PaladinX13
Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2002
- Messages
- 747
Given that, I'll bet any computer that we can build anytime soon can be spoofed too.
Well "anytime soon" of course, but that's why you have to pick a scifi timeframe. If we're talking advanced AI (and specialized on top of that), it's not a matter of what can fool a human but AIs tricking AIs. A very rough example is Kasparov being challenged by Deep Blue (Blue Jr., X3D Fritz, etc). Heck he's one of the few who can even approach their level of play, whereas most get owned (and this isn't really intelligent AI per se, more brute force). But we'll be talking about AI decisions being made in literal Bullet Time.
I mean, of course, defense and offense go back and forth (small arms are prevelant which is why you see so much reseach towards "defeating" them... and why I see Genius muntions as the counter... AP is too much effort against such a system versus precision) so that's again why you gotta pick a timeframe.
But even if you go far flung into the future certain things won't regress. It's not like we're clamoring to go back to swords or horseback just because armored and naval warefare have found themselves caught in a loop (the defense/offense one you're talking about)... instead we moved on (mostly to precision- air force, cruise missles, smart bombs, etc).
There will always be small arms, but I'm pretty sure the role of the firearm may be eclipsed by something... maybe a phaser.
They're not talking about liquid metal; they're talking about a super-strong shirt that a bullet can't penetrate. Unless the shirt is going to be as stiff as steel, it's going to move WITH the bullet, in much the same fashion that the Mongols used silk shirts were used to aid in removing arrows. There are no nanomachines involved in the type of carbon tubes they're talking about; it's just a conductive material.
Nanotech is more that just nanomachines (and in fact nanomachines are a small part of the field). Anyways, that's what the third article was about. Liquid metal. Nano "machines" would enable them to shape the metal particles to the optimized armor-type (right now the particles are like soccer balls... a warped donut shape would create something that could both flow and solidify into a strong interlocking stack).
Anyways. Here's just one way (I'm sure an engineer could develop it better) the system would work. A "Smart" CNT would have an external layer that is the "smart" part (the fabric computer chip). Then a layer CNT fabric that is simply non-computerized flexible armor. Finally, a layer of liquid metal. The instant the smart layer is broken, it relays a signal to the liquid metal to stiffen over X-area. The end result is active air bag-like trauma plate underneath a material 17 times stronger than Kevlar.