rtsi.com/2014.01.www.rtsi.com.tar/www.rtsi.com/OS9/OSK/GWINDOWS/cyberwar.lzh/cyberwar.history

Text File | 1994-12-02 | 4KB | 63 lines

 A brief background of Cybernetic Warfare.

 In 1998 the Phillips Motorola consortium succesfully manufactured a
 massively parallel and hypercubed processor that was capable of a limited
 but inarguable Artificial Intelligence.  Originally dubbed the "Penrose",
 after the 20th century mathemetician who argued that AI was impossible, the
 modern name for this family of processors was an engineering nickname that
 somehow stuck.  The original meaning of the acronym "BHM" is unknown, but
 most historians agree it is a myth that it stands for "Butt Head
 Mathematician".

 Today, when we think of a BHM processor, we think of the semi autonomous
 machines that enhance our human capabilites throughout the solar system:
 from autocabs to medbots to Oort mining factories, human civilization relys
 on these devices.  Over half the lessons on the Univirtual school nets are
 moderated by BHM processors and virtual legislatures rely on them to
 route debate and voting information.  Strange at is may seem to many of us
 in our peaceful worlds, however, the first large scale use of these devices
 was in warfare.

 When the religious conflicts of the late twentieth century progressed from
 terrorism to open warfare, BHM technology was pressed into service as the
 brains for the first truly automonous robotic fighting machines.  Called
 Cyberbetic Battle Robots (or CYBR for short), they were, much like today's
 machines, capable of operating with minimal human guidance.

 The first CYBR was a fast moving GEV armed with only rapid fire 20mm cannon
 and very lightly armored.  Despite this, they wreaked havoc against supply
 convoys and even against better armed and armored vehicles.  They became
 known as "bunnies" because of of the way they would dart toward a target,
 attack it, dash away and then move slowly in a random pattern for a few
 seconds while they sorted out the incoming data.  Their spectacular success
 triggerd an arms race to build more powerful CYBR's.

 Even infantry forces were affected by the CYBR race in the form of powered
 exoskeletons.  Without this assistance, the infantryman would have had
 little chance for survival on a battlefield dominated by mobile intelligent
 armor.  With the exoskeleton combined with human passion and creativity
 infantry was a valuable and often decisive tool of warfare.  We are familiar
 with the decendents of these exoskeletons as the powered armor worn by
 humans working in hostile environments such as found on the surface of Venus
 or the upper atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn.

 By 2015, advances in anti-missile technology had established the armored,
 tracked vehicle as the mainstay of large scale battle [1].  This trend
 culminated in 2022 with the 170 ton monster called the "Reaper".  Only three
 of these machines were ever built and the final defeat of the WestX Alliance
 kept all but one from ever being used.  The one "Reaper" that was thrown
 into battle was defeated at enormous cost by a diverse force of smaller
 CYBR's and human infantry in a desperate battle in the Arizona desert near
 the ruins of Phoenix.

 Linearized from _Artificial Insanity: an Early History of Smart Machines_
 by Charles and Janet Wu
 Prometheous Hyperbooks Luna, 2126

 [1] We must note here the lack of nuclear weapons.  The courage of scores of
 military personnel who, often at the cost of their own lives, disabled or
 destroyed the nuclear warheads under their control deprived the warring
 factions the option of mutual immolation.  Virtually all human habitations
 honor their bravery each year on "Long Watch Day"