[gurps] TL10 hard science space background

[Onno Meyer]

Douglas replied to me:
> > One huge problem with robots in GURPS is just how smart and
> > powerful they become at high TLs. If you want a human-sized
> > machine at TL8 which is not a complete moron, then by TL10
> > a ship-sized machine is pretty smart. That can be a problem
> > for game play, even if it makes a realistic setting. Either
> > the ship is an extremely powerful PC, or it is an extremely
> > powerful NPC, and both will unbalance the party.
> >
> > A possible way around that would be to rule that there are
> > no AIs and that robots are 'inflexible'. They can excel in
> > those tasks which are covered by their programming, but
> > they cannot go beyond it or apply 'common sense'. A robot
> > pilot might have rules like "in case of hydraulic failure,
> > use ...", but unless there are rules for "in case of fire,
> > hydraulic failure and low fuel over water, during a high
> > priority mission, try this first", they cannot cope with
> > multiple emergencies.
> 
> This problem is not limited to GURPS. How about a new way of looking
> at it. What you say is a true problem but lets instead say we have a
> new game. In this game each player plays a dog. The dogs live with
> humans. Could you have a fun dog RPG game this way? OK, now make the
> dogs humans and the humans the computers/robots. This idea just struck
> me so I am not saying it is deep. Feel free to tear into it. It think
> thought that it might prove insightful after some deep thought about
> the implications.

The Culture background by Iain M. Banks goes that way. He
got those incredibly smart, incredibly capable, gengineered 
heroes, but they're just pets or pawns of the ship Minds.