The Armory - Guns, Knives, and Axes

[TheReal_ND]

Because AI is evil and meat bags are expendable. You could have some craft piloted by a brain in a jar. This is an acceptable replacement for Abominable Intelligence

[SuburbanFarmer]

There's no point in having a story without the humans. That's all most humans are interested in reading about.

Science fiction is not really about the future, science fiction is about the now, simply set in the future.

So the theme here is actually from the present ; Man-Machine Teaming (MMT)

That’s fine. Just come up with some kind of reason that drones aren’t the main option for combat. Ethics? Technical difficulties? Random McGuffin?

Doesn’t matter what it is, just have a reason that this isn’t Terminator Wars.

Well, it's the same reason they haven't replaced man in the loop now.

It's a Cold War, it could go thermonuclear back on earth, the man in the loop is the chain of command.

People would not accept Skynet. Has to be a man in the loop.

Well then why isn’t space war conducted by non-AI drones like now? Maybe an Avatar thing with remote VR suits?

[TheReal_ND]

The machine spirits are too strong to dominate via VR

[Smitty-48]

People don't trust the A.I. to be in command

The Pentagon doesn't try to run the battle from so far away.

The Operators are legally in command, they're all commissioned officers,

They represent the National Command Authority, in space

[Smitty-48]

That’s fine. Just come up with some kind of reason that drones aren’t the main option for combat. Ethics? Technical difficulties? Random McGuffin?

Doesn’t matter what it is, just have a reason that this isn’t Terminator Wars.

Well, it's the same reason they haven't replaced man in the loop now.

It's a Cold War, it could go thermonuclear back on earth, the man in the loop is the chain of command.

People would not accept Skynet. Has to be a man in the loop.

Well then why isn’t space war conducted by non-AI drones like now? Maybe an Avatar thing with remote VR suits?

The drone A.I. is not advanced, they just carry out simple tasks, they're only as smart as a smart bomb

Remote control is vulnerable to jamming, hacking, spoofing, so for war, you need at least one man in the loop

[Smitty-48]

Because AI is evil and meat bags are expendable.

The spaceships are expensive, the A.I.s to run them are most of the cost

The meat bag is there to watch over the taxpayers investment, and make sure it does what it's supposed to do.

[Smitty-48]

In terms of g, that's not a big issue, they're not moving that fast, you can't move that fast in closed ground

These are the close combat weapons, actual infantry battles are grinding, it's not dogfighting

Its fire and movement by troops, not X-wing fighters.

[brewster]

The spaceships are expensive, the A.I.s to run them are most of the cost

The meat bag is there to watch over the taxpayers investment, and make sure it does what it's supposed to do.

I can't stay out even though I said I would! No, processing power is cheap and efficient compared to human life support systems. As you yourself have said, the major investment in the F35 is developing the software, not the cost of the individual hardware system to run it. Nothing is more expensive than life support, not to mention pesky humans limit your manuevering Gs and add an order of magnitude of useless mass to slow you down with their meatbags and life support. The combatant that goes unmanned will rule the space battlefield.

[Smitty-48]

See, rings of Saturn provide cover, you can move around in the rings and be unseen

You can move around in the rings without being shot down

So eventually Astronauts an Cosmonauts starting going in there to control those approaches by stealth.

Then they started fighting.

Then they started bringing exoskeletons to carry more ammo

Then an exoskeleton arms race ensued, and the Main Battle Droid™ was the result.

[brewster]

In terms of g, that's not a big issue, they're not moving that fast, you can't move that fast in closed ground

These are the close combat weapons, actual infantry battles are grinding, it's not dogfighting

Its fire and movement by troops, not X-wing fighters.

You sound like a cavalry general in 1913 explaining why his horse soldiers will still rule the battlefield despite machine guns and aircraft.