A Scene From a Classroom

Okay class, please turn to page 1729. Jonathan, if I've told you once, I've told you a hundred times, put away that unapproved book. We use Far-Sight books in this classroom.

Scholars dispute whether Harry Smith had his plan from the start, or whether he was subverted at some point in his career. Yes Molly, the scholars do have various theories and arguments on what point he was subverted at. That's not in today's class. Perhaps you'd like to do something on it for extra credit?

In any case, his technology was an amazing development in the history of the smart-link. A video-scope connected to a computer mounted in the stock. He provided interfaces for all the early models of decks, as well as prototype video feed to an eyepiece for the soldier. The sheer amount of data the gun needed to feed the marksman required a fast connection. These were still manually aimed, but the camera and software were good enough to find the weak-points in the enemy's armour. The increased weight meant that only the weaker rifles could take this upgrade, but they always found an appropriate target.

It was perfectly normal and expected that Smith required the ability to push new firmware to his design. Especially as the software required a database of current armour designs. Full AI had not been developed at this point, and if it had we would *not* have signed over control of our guns to a non-human entity.

He pushed a very useful update that required the gun to have net access when live. The update was so useful that the generals signed off on it barely thinking of the risks. The camera would pick up enough biometrics to almost uniquely identify an individual (or robot) [no Bobby, pre-gentechs]. It would then query the EarthFederation and subcontractors database for the weak points of that individual. If your target had recently been treated for cracked ribs, then it would prefer those ribs as a target. Smith boasted that with enough intelligence behind it, he could make a bb-gun lethal.

The next update is what we will be studying today. The gun uniquely identified the individual and pulled up his social-network profiles. Instead of targeting the weak-points of his armour, it pointed out that your target, your enemy, the object the marksman had been trained to de-humanise, was human. This man had a kid that he's not yet seen. This woman almost got out of the military due to her last injury. That person is under-age and lied to sign up. He's a distant relative. She is the daughter of one of your mother's bridesmaids.

In 95% of cases, this took the soldier to 0 morale. In the remaining 5% of cases the soldier was aiming at a robot, and Smith confessed that he disapproved of machines designed specifically to kill. Or they were aiming at a human and pulled the trigger. In these cases an interesting cocktail of drugs was administered that left them in a permanent coma. Smith argued that they were not dead, so he was not as bad as those pulling the trigger.

So class. Using the numbers and formulas we looked at yesterday, please calculate the economic damage done by Smith. First looking at the change in value of a soldier with full morale and a soldier with zero morale...