Jonathan_S wrote:Certainly there are some possibilities there; but RFC has been fairly clear that, like high tech aliens, he doesn't want truly sentient AIs in the Honorverse. (He has other series for that) However even without human brain (or better) level sentient thought there's still plenty of room for further improvements to onboard 'intelligent systems'.cthia wrote:A lot of interesting stuff here.
I've a thought. RFC could take things in a whole nother direction ripe with potential "tum te tums."
What if the MAlign chose to tackle the problem from another angle - well within their capabilities which is also in keeping with who they are. Instead of trying to crack Manticore's miniaturization tech and bridge the gap in capabilities, they could just as easily close the gap or even surpass the capabilities of Apollo by developing the next generation in smart missiles by developing the "truly intelligent" missile.
What if the MAlign, with their superior intellect, develop a completely new paradigm in computer capability which comes from the programming language itself coupled with a twist. What if their tech is based around a completely new and advanced computer system that itself is capable of more advanced thought.
But I'd guess that compute power alone won't be enough to make a revolutionary breakthrough in long range missile fire; not without some kind of networking or flocking behavior to let the missiles coordinate attacks (which the Apollo control missile does in a limited fashion for it's 8 slaved missiles) - but there's a slight risk that once missiles start talking to each other, rather than just their launch ships, that it opens up the possibility of hacking into that ad-hoc network and screwing with the missiles. Plus you don't want their emissions to be easily tracked or it simplifies defense against them.
So I think what you'd want is a highly jamming resistant LPI (low probbility of intercept) network; which could let the missiles do several things to improve their capabilities:
1) The missiles or torps could receive updates directly from recon drones (quite possibly spider powered recon drones, or even manned Ghosts that lack the tactical section and fire control links to directly handle terminal attack guidance of large missile swarms)
2) The missiles can act as sparse arrays to improve their collective view of the targets - useful since the sensors you can fit onto the nose of a missile or torp are necessarily much smaller and less sensative than the giant shipboard sensor arrays. That lets them keep an (ever improving) eye on the target from launch to terminal attack run so guard against (as much as possible) decoy shell games during their long flight.
3) Initial waves could send info back to follow up waves on the ECM they saw, whether or not they sucessfully looked through that ECM, the target's current emissions signature and location, etc. That would give the computers on the follow on waves timely information from which to update their attack plans. The vastly reduced latency should compensate quite a lot for the fact that at any given computer tech level you can afford to put more data storage and processing on a multi-megaton ship than you can on a 10 ton missile.
So a more capable computer, yes, but also fed with more and better information to apply that power to.
Fair enough -- RFC not wanting to take the series there. Regardless of whether the mechanisms and tools to accomplish it are already emplaced.
And, as long as we take care not to confuse the idea of computing power in the normal sense (calculations per second) or clock speed with the power of nondeterministic thinking. As I'm sure you know, the end result is incomparable.
Just the idea of "grown and harvested brains" interfaced into a missile for unprecedented control is mindboggling. Not to mention downright freaky. It turns my stomach that the brilliance of a culture could and would harvest brains that would exist in an enclosure. To live out existence knowing only ...? Then shot downrange to kill and to die. The power of something like that could greatly enhance ECM. That would also mimic the Germans' attempt at a manned submarine missile. If there were a mechanism for them to talk to each other, the "intelligent missiles" could briefly touch bases for a "wolfpack" mentality of missiles. The power of the brain harnessed in parallel?
Sentient Microchip Technology.
Trying to second guess what sub weaponry, ideals and tactics RFC will choose to impart into the Lenny's enticing. Surely he'll employ some form of the wolfpack tactic. I wonder if the Streak boat can be deployed as a communication portal between LDs to facilitate wolfpacking, like the communication loop the German Uboats used to call other subs in the area when a bogey spotted.
Hmm, I wonder what a sentient microchip would look like under an electron microscope?