> >From the base of the above mentioned tower a small flier (bug size or
> slightly larger) emerges. It is data-linked to the tower and thence to
> Johnny. Johnny controls it as would a fighter pilot controls his craft. As
> far as Johnny is concerned his is IN the craft...in some models he may BE the
> craft. It may be equipped with weapons (laser,sonic,maser) or merely have
> fangs, claws or talons (or the mechanical equivalent) depending upon Johnny's
> choice and skill level.
>
> It is in search of insectual blood! (Ichor? )
>
> Johnny ( and billy, and sammy and jimmy and maybe Janie and judy ....in their
> milllions across america..or perhaps the entire world ) engage the killer
> bee...the atrocious aphid...the boll-wevil, the corn-borer,- the
> mosquito...etc...in mortal combat. And pay what the market will bear for the
> thrill of the chase....combat...and the kill.
I like this scenario! It would be fun to try one-to-one combat with
the mosquito (not to mention my arch-enemy the wasp!). But I doubt
there are enough violent youngsters around to kill enough pests for
an average farm - the insects still have a numeric advantage, even
over teenagers. So I would consider this more entertainment than a
practical form of crop protection (too bad).
But one might use this to train the mini-robots; let a few thousand
users go out on pest-killing, and let a neural network learn from
their strategies. In the end we have independent pest-control robots
who have learnt their tricks from the youngsters.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y