After recently watching the “Star Wars” movies (based on a true story), I have a question that I thought I would put to the community concerning supernatural assistance, I suspect many teams are attempting to use The Force during games, and this seems to me to be an unfair advantage, so my first question is: is force applied to objects through midichlorians (“The Force”) considered to be a direct interaction with the object, and if so, is it within the rules to match load and reposition during autonomous using this force. The main problem is that it is almost impossible to measure the physical force being exerted by a force-user, and this could lead to unfair assistance with things like arm raising, and winning pushing battles. This could be moderated by limiting the legality of Force interactions to Jedi (Light side Force users) only, as their sense of justice should prevent any unfair interactions. The only realistic way to identify opposing dark Force users would be from their dark hooded clothing, bad skin, and evil aura. Would this be considered racist against bad skin emos with a naturally broody aura?
Although this is unlikely to be a widespread problem until the Jedi temple starts a team, there could be any number of Sith that have already infiltrated regular teams, and are changing the outcome of the game to suit themselves, you only need to watch Star Wars Episode 5, in which Yoda raises an entire X-Wing Fighter out of a swamp, assuming that the extra friction from the viscosity of the swamp is about 1.5 times an unencumbered lift, and with the stated weight for an X-Wing at 13,600kg (roughly 30,000 pounds) this is the equivalent of 90,000 sacks without the use of a single motor, so another question is: is the force limited in the same way as motors, or similar to pneumatics, where you can use whatever you can afford?
There is also the possibility that members of the audience, or team members not part of the drive team could control the game in this way. This may account for the unpredictability of Vex Net, which has previously been blamed on Wi-Fi interference, perhaps Vex should consider employing strong Jedi as refs for important tournaments to control supernatural influence? If a team does elect to use a Jedi/Sith as a driver, could their inhuman reactions and senses be moderated by making them wear a blindfold during the driver control period? (Although this has proved to be ineffectual in the past.) This could also have a negative effect on the programming skills challenge, because the Jedi in question wouldn’t even need a code in advance, and could just push their robot wherever they wanted, even climbing over the troughs if need be…
What is your opinion on this issue, are you a Force user yourself? Or have you played a game under the influence of one, and how did this affect the game for you? Perhaps Vex is already aware of this issue, as the hovering robots seen in the 2011 Gateway reveal animation bore many similarities to the training droid used by Luke in the 4th and 5th Star Wars movies, and Perhaps this would account for many teams’ impossible claims about the speed and capacity of their lifts, and how 450 driver skills could be achieved.
