- Location
- Canada
Mhm. New subject... Well, I will just point out a key weakness of Power Armour is the same one that jet fighters have.... the squishy person inside. We can make planes way better than what we have... but youd kill the pilot. This places hard limits on the amount of force you can apply or withstand. It doesnt really matter if you can design a aircraft that can pull a 50g turn if doing so would reduce the pilot to a smear in the seat.
With power armour, your boosting strength and speed, but the body inside still has to able to handle those forces. Even putting aside the age-old considerations of 'if it rotates even a inch too far it will snap the pilot's arm/leg/spine/neck like a twig', just because the armour plates can survive a hit from a tank shell, doesnt mean that the human inside can survive that much kinetic force moving through their chest.
Sure there are ways around it, but size is a factor and we are talking about power armour, not a mech.
On the other hand, total cyberware replacement (including the brain) nullifies all these issues. A android body of the same size/tech can accelerate faster, pack in more strength and systems, move in ways that a human cannot (like bending the arms backwards) and as long as the armour can tank a hit and the body was designed with such forces in mind, it will survive just fine.
Just like with purely nanoware augmentation trying to deal with (rather than replace) human frailties limits the maximum potential and ensures a inferior result.
Unlike nanoware augs however, Power armour has the benefit of probably being a good middle step, baseline->power armour->cyberware. Its not permanent since you can take the armour off, greatly enhances human capabilities and is probably more simple technologically. The results are inferior, and it would probably be limited to military/industrial/hazardous/space fields... the idea of civilization that treats power armour like clothing is a novel (and interesting!) one but not something i see as being realistic. Never know though. In any case it would also help to speed up transhuman philosophies due to the widespread use of technology to directly boost human ability, and there would likely be a fair bit of crossover in the tech helping us take the next step to cyberware. (Nanoware has the pitfall of being more technology demanding for inferior results, power armour is at leased less demanding for inferior results)
With power armour, your boosting strength and speed, but the body inside still has to able to handle those forces. Even putting aside the age-old considerations of 'if it rotates even a inch too far it will snap the pilot's arm/leg/spine/neck like a twig', just because the armour plates can survive a hit from a tank shell, doesnt mean that the human inside can survive that much kinetic force moving through their chest.
Sure there are ways around it, but size is a factor and we are talking about power armour, not a mech.
On the other hand, total cyberware replacement (including the brain) nullifies all these issues. A android body of the same size/tech can accelerate faster, pack in more strength and systems, move in ways that a human cannot (like bending the arms backwards) and as long as the armour can tank a hit and the body was designed with such forces in mind, it will survive just fine.
Just like with purely nanoware augmentation trying to deal with (rather than replace) human frailties limits the maximum potential and ensures a inferior result.
Unlike nanoware augs however, Power armour has the benefit of probably being a good middle step, baseline->power armour->cyberware. Its not permanent since you can take the armour off, greatly enhances human capabilities and is probably more simple technologically. The results are inferior, and it would probably be limited to military/industrial/hazardous/space fields... the idea of civilization that treats power armour like clothing is a novel (and interesting!) one but not something i see as being realistic. Never know though. In any case it would also help to speed up transhuman philosophies due to the widespread use of technology to directly boost human ability, and there would likely be a fair bit of crossover in the tech helping us take the next step to cyberware. (Nanoware has the pitfall of being more technology demanding for inferior results, power armour is at leased less demanding for inferior results)
