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Cybernetic enhancement and androids in the Gundam Universe

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orchidal:
In a universe where there is so much technological advancement that interplanetary travel, terraforming/colonization of new worlds, and the ability to create god-sized robotic war machines in man's image and likeness have all been made possible:
why is there hardly any advancement in human cybernetics or artificial intellegence such as androids?






*I should note that I'm not a Gundamaniac -I like my mecha anime more like Dragon's Heaven;
however, I'm aware of most of the series'/ova's plots from reading reviews and such.
I've only seen Endless Waltz and I'm currently watching and enjoying Gundam 0083- it's art style and
color palate is much more appealing and it's characters more mature

Havoc10K:
the answer is simple, in order to prevent "l, Robot" situation.

orchidal:
Ah, that's interesting.
Is the issue ever explicitly talked about or explained in any of the Gundam series?

harlock81:
Gundam wing kinda hit on it a bit with the mobile dolls and then the zero system. Machines controlled by ai have no soul and instinct and are thus inferior to an ace pilot. They may overrun but cant compete in the end. Outside of that i really havent seen it talked about or touched on in the gundam series. But in reality its much easier to create large machines operated by organics than to fuse machines to organic material and interface that way.

kureshii:

--- Quote from: orchidal on January 18, 2010, 06:58:51 AM ---In a universe where there is so much technological advancement that interplanetary travel, terraforming/colonization of new worlds, and the ability to create god-sized robotic war machines in man's image and likeness have all been made possible:
why is there hardly any advancement in human cybernetics or artificial intellegence such as androids?

--- End quote ---
Addressing only the UC (Universal Century) universe side of things (that includes 0083, but not Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz etc; there's 7 Gundam storyverses in all, for the uninformed), this has been touched on quite a bit, though not always in animated form. The RX-78-2 (i.e. Original Gundam) has a "learning computer" that is able to record and analyse enemy combat behaviour and adjust accordingly. It's not a fully automated AI system, but you can see it being put to good use in one of the last few battles in 0079, where Amuro sets it to autopilot mode as a decoy.

The closest instance to cybernetic enhancement is probably the experimental Cyber-Newtypes —a human-engineered version of Newtypes— first seen in Zeta Gundam. (a somewhat controversial topic I won't try to explain in depth here, see the wiki entry for a quick rundown). Combat-wise, apart from heightened instincts and "sixth-sense", the main difference between Newtypes and 'normal' pilots is their ability to use psycommu systems, which are essentially a remote satellite control system completely controlled by the pilot's thought alone.

Cyber-Newtypes were an attempt to recreate these Newtypes under controlled conditions, but IIRC they were eventually deemed too unstable and uncontrollable (like all experimental beings in anime, heh). Instead, a quasi-psycommu system was developed instead; a psycommu system that could be used by normal humans.

The closest instance to artificial intelligence in UC Gundam is most likely in the form of an AI called ALICE, from Gundam Sentinel, which was released only in photonovel form. I haven't read it in detail yet (good translations are hard to find), but the wiki article should cover it in sufficient detail.

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