Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT
Just how complex is Bubbles' chassis?
OldGoat:
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 29 May 2018, 23:05 ---You can keep your uniform when you discharge but uniforms can't punch holes in brick walls.
On the other hand Jeph did say once that AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit. That can't always be right. The nuclear sub who's now working at the Idoru store must have been an exception.
--- End quote ---
The gubbermint would have a specific definition of a "body" which wouldn't include aircraft above hobby drone size, tanks, destroyers, expensive stuff that could be re-configured to be human operable. It would specifically describe anthropomorphic chassis and other relatively small units (I'm thinking Jerome). May didn't own her host media/"cell" in robot prison, for example, and E-C Industries owns the spaceship and space station that Spaceship and Station control (although the latter owns enough E-CI shares that he might be able to claim it if they were to liquidate).
Mr_Rose:
I’m still of the opinion that Bubbles either can’t (write-once memory, non-standard interfaces, weird hardware, take your pick) leave her body, or her body can’t be occupied (autonomic kill-software/hardware tailored to her ‘signature’) by any AI but her, for reasons that probably seemed perfectly rational when Operation Robo-Valkyrie was being developed (e.g. that way no-one can KO the body, wipe our girl and insert their own AI infiltrator) but led to her having to be discharged mostly intact when she suddenly stopped being property and became a veteran…
awgiedawgie:
--- Quote from: OldGoat on 30 May 2018, 11:12 ---
--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 29 May 2018, 23:05 ---You can keep your uniform when you discharge but uniforms can't punch holes in brick walls.
On the other hand Jeph did say once that AIs are the legal owners of the bodies they inhabit. That can't always be right. The nuclear sub who's now working at the Idoru store must have been an exception.
--- End quote ---
The gubbermint would have a specific definition of a "body" which wouldn't include aircraft above hobby drone size, tanks, destroyers, expensive stuff that could be re-configured to be human operable. It would specifically describe anthropomorphic chassis and other relatively small units (I'm thinking Jerome). May didn't own her host media/"cell" in robot prison, for example, and E-C Industries owns the spaceship and space station that Spaceship and Station control (although the latter owns enough E-CI shares that he might be able to claim it if they were to liquidate).
--- End quote ---
There’s also the question of whether she was the nuclear sub, or was simply living in it, without a physical body of her own. I don’t remember her exact account of it, and I still don’t have my computer up and running, so I can’t look it up easily.
A small perverse otter:
--- Quote from: Carl-E on 28 May 2018, 18:41 ---
--- Quote from: Cornelius on 16 Apr 2018, 05:32 ---...Both have a military chassis, that was developed, if I remember correctly, at the same time. However, it seems they went with Bubbles' "Valkyrie"-model, as a standard.
--- End quote ---
You want a more humanoid chassis so that an AI can step in and use equipment designed for organic use, whether it's driving a tank, a HUM-V. using a mounted machine gun or ... well, anything, really. Although there might be tight squeezes in some spaces, I'm sure her joint flexibility helps a bit with that.
After all, the military's all about interchangeability on the field.
--- End quote ---
Except that Bubbles' chassis can't be used for many purposes. Any number of military ranks need small soldiers: tankers, in particular, need to be quite short. (An M1-A1 may be big, but the crew compartment is tiny.) In fact, she would be terribly ill-suited to any role in the mobile artillery -- she's Just Too Big. I don't know how much she weighs, but I'm pretty sure that she would materially reduce the complement which could be carried to a deployment point on a helicopter.
From a strategic point of view, Bubbles is actually poorly designed. She'd have been much more useful if she were roughly 5' 5" and about the same girth as an average woman of similar height. And had all the rest of her features, of course.
BenRG:
I'm pretty sure that Bubbles is specifically an infantry unit; I doubt that she'd be be in any other vehicle other than a Hummer or a passenger on a Blackhawk.
I also suspect that her chassis was designed in part for psychological warfare purposes. Since the day of the Judeo-Philistine wars of the 10th Century BC, it has been an accepted tactic that, when confronted by a very, very large combatant, most irregular soldiers (and the contemporary US Army faces mostly irregular/insurgent-level foes) will just run away.
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