Luge wrote:
I was thinking that, but then you get on to questions about how far can this technology go?
If you can make a button that's psi-sensitive, you could make a lot of buttons that are psi-sensitive. Enough buttons hooked up to some hydraulics and circuitry and you could control a gun turret or a tank with just your mind.
There's a lot to be said for having small fighter craft that can be controlled by the pilot's own thoughts, and isn't restricted by muscular reaction time.
L.
Well, seeing as the Loroi haven't won the war yet, we know they "reasonable limits" (whatever they may be) on their tech. I don't really think they'd have a problem building psy sensitive controls small enough to fit in a fighter, but we run into the problem of sensitivity.
Fighters require very precise control. Sure, we can fit psy controls in there, but are they sensitive enough? Also, are the pilots sensitive enough to send precise orders? We know we can, say, rotate a fighter anywhere from 0.001 degrees to 365.00 degrees with analog/digital controls. Can we get this kind of precision from psy controls, or are we limited to say, increments of 5 degrees? If this is a problem, is it technological (we can't build sensitive enough controls) or is it a problem with Loroi telepathy? I believe it to be the former, based on reading
the Insider information on Telepathy, specifically the part about "Translation and Archives"
Also, like the Insider says, the only psy sensitive controls we know about are touch operated. Why is that? Surely, this would remove the speed advantage we'd gain by using psy-only controls. Probably, it would actually add time to command execution (as now, we not only have too touch, but also command the controls.) I suspect this solves an aspect of the sensitivity problem, spill-over. As in "All these controls are very similar, or very close together. By commanding one, I command them all. I specify which control I want by touching it."
On a related note, I wonder how amplifiers work? Like the one on
Fireblade's GRUPS sheet? The Insider says it's mechanical, but that seems to present problems.