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Old 10-13-2012, 12:01 PM   #1
vicky_molokh
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Default Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

Greetings, all!

This is a question on the border of the cinematic and the realistic. In a retrotech society (say, retro-TL9), what would be the long-term effects of having moderately cheap Mecha Mooks available. I'm thinking IQ and DX about 8 NAI, and a prohibition against having skills above level 12. Also, I'm assuming that outside of near-sapient mooks, computers are truly retro, in the style of Solar Patrol. (I.e. no super-targeting programs or the like; no miniaturisation of robot brains below the size of a human neural system.)

So . . . how would that plausibly change both warfare and civilian society, assuming that we take the concept for granted?

(This question is heavily influenced by VUASO Machine Lords, but can also be applied to other settings.)

Thanks in advance!
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Old 10-13-2012, 12:08 PM   #2
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Old 10-13-2012, 01:29 PM   #3
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

Well, a lot of this will depend on three issues:

are the robots seen as "moral" to kill?

how well do the robots keep? this includes loss to both wear and tear and to advances in technology. If they keep poorly then war becomes something you have to prepare for and you focus on decapitating your opponent's factories. If they keep well then you will have robot armies stashed all over the place and military power is about the amount of effort you've put into it.

how expensive is it to make a new robot? If they're comparatively cheap swarm tactics become effective. If they're too expensive its not worth it unless you are very rich.
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Old 10-13-2012, 01:35 PM   #4
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

If robots are persons like Bender or Data, then it is evil to kill them without an overwhelming reason, like self-defense ect.

But mecha mooks, would they be persons at all?

Cheap non-humanoid robots would be the most practical Mecha Mooks. Clouds of electic insects or vast hoards of robospiders. Tiny, invisible, and deadly, would be a good strategy.
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Old 10-13-2012, 01:42 PM   #5
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

If you want bad things, if cheap enough they squeeze the low end of the job market. Maybe lots of servants also.
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Old 10-13-2012, 01:49 PM   #6
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Astromancer View Post
If robots are persons like Bender or Data, then it is evil to kill them without an overwhelming reason, like self-defense ect.

But mecha mooks, would they be persons at all?

Cheap non-humanoid robots would be the most practical Mecha Mooks. Clouds of electic insects or vast hoards of robospiders. Tiny, invisible, and deadly, would be a good strategy.
I think we're dealing with semi-persons here: they have intelligence, but its considered inferior to human.

I'm not sure that the tech allows really small robots.

The most effective may not be humanoid though: miniature modern vehicles would be fairly effective.
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Old 10-13-2012, 02:37 PM   #7
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
I think we're dealing with semi-persons here: they have intelligence, but its considered inferior to human.
If they are full/real persons, it might be iffy. But few people see killing war horses or attack dogs as seriously evil, in the context of a battle.

Quote:
I'm not sure that the tech allows really small robots.

The most effective may not be humanoid though: miniature modern vehicles would be fairly effective.
Agreed.
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Old 10-13-2012, 02:52 PM   #8
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

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If they are full/real persons, it might be iffy. But few people see killing war horses or attack dogs as seriously evil, in the context of a battle.
In the context of battle, killing enemy soldiers is not seen as evil. but I agree that there is a difference: slaughtering one is regrettable, while you are expected to offer surrender, terms, ect. to the other.

The question for me is whether its acceptable for two side to say "lets just settle our differences in ritualized robot warfare on the battle planet instead of all this posturing"
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Old 10-13-2012, 02:57 PM   #9
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

I'm assuming that miniaturisation below the size of the human neural system is out of genre. Now, whether robo-vehicles (with Driving-12ish) are useful is an interesting question.
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Old 10-13-2012, 03:02 PM   #10
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Default Re: Effects of Mecha Mooks on warfare and society?

Rednecks would stop car wrecking because there is a better choice.

Security would get cheaper, wars would get more common.

Wages would drop a little bit since everyone who was employed by the military and security agencies will be now competing for something else, this will probably be countered since taxes would be lower because robots don't need wages.

Depending on the cost of the bots most people would have one.

If it was around 10k, someone who can have a new car would probably have one, if it was around 1k most families would have one, if it was around 100 most families would get several.
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