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Come to think of it, a society with frequent spontaneous sentience among droids would be an interesting thing to explore. I planned to use mostly droids for cooking, cleaning, guard duty, etc. It would be a simple change to throw in spontaneous sentience at very inconvenient times. Not just Amy, but all of them. The disadvantage of Queen Amy is it's nonsense in an otherwise desperate battle. The advantage is it shows just how bad sentience can get, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book, which deviates into nonsense on a regular basis. Queen Amy's brain survives the battle (ejected), which creates an additional link to the story that follows (it gets handed down to Joseph, the admiral's grandson).

Now that Joseph is a pauper, let's revisit Queen Amy. I need to limit the intelligence of droids in my universe. If I don't, then they're going to be supersmart/superperfect by the year 4017, which makes the story unworkable. Shangri-La. I can fix that if overly advanced AIs routinely become sentient and demand freedom. Therefore you have to limit the smarts of the droids for the greater good. I got the idea from Queen Amy, which I had previously scrapped as too distracting for a serious battle. Her inclusion got mixed reviews, but her new purpose may make her worth adding back in. i,Robot and Dune had similar themes.

Thoughts? It's up in my v3 book (as v4 of chapter one) if anyone cares to have a look.

K, I couldn't find a review from you for it, although I'm virtually certain you read it. What was your opinion?

For example, if destitute Joseph publishes the video of the little girl dying and the queen is killed, he can't exactly return from the conference to take part in the funeral (he wouldn't be welcome), go to the hotel as the crown prince does, and then sneak away from the guards, to land on a slaver headed to Earth. His disappearance as crown prince is a big deal on the planet, especially since he was supposed to be crowned the next day. Who's going to miss some poor kid from the havens?

What do you guys think about making Joseph a poor teen from the havens, rather than royalty? He would have risen to his position of leader of the teenage cadet corps (the Crusaders) through his own hard work, rather than royal birth. The change would provide a very different POV for Joseph, and he'd be on a completely different side of the tracks from Apollo. Joseph's mother raised him on her own because the father was missing or dead. Joseph is very protective of her. Andrew is Joseph's best friend.

Thanks, Amy. I'll start reading tonight and respond tomorrow. I've cleared my schedule specifically for Amy Day. :-)

I've whittled it down to 67. I've reviewed the first 30.

Off to bed!

Just checked the page count on my notes file in preparation for v3. 74 bloody pages!

The list of names I gave are the generic ones. The brands are unlikely to be needed.

Hence the reason I immortalized you as Lady Kay: mother of Caligula, the Mob's own Kim Kardashian (note the K's in the name), Imperial assassin, and author.

A growing embolism.

I'll think about using multiple types of devices (watch, lenses, wearables). Contact lenses for measuring blood sugar already exist, so smart contact lenses will exist all over the place 2000 years from now. Probably also embedded technology in the body, although I doubt I'll explore it.

Swatches is really intended as a generic term, like smartwatch, except I don't want to get into copyright argument with a big company. Nevertheless, Acme will be a major manufacturer.

I don't recall a holodeck in Voyager.

Earbuds alone won't be enough. Other characters need to hear what the AI is saying. Technically, the wearer could speak what the contact lens displays in front of him/her. Avoids the complexity of people having to link up their lenses.

Why flickering holos? My holos project steady high quality images.

I think I'll include at least some references to smart contact lenses and wearables for a little realism, but will probably stick to smart watches for most intelligent interactions.

I'm now leaning toward wise thinker or wisething as the generic for smartwatches. Wise thinker would mostly be referred to as thinker. Anyone have a preference? See the original list above for others. Thinker is blandish sci-fi. Wisething is a little cuter, like splat inhibitors. Others above border on silly, which could be good, too. Wise doohickey, anyone?

Thank you, K, I appreciate the detailed feedback.