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Aug-31-14, 12:13 PM (EDT)
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"Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models"
 
   LAST EDITED ON Aug-31-14 AT 02:43 PM (EDT)
 
If and when Arpeggio of Blue Steel elements appear in UF, this is most likely not the form they will take, but it's an entertaining thought experiment, or at least my brain seemed to think so this morning: If existing Undocumented Features ships had Mental Models, what would they be like?

A number of ships in the UF universe have controlling (or at least coordinating) machine intelligences, which is a similar sort of thing, but in most cases those AIs aren't literal embodiments of the ships themselves - more like very capable crew members. (Eve, for instance, could almost be thought of as the SDF-17's Mental Model, but has a separate identity. Also, she couldn't actually make another SDF-17 for herself if provided with a giant pool of Grey Goo™, which I gather the Mental Models whose ships have been sunk could do if they had access to sufficient materials.)

For clarity's sake, I shall italicize the names when referring to the ships, and not when referring to the Mental Models, even though they're really the same thing.

- Invincible was a lot of fun. After 30 years in Starfleet, she figured she had pretty much seen it all, and then along came Captain Gryphon and she discovered she hadn't seen anything yet, and his relaxed approach to dealing with ship and crew suited her perfectly - gave her a second wind just when she was starting to wonder whether her career might be winding down. She especially enjoyed Captain-Pummelling Day. Some ships are standoffish with their crews, but Invy was everybody's pal. When she perished near Xawin, never having had a chance to explore the new universe she found herself in, it was a blow from which many aboard never fully recovered.

- The Valiant's Mental Model would be a lot like her captain, but with a greater readiness to employ lethal force. She's a destroyer, after all. That's sort of what they do. So Valiant would be more like a Heidelberg duelist than a Tenjou Academy one: a bit stabby, and apt to get petulant when instructed not to do so. No one can fault her courage, though, and she's not crazy - she only wants to stab people who one has to admit really ought to be stabbed, and she'll go to the wall for her crew. She still reproaches herself bitterly over the ones who were lost during Operation Trident. If she'd only reacted to those incoming torpedoes a little faster...

- The One-Hit Wonder is too small to have one; technically, so is Daggerdisc, but given the general "stuffed with overtechnology" vibe the latter has, she'd probably have one anyway, who would conclude that "Daggerdisc" is a rubbish name for a girl and call herself Dagmar. Quiet, polite, always very well-dressed, Dagmar doesn't really match the unconscious mental image many people have of a Corellian ship, right up until the point where she hauls out an enormous handgun her sleek, well-tailored clothes could not possibly have contained and blows a giant hole in something.

- GENOM Star Destroyers, particularly of the Imperator class, tend to be ice queens like Kongō, though some can develop an oddly (if a bit detachedly) nurturing attitude toward their crews. You're never going to catch one snuggling with her captain (or a dakimakura in his or her image), though. They're very professional and haven't got time for that kind of thing.

Which is not to say that none of them do it.

You're just never going to catch one.

- Salusian spacecraft carriers are neurotic. Because they aren't very heavily armed, they're dependent on their fighter and bomber wings and escort flotillas for their survival in battle, which tends to make them either clingy and needy ("Wait, where are you going? Don't leeeeeave meeeeee") or overcompensatorily standoffish and independent ("I don't need you! I don't need anybody!"). In either case, the other ships in their battle groups find them annoying, but at the same time feel bad for them and want to look after them.

- Colonial Battlestars, on the other hand, are total mother-hen/sheepdog types and constantly exasperate their escorts by trying to escort them. "Get behind me!" is their battle cry. No warship is more likely to bite off more than she can realistically chew in combat than a Battlestar, then chew it anyway and come staggering back in tatters mumbling about how you oughta see the other guy.

- The Narada is crazy, but you would be too if you were a wrecked Romulan space mining vessel that was rebuilt by a team of "experts" from the Ravecube. She's fun crazy, though, if you can tune out her incessant cries of "Party tiiiiiime! Excelleeeeeeeent! (air guitar)" and overlook her slightly terrifying habit of playing with red matter.

- Challenger (Callie for short) has that grim-faced samurai thing going on. "Once again I have torpedoed a worthless object." Underneath that, she's a little bit insecure, because she's well aware that her captain has commanded some truly great ships in his day - and that he still mourns the first one. She's researched Invy pretty obsessively and sometimes tries to be more like her, but doesn't really succeed, because it's not in keeping with her own nature most of the time. She's also a little suspicious of Concordia, suspecting her of plotting to get her old captain back (when the truth is, she finds her current captain's style much more in tune with her own).

- Enterprise is... well, she's a lot like Takao, actually. Badass and uncompromising with most people, and a mumbling, red-faced no-hoper when trying to interface directly with Jim Kirk, to the point where he's given up trying to get any useful information out of her directly and asks through Spock or Scotty instead. She views Admiral Mrs. Kirk (or, as Enterprise doubtless has her filed internally, "that alien hussy") as The Competition and constantly schemes against her, to absolutely no avail, since Kanaia has no interest in or intention of getting between her husband and his ship. She's not even an admiral in the same navy.

(Also, if Enterprise paid attention to anything other than the captain for five seconds, she would realize that Montgomery Scott is the real love of her life. He's had those hands places where Jim Kirk would have no idea where to even start, and it always ends really well. But no. Like so many ships, she only has eyes for the center seat.)

- Lorica has the full Mental Model cosplay thing going on. She considers herself the ship's centurion and dresses accordingly. She has taken Thompson's Law fully to heart ("don't take any guff from these fucking swine") and will not hesitate to atomize any vessel she considers a threat to her charges (cf. the Hieronymus). She's also the Mental Model most likely to burst into a room and demand without preamble, "Who here will face me?!" even if the situation does not call for it. On the other hand, she's a bit of a sybarite and will happily loll around in spacedock being pampered by the technicians for as long as they are prepared to do it, possibly as a reaction to having spent so very long without proper maintenance or refit in the bad old days.

Oh - almost forgot one. Unlike Kirk's Enterprise, Mme. Picard (as she is almost universally known) isn't the jealous type. She's... well, she's French, is what she is, and so it may actually worry her a little that Jean-Luc doesn't seem to have a mistress. It's not entirely healthy. (Besides, she's been known to entertain a thought or two about that handsome lad Riker from time to time. Particularly since she learned that there are two of him! Ooh la la!)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models [View All] Gryphonadmin Aug-31-14 TOP
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Pasha Aug-31-14 1
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Arashi Sep-02-14 22
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Sep-02-14 23
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Arashi Sep-02-14 26
                  RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Pasha Sep-04-14 30
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Proginoskes Aug-31-14 2
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Aug-31-14 3
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Mercutio Aug-31-14 4
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Mercutio Aug-31-14 5
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models StClair Sep-08-14 31
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Aug-31-14 6
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Aug-31-14 10
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models cyberpagan Sep-01-14 14
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Meridias Dec-27-20 45
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Nova Floresca Aug-31-14 7
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Aug-31-14 8
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Nova Floresca Aug-31-14 9
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Aug-31-14 11
                  RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Croaker Nov-25-14 34
                      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Nov-26-14 35
                          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models BobSchroeck Jan-07-21 46
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Proginoskes Sep-01-14 12
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Sep-01-14 13
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Zemyla Dec-26-20 38
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models StClair Dec-27-20 40
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Zemyla Dec-27-20 41
                  RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Dec-27-20 43
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models mdg1 Sep-01-14 15
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Sep-01-14 16
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Sep-02-14 17
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Mercutio Sep-02-14 18
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Nathan Sep-02-14 19
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Sep-02-14 20
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Nathan Sep-02-14 24
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Sep-02-14 25
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Mercutio Sep-02-14 27
                  RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models mdg1 Sep-02-14 28
                      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Mercutio Sep-02-14 29
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Sep-02-14 21
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Nov-23-14 32
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Nov-23-14 33
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Nov-26-14 36
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Nov-26-14 37
                  RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models SneakyPete Dec-27-20 39
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Star Ranger4 Dec-27-20 42
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Meridias Dec-27-20 44
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models StClair Apr-01-21 47
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Apr-01-21 48
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Zemyla Apr-02-21 49
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models McFortner Apr-02-21 50
   RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Jan-08-22 51
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Verbena Jan-08-22 52
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Jan-08-22 53
              RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models NHO Jan-09-22 54
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Jan-09-22 55
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models Gryphonadmin Jan-09-22 56
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models The Traitor Jan-10-22 57
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models CdrMike Jan-10-22 58
      RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models jhosmer1 Jan-10-22 59
          RE: Gedankenexperiment: Mental Models The Traitor Jan-10-22 60


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