtual Crew software described in High Guard does not cover astrogation, so technically you would have to have a human astrogator aboard.

There is always Expert software and Astrogation can be a skill for that, but as alluded to by Condottiere, there is a reference in Aliens of Charted Space, Volume 2 which details the rather severe DMs from no having a conscious biological or at least no fully sentient mind to both review the jump plan and to sit through the week in jump space. I assume the fully sentient of brains of, for instance, automated Ancients starships have overcome this, but for 'current' Charted Space tech levels, robotic starships have severe reliability issues.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[Tay]

I don't suppose anyone who has 'IISS Ship Files' could post the name of that 3I robot, jump transport?

You might be referring to the Imperial Standard Automated Interdiction Satellite, Type SMU 4C/D

 

[Tea Rex]

Attempting to send a ship through jumpspace without people on board enormously increases the risk of misjump, for reasons unknown. In addition to the DM-4 for the autoplot, a vessel suffers an additional DM-4 if there are no conscious minds aboard. Lowberth passengers are by definition not conscious and experiments with highly intelligent but non-sentient minds have produced wildly differing results.

Chartered Aliens, Too

Thank you for this reference! I don't own this book (not yet) so it can not be the origin of my beliefs, but this proofs that the idea is somewhere out there.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Now there is an insult waiting to be dropped on someone.

"You're so dumb you wouldn't help a robot ship jump safe."

It's also an adventure idea, or a new job classification. Robot controlled ship with a human caretaker to provide the mental architecture to Jump Space to allow Jump Travel.

 

[Geir]

Now there is an insult waiting to be dropped on someone.

"You're so dumb you wouldn't help a robot ship jump safe."

It's also an adventure idea, or a new job classification. Robot controlled ship with a human caretaker to provide the mental architecture to Jump Space to allow Jump Travel.

"Meat Rudder?"

 

[PsiTraveller]

Have the ship called "Brain", and the human meat is the Pinky

 

[DarkDawning]

Have the ship called "Brain", and the human meat is the Pinky

lol One is a genius, The others ..... a human

 

[PsiTraveller]

New Job Title: "Dave"

I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.

A Robot shipping line hires Daves to sit on the ship. Virtual Crew and robots run the liner. Dave sits in his cabin.

 

[Reynard]

For those that haven't noticed. High Guard 2e page 64, Virtual Crew states:

Virtual Crew can replace up to five pilots, gunners or
sensor operators on board a ship, potentially allowing
the ship to act completely autonomously if all crew
can be replaced in this way. Indeed, ships can be
designed without a bridge, relying purely on this
software package in order to function as a drone.

I've built several robo-ships.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The only downside to an automated ship that Jumps is the -8 DM to the Jump roll and the likelihood the ship will be lost. In-system drone ships can work, but evidently Jump space is conscious mind dependent.

 

[Condottiere]

I think at this point we can reterm it The Warp.