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the dumb questions you were afraid to ask thread

I wanna know why:

*The federation has apparently lost circuit breaker technology by the 23, and 24th century based on the number of times we see sparks flying?

*That Star Fleet engineers apparently don't pass along their magical and episode solving solutions to problems to the next batch of engineers? Does SF not chronicle their engineering advancements and solutions for others?

*How apparently everyone by the 24th century has mastered not only advanced mathematics, literature, art, engineering, science but also have the ability to pursue 'hobbies' like archeology as well while attending SF Academy. Has the concept of 'specialties' disappeared in higher education by the 24th century?

*Why ships always meet in the same X,Y,Z formation in space when battling or conducting an inter-ship conference?

*Why transporting isn't considered a negative because logically it has to be a form of cloning?

*Why Einsteins theory of relativity has been chucked out the window because it states that as you approach the speed of light ['full impulse'] time slows relative to the observer. Have the laws of physics changed in the the ST world?

Edited to add: Oh, and why apparently computer technology has de-evolved by the 24th century that apparently run slower on queries than a simple google search does today?

And where did they get the nonsensical notion that organic technology is superior to non-organic technology. Every engineer I've ever spoken with says that metals are far superior to organic technology is most situations.
 
no-one watches TV in Trek cuz it died off in 2040 - rise of the interweb?

they have TV in B5 tho, they're always watching ISN.
 
They must have a television-esque medium. What do you think was broadcasting the signals from all of those cameras at the beginning of Generations?

It's probably known by some futurustic techno-crap like 'Subspace Tel-Emersion Mk-II'. Picard and company's refusal to acknowledge that their STE-2s are merely souped-up TVs is no different than a modern human refusing to accept that a Hummer is simply a really big carriage.
 
Bavmorda said:
Here's my question, and it goes for most other Sci Fi series too. How come nobody watches TV?

Who wants to live through someone else's experiences when you can live your own? Or, I guess you could say, their lives and too busy and rich with interesting experiences to bother living through others. They do watch movies though.
 
Edited to add: Oh, and why apparently computer technology has de-evolved by the 24th century that apparently run slower on queries than a simple google search does today?

While computers will be faster exponentially, they are also apparently smart AI's that not only sift through centuries of data from billions of sources, (as opposed to mere decade or two currently, retrieving information by matching key words,) but also reach conclusions based on an analysis of the available data. So, computers of tomorrow will approach the task of data retrieval similarly, but perform cognitive processes on a much faster scale. As the tool becomes more sophisticated, what we ask it to do will as well.
 
Apogeal Alpha01 said:
Bavmorda said:
Here's my question, and it goes for most other Sci Fi series too. How come nobody watches TV?

Who wants to live through someone else's experiences when you can live your own? Or, I guess you could say, their lives and too busy and rich with interesting experiences to bother living through others. They do watch movies though.
I don't think they'll be any different from sailors now. Long periods of boredom interspersed with work. Interesting and rich I don't think. Of course they would watch TV.
 
Apogeal Alpha01 said:
While computers will be faster exponentially, they are also apparently smart AI's that not only sift through centuries of data from billions of sources, (as opposed to mere decade or two currently, retrieving information by matching key words,) but also reach conclusions based on an analysis of the available data. So, computers of tomorrow will approach the task of data retrieval similarly, but perform cognitive processes on a much faster scale. As the tool becomes more sophisticated, what we ask it to do will as well.

BS. I'll give you an example. In TNG first year, episode, Naked Now [the episode where the crew suffers from the illness similar from TOS where people are 'drunk like] Riker asks the main computer to do a search for "Enterprise, Jim Kirk, illnesses, drunk like behavior' and the computer responds back, that it will take [hours[/b] to complete that.

OK, I just did the same search on Google and it took less than 5 seconds to match.

Don't tell me that according to canon that computer technology hasn't de-evolved - because obviously it has.
 
Okay. BS you say? Well, it sounds like a memory bottleneck then, or it decided to process in series rather than parallel streams, or, the computer had to search remote databases where faster than Lightspeed communication wasn't possible, or the servers with the needed information were older with limited bandwidth or had limited uplink capacity to interstellar space ships. We don't know what expectations Starfleet had for shipboard medical databases. Doctors may have been expected to rely on their own knowledge primarily, before the advent of the EMH. Or, maybe the computer was just feeling off it's game that day and didn’t want to raise expectations, like when Scotty was always buying time to get something done!

Now really, in that instance, if the computer came back with the answer instantly it would have seriously screwed with the script. They had to fill an entire hour. :D
 
Apogeal Alpha01 said:
Now really, in that instance, if the computer came back with the answer instantly it would have seriously screwed with the script. They had to fill an entire hour. :D

In short, Trek uses plot devices that are often stupid, defy simple logic, and worse often don't make sense. Worse, they ignore prior shows and series canon on problem solving.

There are two words for that: Lazy Writing ;)
 
DarthTom said:
Apogeal Alpha01 said:
While computers will be faster exponentially, they are also apparently smart AI's that not only sift through centuries of data from billions of sources, (as opposed to mere decade or two currently, retrieving information by matching key words,) but also reach conclusions based on an analysis of the available data. So, computers of tomorrow will approach the task of data retrieval similarly, but perform cognitive processes on a much faster scale. As the tool becomes more sophisticated, what we ask it to do will as well.

BS. I'll give you an example. In TNG first year, episode, Naked Now [the episode where the crew suffers from the illness similar from TOS where people are 'drunk like] Riker asks the main computer to do a search for "Enterprise, Jim Kirk, illnesses, drunk like behavior' and the computer responds back, that it will take [hours[/b] to complete that.

OK, I just did the same search on Google and it took less than 5 seconds to match.

Don't tell me that according to canon that computer technology hasn't de-evolved - because obviously it has.
Exactly.

Thanks to Voyager's bio-neural gel packs, Voyagers computers are probably 3x as fast as the Enterprise-D's were. Technology in our time advances every 5 years or less, I don't see why in the 24th century with technology being shared from all the worlds within the Federation that technology wouldn't improve at a faster rate.

When people say Voyager wussified the Borg, I think they forget that the Enterprise D is over 12 years older that Voyager. Voyager is smaller, faster and has defence systems 12 years more advanced than the Enterprise. The Enterprise is similar to a cruse ship while Voyager is designed like submarine. Voyager is designed for combat, to take a beating and be self sustaining. That also shows the progress of technology.
 
I would say that's so. This was also a light hearted episode with Wesley helping to save the day. The plot points needn't have been that precise.

Just looked, and it's 1987. Extrapolating future computer speeds shouldn't have been too difficult. . . . Hard to recall, but was Data also affected by the same malady? He and Tasha Yar, uhmmmm? Maybe it affected the computer too.
 
Bavmorda said:
Here's my question, and it goes for most other Sci Fi series too. How come nobody watches TV?

Data claims that television died out as a form of entertainment in 2040
 
Bavmorda said:
Here's my question, and it goes for most other Sci Fi series too. How come nobody watches TV?
Have you seen television lately? They're working hard to make sure any remaining audience flees, screaming.
 
Alidar Warlock said:
Bavmorda said:
Here's my question, and it goes for most other Sci Fi series too. How come nobody watches TV?

Data claims that television died out as a form of entertainment in 2040
Yep, commercials and Picard's evolved sensibilities, ("We work to better ourselves and mankind," or something like that) dooms commercial TV. At least as practiced outside the UK.
 
Ok, dumb question. How do you aim a hand phaser? I've never seen any sights.

Also, being in the Army I have seen modern military hand weaponry in use, and Trek hand weapons just don't compare.

I'll take my platoon of scouts with M-4s up against a Starfleet crew armed with phasers any day.
 
Caliburn24 said:
Ok, dumb question. How do you aim a hand phaser? I've never seen any sights.

In TOS, the silver grill on the palm-phaser could pop up. While we never saw it, I think there was supposed to be some sort of sight or targeting display underneath it.

It's also possible the phaser's computers allow it to aim itself (conveniently explaining all those times in early TNG where the beam damn near came out sideways), or that it has some kind of HUD that projects directly into the users eye (I suspect that's how those banks of featureless buttons in the movie-era worked. They didn't even have color-coding like in the buttons in TOS).
 
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