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This is what I don't understand about sci-fi shows set up in space - why bother with a pilot? Surely one can see the advantage of not having to waste space and

This is what I don't understand about sci-fi shows set up in space - why bother with a pilot? Surely one can see the advantage of not having to waste space and life-support for a squishy meatball. Apparently nobody saw this coming, much like Picard carrying his 5 physical eBooks with him. That or close-up shots of some radiator don't really make for compelling TV.

mLuby 5y ago
Good sci-fi is about humans, bad sci-fi is about technology. You're right though, no fighter pilots in space and no stealth in space are two lessons the entertainment industry has been slow to learn. The Expanse (which is amazing—go watch 3 eps) strikes a good balance: pilots work in tandem with ship software the fly; they're more like navigators with AI helmsman. And it looks like gunners are prioritizing targets for the ship's AI to shoot, not swinging the turrets around by hand like Skywalker & Solo in A New Hope.
- nirav72 5y ago
  This is why I've always loved the Expanse series of books and the TV show. AI is there, but its not up front and central. In fact, its never really even mentioned in any of the books. It's just treated as ambient expert system software in the background. It's just there and not discussed.
oneoff786 5y ago
That was my biggest pet peeve with the mandalorian season 1. Star Wars is fairly clear that droids are at or below human level competence, and tend to behave as generally intelligent entities but maybe with some dorky code of laws they must obey. The mandalorian throws in droids that have machine like precision and just wipe the floor killing dozens of people in a firefight, taking no cover, and missing no shots, 360 no scope dual wielding. It broke a lot of unspoken rules about how the world worked.
- akiselev 5y ago
  > The mandalorian throws in droids that have machine like precision and just wipe the floor killing dozens of people in a firefight, taking no cover, and missing no shots, 360 no scope dual wielding. It broke a lot of unspoken rules about how the world worked. The first IG assassin droid appeared in Empire Strikes Back the movie and was a boss on the train level of the N64 game. In canon, most of the IG series are unique one offs so they're not exactly mass produced droids found all over the galaxy like maintenance drones (with the exception of the IG-86?). They're very high value items that get reprogrammed and passed from organization to organization.

mLuby 5y ago

Good sci-fi is about humans, bad sci-fi is about technology. You're right though, no fighter pilots in space and no stealth in space are two lessons the entertainment industry has been slow to learn. The Expanse (which is amazing—go watch 3 eps) strikes a good balance: pilots work in tandem with ship software the fly; they're more like navigators with AI helmsman. And it looks like gunners are prioritizing targets for the ship's AI to shoot, not swinging the turrets around by hand like Skywalker & Solo in A New Hope.

nirav72 5y ago
This is why I've always loved the Expanse series of books and the TV show. AI is there, but its not up front and central. In fact, its never really even mentioned in any of the books. It's just treated as ambient expert system software in the background. It's just there and not discussed.

oneoff786 5y ago

That was my biggest pet peeve with the mandalorian season 1. Star Wars is fairly clear that droids are at or below human level competence, and tend to behave as generally intelligent entities but maybe with some dorky code of laws they must obey. The mandalorian throws in droids that have machine like precision and just wipe the floor killing dozens of people in a firefight, taking no cover, and missing no shots, 360 no scope dual wielding. It broke a lot of unspoken rules about how the world worked.

akiselev 5y ago
> The mandalorian throws in droids that have machine like precision and just wipe the floor killing dozens of people in a firefight, taking no cover, and missing no shots, 360 no scope dual wielding. It broke a lot of unspoken rules about how the world worked. The first IG assassin droid appeared in Empire Strikes Back the movie and was a boss on the train level of the N64 game. In canon, most of the IG series are unique one offs so they're not exactly mass produced droids found all over the galaxy like maintenance drones (with the exception of the IG-86?). They're very high value items that get reprogrammed and passed from organization to organization.