Re: starship-design: unmanned missions, AI, etc.

[jon_jay@juno.com (Jonathan J Jay)]

Two problems have arisen to mind from a friend of mine. 
  (1) What, on the same line of system malfunction, would be 
done if the computer or A.I. were to acquire a virus of some kind 
that would eliminate all data that had been processed and, 
likewise, have no way of neutralizing it.
  (2) What if the ship were to come in contact with a species that,
like our own, would capture and run analyses and possibly not
return back to us.

   Along the first of the two, he suggested that written documents
should be printed out every time the computer received new 
information, but that would take up quite an amount of space.
   For the second, it was suggested that defense mechanisms
would be of use. Shields, without no doubt, should be added, but
weapons are another matter. If the encountered species saw
that the ship was bristling with weapons, they would most likely 
attempt to neutralize or destroy it. Either way we would still 
probably never get it back.

Jon

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