Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site topaz.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!cbosgd!cbdkc1!desoto!packard!topaz!JAFFE From: JAFFE@RUTGERS.ARPA Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Berserker and Terminator Message-ID: <2570@topaz.ARPA> Date: Mon, 8-Jul-85 16:42:40 EDT Article-I.D.: topaz.2570 Posted: Mon Jul 8 16:42:40 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Jul-85 07:36:45 EDT Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J. Lines: 45 From: mercury@ut-ngp.UTEXAS (Larry E. Baker) [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