John,

The original Question was dealing with the setting in the Tactics of Mistake (ToM) from the Dorsai series by Gordon R. Dickson, which is set in the late 22nd century. Its generic enough to be easily incorporated into the Traveller universe.

Yes, 'wired for' meant just that, to introduce a pre-natal capacity for interfacing with post-3yo capability to learn use of devices that by adulthoot may be combat droids.

With neuro-nano-DNA technologies heading in this direction, perhaps I should not have assumed that memers of TML would be aware of this (though it is canon in CT?), and would not assume 'wired' meant using metal cabling for invitro brain surgery in Humans!

Greg

On 25 June 2015 at 10:18, John Groth <aurictech@cox.net> wrote:
Richard Aiken wrote:
On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 5:28 PM, John Groth <aurictech@cox.net
 <mailto:aurictech@cox.net>> wrote:

    It might have been less ambiguous to write that "at birth, people
    would be wired for drone control," although that word "wired" still
    can be interpreted to imply implants of some sort.  If you don't
    mean "wired" with implants, then you'll need either to explain in
    what sense you mean by "wired," or to use a more precise word in
    place of "wired."

 In the discussion in question, I was claiming that people needed
extensive (e.g. time-consuming and costly) training to use the multiple
perspectives provided by drones effectively in a combat environment.

I didn't address this point, as it wasn't relevant to the point I was making about the ways in which Mr. Chalik's statement was ambiguous.

Of course, I could point out that, just as many Early 21st Century children learn through observation and experimentation to use tablets and/or smartphones well before they reach kindergarten age, a Late 22nd Century setting might easily design a *planned* course of such observation and experimentation.  Such a planned course, implemented even from birth by designing interactive playthings (I can imagine mobiles hanging over cribs that are susceptible to some sort of infant-based manipulation) that reward and reinforce the ability to deal with multiple perspectives, would certainly reduce the training time needed to turn adult soldiers into competent "drone-wranglers" (or, for that matter, competent Battle Dress users).

To use a fairly-recent MilSF example, in John Ringo's "Posleen War" series, playing certain VR computer games serves as credit for Fleet military training, while at least some Junior Militia participation does not.  The former eases the transition from civilian life to serving as an Armored Combat Suit trooper; the latter doesn't.

Having read Mr. Chalik's response to my earlier post in this thread, it appears that he was using the term "wired" in a colloquial sense (perhaps to refer to "laying down neural pathways," in much the same way that having learned a bit of Russian as a young child helped me to learn Russian as a high school student).  Again, ambiguity seems to have played a role in what Strother Martin called "a failure to commun'cate."

As an aside, I've seen Mr. Chalik refer several times to "ToM."  Without knowing anything about what "ToM" means (other than that Mr. Chalik seems to base some of his assumptions on "ToM's" Late 22nd Century setting), it's rather difficult to speak intelligibly about what cultural/setting assumptions Mr. Chalik is using.  It doesn't seem to relate very closely to the 3I baseline assumptions of most TML participants.

As such, from where I sit, it seems incumbent upon Mr. Chalik to provide more detail about the setting and culture in which his Traveller setting is rooted.  Otherwise, those of us who assume that posts to the Traveller Mailing List will more-or-less share the 3I setting and culture (or some subset thereof) will not be able to respond meaningfully to posts that assume a quite different setting and culture.


The Other Greg was disputing this requirement for special training, by
claiming that his troops would have been "wired from birth for drone
control" and that they would have been using the multiple perspectives
thus gained from toddlerhood on.

 In my post, I didn't address the "toddler" aspect, again because I was focusing on how Mr. Chalik's "people would be wired for drone control from birth" phrasing could easily be interpreted in a way contrary to what he might have intended to communicate.

[BTW, wikipedia says "a toddler is a child between the ages of one and
three."]

Taking the context into consideration, I do not think my interpretation
was at all unreasonable.

 Nor did I construe it as such, nor did I intend to portray it as such. Indeed, I even pointed out that your interpretation was one I could easily have reached.
--
Richard Aiken

I've probably irritated both of you.  From where I've been reading, you both seem to have been talking past each other.  If I've at least helped you both to see some ways in which you've been talking past each other, then I consider this message to have been fruitful.  If it gets both of you to drop your differences and gang up on my, I have a thick paratrooper skin.... ;-)

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