On Thu, Jun 23, 2016 at 04:01:00PM -0700, Jim Vassilakos wrote:
> Tim wrote:
>   "Eliminating this requirement would probably require strong AI,
>   which is a lot more than just automation and opens a whole other
>   can of worms."
>
> Okay, so let's assume that AI is in the cards. Obviously, we're a
> little off-topic except as pertains to very high tech-level
> worlds. Nonetheless, what do you think it would do to their
> societies in terms of class division, freedom of the press, etc?

Development of strong AI is really a "singularity" event: it would
affect the whole of society is so many fundamental ways that it is
pretty much impossible to extrapolate beyond.  That is to say,
regarding questions like "class division" and "freedom of the press",
my non-answer would be that I think it's likely to alter society so
greatly that the bases of the questions no longer exist.

Our distant ancestors may well have wondered what effect deliberately
planting a few bushes might have on the social dynamics in their tribe
in the future, being unable to foresee the massive changes in social
structures that agriculture and the rise of civilization had
throughout the world.  Most would not even have had the conceptual
basis to imagine them.

I think that development of strong AI could easily have a greater,
faster, and more unpredictable effect than agriculture, writing,
money, and industrialization combined.

This is probably a good reason for maintaining the "no strong AI"
aspect of the Traveller setting.  Whatever civilization develops
afterward should probably be more alien to us than Hivers are, and
that makes it very difficult to write about or play in.

Playing in the beginnings of such a revolution, though -- that might
be interesting.

- Tim