Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site ut-ngp.UTEXAS
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!mtuxo!mtunh!mtung!mtunf!ariel!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!hplabs!qantel!dual!lll-crg!mordor!ut-sally!ut-ngp!mercury
From: mercury@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Larry E. Baker)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Berserker and Terminator
Message-ID: <1977@ut-ngp.UTEXAS>
Date: Fri, 12-Jul-85 00:07:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.1977
Posted: Fri Jul 12 00:07:37 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 11-Jul-85 05:49:32 EDT
References: <183@anwar.UUCP> <8200054@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Organization: University of Texas at Austin
Lines: 43

[bugs! UGH.]


>   A race of mechanical killing machines bent on conquering all life. They
> were created long ago as warriors for a now extinct race fighting a long
> forgotten war. They fight all life forms and continually build more and
> more replacements. They have been known to spare the lifes of humans who
> are useful to them.
> 
>   Berserkers or Cylons?
> 
> Perhaps Saberhagen should demand credit (or blame) for Battlestar Ponderosa.

I don't think I agree.  In the Berserker stories, the Berserkers were
*really* massive machines, some as large as a small moon, intent on
literally cleansing the planets of *all* life, down to the microbes.
Consider "A Teardrop Falls."  Indeed, they were machine intelligence,
but of a vastly different sort than the Cylons.

As memory serves, the Cylons (in the movies, not the books) were
*man-shaped* machine intelligences, more robot than intelligence, who
considered themselves more as a race than a collection of hardware.  I
don't recall exactly, but I think that the Cylons were intent mainly
on eliminating Humanity; they weren't interested in *all* life forms.

I find "The Doomsday Machine" (of STAR TREK fame) much more similar to
the Berserker series than the Battlestar Ponderosa fiasco, and I
suspect that the writer who wrote that story got the idea from
Saberhagen, although the idea is sufficently different to preclude any
leagal action.



"He described himself as a typical American, whose limited knowlage of
middle-eastern politics had been vastly changed by spending 13 days
with Moslem Hijackers."

-- 
                                                     Larry Baker 

...  {seismo!ut-sally | decvax!allegra | tektronix!ihnp4}!ut-ngp!mercury.UUCP
...  mercury@ut-ngp.ARPA
...  ut-ngp!mercury@ut-sally.CSNET