Transhuman Space in Infinite Worlds

[Terwin]

If you stipulate that an AI cannot be paused/transferred without causing some sort of a personality re-set, then you could stipulate that any digital transfer also causes such a re-set.

You may want some sort of analog or non-deterministic 'personality chip' for 'true AI' to provide a hard-science reason for this.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I'm a little confused here, anyway. If an SDV is transported to Steel, then where are they going to be sending their infomorphs to exactly? I'd think transmitting an infomorph to a zonemimd would be a really bad idea, essentially giving them an editable POW.

In Reign of Steel, there's a chance that a free human colony exists in a hidden base on the moon, and a small Mars colony had been built and manned, at the time of the machine takeover.

It appears the OP wants the marooned THS folks to have the option to seek allies from one or both of those colonies, but wants them to have to work for it by running a gauntlet of RoS space-capable hunter-killers.

If AIs can beam reliably across the Solar System and arrive intact, using encryption schemes the Zoneminds cannot even begin to break, then contact with the allies becomes rather trivial.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

If AIs can beam reliably across the Solar System and arrive intact, using encryption schemes the Zoneminds cannot even begin to break, then contact with the allies becomes rather trivial.

Getting your SDV from the belt to Tranquility intact and without giving away your allies secret base to the zoneminds isn't trivial though. The biosapient crew members aren't going to be able to transmit themselves to safety and the vessel itself is a considerable asset that you don't want to lose. It's also impossible to hide.

[vierasmarius]

One way to prevent immediate contact with potential allies elsewhere in the solar system is to have the SDV arrive with some damage. Perhaps the World-Jump was harsher on sensitive exposed systems (such as antennas) than on the rest of the ship. In fact, I think a variety of system failures would make their arrival much more dramatic and tense.

Another possibility is that there's no compatible receiver for the SDV's transmissions. It would be a not insignificant engineering task to cobble together a working transmitter (especially if you're dealing with ship damage at the same time). There may not even be a computer at the destination powerful enough to run an infomorph, meaning the best you'd be able to do is send a message. The lightspeed lag could make two-way communication cumbersome.

Neither of these options require altering the mechanics of THS AIs.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

If AIs can beam reliably across the Solar System and arrive intact, using encryption schemes the Zoneminds cannot even begin to break, then contact with the allies becomes rather trivial.

Contact with potential allies is going to have to begin with a much lower level than an AI.exe. If I were a human in the ROS setting I would be far, far beyond reluctant to deal with an alien AI.

No guarantee that TS and ROS even use the same computer languages much less operating systems. Any software based AIs are not particularly likely to find any compatible hardware/software environments they can beam to.