New Inventions: first steps towards an early TL11 bioplastic nanomorph?

[Fred Brackin]

My take on the question is first to find an answer to "Why would somebody with several tens of billions of $ want one?".

It isn't to make an assassin who was undetectable. You'd never be able to make anything like this that could fool TS scanners. The cinematic T-1000 never tried to go through 1980s airport security. I think he would have set off the metal detector. :)

He'd probably never fool anything much beyond the unaided human eye. Night vision googles maybe but thermographs probably not. After that comes x-ray machines and terahertz radar.

The flesh-covered T-800 might have been able to fool dogs but TS K-10s would not only bark at the T-1000 they'd say "Machine!" in mostly recognizable English.

It's also probably not to make an unstoppable assassin. Something with IT: Homogenous or even Diffuse (to put these in 4e terms) might still pay little hed to bullets but what about Electrolasers? Maybe partial or even complete collapse into piles of disconnected microbots trying to reboot their systems?

Anyway, first find a purpose and then find a lot of money and the money might be the easier part.

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

After some rather weird incident in the campaign*, described by witnesses as 'very very early attempt at a T-1000', I have to wonder: just how close is the ability to build a TL11 Bioplastic Nanomorph (UT111) in Transhuman Space, and how much of the possibility is likely to be bluff/hype?

Some thoughts I already have:[list][*]Transhuman Space is surely too green to get TL12 living metal.

It's already on its way. Once developed, I doubt it will be easy to bury the technology. http://https://www.newscientist.com/...a-step-closer/

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

....
The flesh-covered T-800 might have been able to fool dogs but TS K-10s would not only bark at the T-1000 they'd say "Machine!" in mostly recognizable English.
...

Been a while since you saw the movies? Dogs could easily detect the Arnie-bots. It was humans that were completely fooled.
Realistically, if living human-type flesh completely covered metal, then they would be impossible to detect via human or dog level senses directly.
In THS though, you have the added issue that lots of real humans wander around acting "inhuman" encasing all sorts of inorganics.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Been a while since you saw the movies? Dogs could easily detect the Arnie-bots. It was humans that were completely fooled.
Realistically, if living human-type flesh completely covered metal, then they would be impossible to detect via human or dog level senses directly.
In THS though, you have the added issue that lots of real humans wander around acting "inhuman" encasing all sorts of inorganics.

Was the one the dogs detected in Reese's flashforward a flesh model or a rubber model?

Though even if they have skin that smells like sweat, they won't have farts or burps, so the dogs might be able to tell from that.

I do wonder how you train dogs to tell terminators from humans without sample terminators to show them.

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Been a while since you saw the movies? Dogs could easily detect the Arnie-bots. It was humans that were completely fooled.
Realistically, if living human-type flesh completely covered metal, then they would be impossible to detect via human or dog level senses directly.

I wouldn't want to bet too much on that. A meat-covered metal framework and system of active electronics and mechanical systems is still likely to smell different than a normal human. It wouldn't smell like a normal machine either, of course, but it would almost certainly smell very strange to a dog.

And dogs have incredibly finely tuned and discriminatory senses of smell (as do some other animals).

It's possible that the meat covering would be enough...but as I said, I wouldn't want to bet on it.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

Was the one the dogs detected in Reese's flashforward a flesh model or a rubber model?

Though even if they have skin that smells like sweat, they won't have farts or burps, so the dogs might be able to tell from that.

I do wonder how you train dogs to tell terminators from humans without sample terminators to show them.

Didn't they touch hello the terminator? I don't see how any rubber would stand up to that level of scrutiny.

Depends on how smart the dog is. My childhood babysitter knew context. My uncle came over a lot invited, let in by my mom. The one time he tried to enter without an invitation, Daisy let him know quite clearly that that was NOT going to happen.
Then we all sorts of dogs that would attack masked intruders with licks and tail waggings.
Smart one could alert to the presence of machines. Lots of false positives, but only the really intelligent ones could infer context.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

I wouldn't want to bet too much on that. A meat-covered metal framework and system of active electronics and mechanical systems is still likely to smell different than a normal human. It wouldn't smell like a normal machine either, of course, but it would almost certainly smell very strange to a dog.

And dogs have incredibly finely tuned and discriminatory senses of smell (as do some other animals).

It's possible that the meat covering would be enough...but as I said, I wouldn't want to bet on it.

It's not only about ability to detect. It's also about being made to take notice AND to care AND to alert their humans in a clear manner.
We can detect all sorts of visual information, but that doesn't mean we can differentiate it all in a coherent manner.
Modern electronics put out a soft irritating high pitched whine. Even at near 42, I can still just detect it looking for the monitor, low quality camera, etc. I don't get exactly what I'm hearing, because my high range hearing isn't anything to write home about anymore.
One interesting way for super smellers to detect terminators would be due to them NOT smelling like what they last ate, not just basic B.O. issues.