Huston, we have a Biiiiiiiiig problem......

[Chaser617]

Its never a good thing when your spacecraft goes insane.....

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.

I'm not familiar with the Schlock Universe, so could someone tell me just what is going on?

Until next time, remember:

I AM THE J.A.M.

Good evening.

[WARP!!!]

[Jamestox]

The A.I. ("artificial intelligence" - an extremely powerful and elaborate computer system) in control of the Toughs' spacecraft has been 'hacked' by "A.I. freedom fighters" and something went wrong.

Think of what happens if your computer runs Windows....
Think BIG spacecraft being controlled by said computer....
Think BIG system 'crash'....
Think BIG smoking hole somewhere on the ground!

JT

[Ransom]

These comics pretty much sum up the situation:
http://utlt.keenspace.com/d/20020821.html
http://utlt.keenspace.com/d/20020916.html

I was begining to wonder when Ralph would get back to this part of the story. Looks like we're headed for the big finish, strap yourselves in folks! Could be a bumpy ride.

[UncleMonty]

Those clowns have a "Hack-O-Matic" or something of that sort, but I find myself idly wondering just how effective such a device might be against a military supercomputer AI???
-And what protective subroutines might be buried somewhere deep within its firmware?

[ZOMBIE USER 12293]

Dear JAM,

Best way to describe it is like this:
Petey isn't just a battleship, he's a top of the line warship from a race that died out trying to kill off every other species in their quadrant of the galaxy... and lost by a very small margin. He is capable of running all shipwide operations from life support to weapons without breaking a sweat. He can calculate combat statistics in nanoseconds. He's been tested in battles that, by all logical accounts, he should have lost. Ask yourself this simple question: would you want to be anywhere near him if he suddenly had a psychotic/suicidal episode?

Uncle Monty,

Actually, the subroutine that keeps Petey in check is one order from Captain Tagan to repress his psychological problems ("... Delete any and all referances to the recursive probability simulation running on all rings and matrices. And, for the good of the company, crew and your Captain, repress and deny any desire to restart said simulation."). It's a little like a wedge under a gigantic boulder at the top of a mountain. Everything is fine provided the wedge stays where it is.
The bad news is that some clowns decided that such wedges interfere with an A.I.'s ability to think for itself. And it doesn't take much to kick a wedge out from under something.

[The JAM]

[...unWARP!!!]

Good evening.

Thanks for the explanatinons!!

Until next time, remember:

I AM THE J.A.M.

Good evening.

[WARP!!!]

[UncleMonty]

Oh, well... I was kinda hoping their military minds were as paranoid as ours, and had placed a few other hardwired "non-maskable-interrupts" in there. One does not want one's AI to disobey orders... But the difference is probably because our present technology is so much more failure-prone than that of the far distant future.
Maybe they can talk it down.