Do Federation ships have anything similar to wifi?

[Farscape One]

The E-E has one in Nemesis as well. In any event, at least after the events of "Heart of Glory" one would think that a 'lesson learned' would be that more security measures are needed with regard to the warp core.

...yeah, yeah, it's a TV show, and the E-D has multiple security failures throughout the series, and if their security was all it should have been then several of those episodes wouldn't have even been possible to begin with...

I was only thinking of the tv shows because budgets were a bit more restrained than a movie, but yes, NEMESIS had one around the warp core, too.


I was thinking of instances where the computer on the Enterprise-D was taken over/hijacked, and while rare, it did occur.

"Home Soil" - 'microbrain' took over part of the computer system while it was in the lab.

"Evolution" - the nanites, after Dr. Stubbs killed a bunch of them, purposefully made the air toxic on the bridge.

 

[evilchumlee]

"Home Soil" - 'microbrain' took over part of the computer system while it was in the lab.

"Evolution" - the nanites, after Dr. Stubbs killed a bunch of them, purposefully made the air toxic on the bridge.

Let's forget "Emergence", when it evolved into a sentient being...

"Masks" when it got largely overwritten by an alien program.

 

[Farscape One]

Let's forget "Emergence", when it evolved into a sentient being...

"Masks" when it got largely overwritten by an alien program.

I had only planned on posting a couple examples of the ship's computer being taken over by an outside lifeform, but yes, the Enterprise was taken over in the instances that you stated. (Though one could make the argument that the nanites in "Evolution" were an internal lifeform that evolved, but they definitely didn't start out as sentient, so I think of them as an outside lifeform.)

However, in "Emergence" and "Masks", neither situation was an outside lifeform taking over the computers. The former was the Enterprise itself taking over, and the latter was simply another program, like the Iconian program in "Contagion".

 

[Citiprime]

I think only the Defiant was ever seen to be able to have a force field around its warp core. Maybe putting up a force field around the core was only possible on the Defiant. That might have something to do with the fact the top and bottom of the core was seen pretty much only in the one engine room, while on the Enterprise-D and Voyager, it spanned at least a couple decks.

This came up in another thread, but I know Matt Jefferies original intention with the design of the Enterprise and the layout of the stardrive was that the reason for the engineering section and extending the nacelles out on pylons was that the warp drive was dangerous. That the warp core and the effect of warping space needed some distance from the main habitable areas in the saucer section to be safe.

I always took ships like the Defiant Class and the Steamrunner Class, where the nacelles are tucked right next to the main hull, as showing that 24th century Starfleet has better tech to deal with those dangers, and it opened up starship design to where they don't have to worry about extending the nacelles out. Maybe the force fields and differences in hull materials made it where there was greater protection from radiation, heat, and whatever else a warp core/drive would spit out.

Although, some of the designs from Discovery don't fit with this notion, since there are compacted designs in that era too.

 

[DonIago]

^I don't think that really holds up though, as we only see the forcefields erected during alert conditions.

 

[aquova]

Out of universe, it's always amused me how the timesharing computer paradigm of the 1960s was reflected in the Star Trek episodes of the day. That's how computers worked, you had a big (physically and digitally) computer which everyone just accessed. Even by TNG this was outdated, as personal computing had already taken off, yet the idea of a ship central computer remained, as it was how they did it in TOS.

 

[David cgc]

Out of universe, it's always amused me how the timesharing computer paradigm of the 1960s was reflected in the Star Trek episodes of the day. That's how computers worked, you had a big (physically and digitally) computer which everyone just accessed. Even by TNG this was outdated, as personal computing had already taken off, yet the idea of a ship central computer remained, as it was how they did it in TOS.

Of course, now we've come full-circle with "the cloud," which is essentially a big distributed mainframe that all the personal computers act as "terminals" for.

 

[Takeru]

Out of universe, it's always amused me how the timesharing computer paradigm of the 1960s was reflected in the Star Trek episodes of the day. That's how computers worked, you had a big (physically and digitally) computer which everyone just accessed. Even by TNG this was outdated, as personal computing had already taken off, yet the idea of a ship central computer remained, as it was how they did it in TOS.

That's not outdated, that's how it works today. I work at a hospital, all our computers are connected to the servers in the IT department, they are for all intents and purposes just access points to a central computer, I can access my personal (virtual) harddrive from every work station because the data is not stored locally on the one I use the most often.
A ship like the Enterprise would definitely be run by a central computer, some people might have personal computers on which they play games or compose music or whatever but work would always be done through the main computer.

 

[fireproof78]

Out of universe, it's always amused me how the timesharing computer paradigm of the 1960s was reflected in the Star Trek episodes of the day. That's how computers worked, you had a big (physically and digitally) computer which everyone just accessed. Even by TNG this was outdated, as personal computing had already taken off, yet the idea of a ship central computer remained, as it was how they did it in TOS.

Isn't that how a server works, especially inside a location?

 

[aquova]

Isn't that how a server works, especially inside a location?

Somewhat, but the old timeshare terminals were literally not able to do anything without connecting to the central mainframe. Our personal computers contain all the processing power they need to work independently, we just connect to servers to access additional information. The padds and monitors in TNG seem like the former, they're glorified displays only, with no ability to run any software on their own. I don't I can ever recall them using a computer that isn't a direct extension of the main computer (maybe the tricorders).

Ironically, some people are going back to the old way, where your personal machine only connects to some cloud server somewhere and nothing happens locally. Maybe Star Trek was further ahead than I thought...

 

[evilchumlee]

Personal computers in Trek are like netbooks. They just... stream from the computer core.

 

[DonIago]

I'm sure PADDs are much higher-powered versions of contemporary tablets, able to do plenty of things offline while also capable of interfacing with other computers to access files and tasks (such as theoretically flying the ship) remotely.

As for ship's monitors...why would they need independent processing?

 

[Citiprime]

I always thought the networking and functionality of The Doctor's program and how it interacts with Voyager has some weird choices to it.

The functionality of The Doctor's program is based on the medical databases loaded into it. And there are multiple episodes where they've altered his program based on either uploading or deleting information from it. Also, there's some sort of linkage between Voyager's main computer and the Holodeck system where presumably The Doctor's program is based, but he doesn't seem to be networked into the Sickbay systems themselves.

What never made sense to me is why The Doctor operates the consoles and needs to look at the monitors and tricorders? His eyes aren't real. He presumably doesn't "see" through his eyes (although I think in the episode where aliens force him to steal Voyager's warp core we see through his POV, which may have been his eyes or just something attached to the mobile emitter). So why would he need to look at a Medbay monitor? Why wouldn't the information from tests and labs be automatically loaded into his program once Voyager's computer knows the results?

 

[The Wormhole]

What never made sense to me is why The Doctor operates the consoles and needs to look at the monitors and tricorders? His eyes aren't real. He presumably doesn't "see" through his eyes (although I think in the episode where aliens force him to steal Voyager's warp core we see through his POV, which may have been his eyes or just something attached to the mobile emitter). So why would he need to look at a Medbay monitor? Why wouldn't the information from tests and labs be automatically loaded into his program once Voyager's computer knows the results?

IIRC, novels have attempted to explain that as an affectation to make his patients comfortable, they expect their doctor to consult computers and tricorders, so therefore he is programmed to do so.

 

[fireproof78]

What never made sense to me is why The Doctor operates the consoles and needs to look at the monitors and tricorders? His eyes aren't real. He presumably doesn't "see" through his eyes (although I think in the episode where aliens force him to steal Voyager's warp core we see through his POV, which may have been his eyes or just something attached to the mobile emitter). So why would he need to look at a Medbay monitor? Why wouldn't the information from tests and labs be automatically loaded into his program once Voyager's computer knows the results?

Because it would look weird for him to just roll his eyes in the back of his head, go "Processing" and then spit out a diagnosis.

The interface is meant to simulate personal interaction with another being, artificial or not, not just go the Medi-o-Tron and spit out a diagnosis.

 

[DonIago]

What's a lot less clear is why at certain times the Borg Queen addressed drones verbally.

 

[F. King Daniel]

What's a lot less clear is why at certain times the Borg Queen addressed drones verbally.

Because it's a TV show and her commanding them with her mind just isn't as.... acty.

 

[IRW Bloodwing]

Short answer: yes.
Side note: I remember thoroughly enjoying some of the 80s/early 90s novels that mention the "ship's net", which was basically the equivalent of a BBS/early form of social media.