They used to have AI I think Ghost Droids (the forerunners of the wraith guard)
To my knowledge the Ghostwarriors were subjected to what appeas to be an early version of 'soul stone' technology, the 'Soul Grafting'. Here the soul of the eldar was implanted directly into the machine rather than with an intermediary 'soul stone'.
They were ditched by GW because I think GW realised that if you could build war droids then why not have a whole army of them and keep your guardians home painting landscapes?
See the above. Although note that the eldar did at one point use 'artficial constructors' and, indeed, still do utilise robotic technologies.
It may be to do with the fall, that the Eldar don't want thier lives being handed to them by technology, but are to be gained through the Eldar path. So they have a disdain for automation?
Given that automation is used in the construction of eldar technologies (cf. WD127), this might be a bit of a stretch.
Maybe they like war so much that they want to get down and dirty...
This would be entirely appropriate for the Path of the Warrior, but doesn't seem to follow through with the rest of the eldar. Why throw a supposedly 'dying race' into battle all the time?
The Eldar were always quite dark even before the Dark Eldar... they do worship a God of war after all...
And many other gods, if in a somewhat morbid fashion!
They do have a disdain for raising their dead to fight for them so if they could do it any other way I'm fairly sure they would...
This makes little sense given their approach to the
utilisation of the 'dead'.
No i'm saying that because they use something that their culture finds abhorrent that there must be a very good reason why we don't see AI forms on the battlefield (once again in a thinking robot sort of way).
You're right in some way, but it is stretching the 'fluff' quite some considerable way.
I would in fact argue that there should be a race which does use robots as Necrons are, effectively Wraithguard.
And the eldar, above all others, should be one of those races!
But, yes, the Necron technologies share many similarities - if opposing 'technological basis' - for the 'wargear' that you see evidenced, i.e. Wraith-units and the Avatar itself.
If Eldar used AI over Wraithforms pre-fall that would indicate (although not prove) that Eldar AI is in fact superior to the current methods. Which once again makes me wonder why they don't seem to use it.
Purely Thematic Army, I'm guessing. Given the duration of the Fall it begins to begger belief that the eldar went, "Ooops. We left all that knowledge on the homeworld. Bugger."
Namely that Eldar could build their technology 'without hands' as it were.
Indeed, and this can be done both directly by the eldar and, presumably, by the spirits of the Infninity Circuit.
I see Eldar as largely having separated themselves from the physical world and now prefer the warp world.
Well, given their myth states that they were originally separated from the warp...? Hmmn. I see what you're getting at, but the idea that the eldar conjure everything out of thin air has always struck me as a bit munchkin. Ergo I maintain a physical component: eldar bridge the gap between the C'tan/Necrons and the Old Ones.
I just think it is possible that the Eldar post-fall thought that the way their gods did things was the best way, thus tying in with my opinion that there is a reason for the almost complete lack of AI.
It just seems to me to be too nebulous. Too much of a stretch to validate something that seems more obviously keyed to the idea that if you have robots that can fight, you will use robots to fight. Ergo, what is the point of having 'soldiers'. Also, it steps on the toes of the Necron 'Theme'.
Perhaps the Eldar cannot 'soul graft' as going into the warp to retrieve soul stones is quite a task .
Pardon?
I guess i see the Eldar as having chosen a single path of development (namely the use of warp technology) to the almost negligence of all else.
I've seen the argument before, and while there is some justification for it the exact opposite can also be taken.
I just see a lot of the arguments for Eldar having AI as being "well other races have it so the 'smartest' race have it" which falls into exactly the same trap as saying "other races have it so Eldar can't".
Indeed. And the same approach whereby everything has to be different to market little alloy figures?
As stated above if the Eldar don't use it there must be a really good reason to force them into using the dead.
Yet they have no problem using the Ancestors in general for other tasks.
Maybe but i'd argue Wraithforms are more like Necrons than AI, after all, Necrons are souls trapped in metal, just like Wraithguard.
Hmmn, I'm fairly sure that Necrons are
not 'souls trapped in metal'.
Anyway i digress. Unless someone shows me some form of hard evidence that the Eldar use advanced AI (i'll look for that book) i think my opinions and reasons have been stated.
And you are entitled to your opinion. Personally I find sticking to the canon to be inherently restrictive, since we're restricting ourselves to whatever GW happens to want to write about to market their new army. Each to his own!
Or put another way: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."
Advanced Computer Programs (AI) or no, it seems everyone in this thread is forgetting about the greatness of analog systems.
I don't forget anyone is forgetting it, merely concentrating on the issues at hand.
Kage