Automating a Starship

First off, I believe that there are things that a human can do that robots just
can't do.  I would think that on any ship, minimum I would want a pilot and an
engineer.  What is the pliot going to do when the engineering robot comes up
against something it can't handle in a tight situation? go back and eyeball the
situation?  you may not have the leasure to do that in some situations.

automating a gunner, or navigator would be more possible, but again, I don't
think that any but the most expensive robot could act as anything more then
skill level 1 or 0.  They don't have the same kind of intuition or aquisition
of experience.  I know that there are pubilcations out there which disagree
with me, but that's my stance.

I think of the robots in Silent Running.  They were programmed for particular
basic tasks, but they often came up against things that they couldn't handle,
and had to be programmed or instructed.

You would have more success using robots to suplement existing personel on a
larger ship, having an engineer and 2 robots instead of 2 engineer.  Say you
have a gunner on a ship with multiple turrets mostly run by 'robots'; the
gunner could program new tactics into the robots as he comes up with them from
his experience, like what to do when two targets scissor, etc...

There's now way in hell, I'd want to be on a ship run by a pilot 1 and robots.
at the very least, the pilot *has* to have all the skills needed to run the
ship, like Eng, Nav, even if the ship is automated.  What will you do if the
jump drive won't work, and the robot can't figure it out?  Kick it?  With some
skill, at least you can do *something*!

It might be possible to get along without a Navigator if the pilot has
navigation skill, but it will take him longer to do the work required then it
would for two people, and that might be critical in some situations.

Jim Baranski