Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S7E17 “Penumbra”

  • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Starfleet systems are digital, but have to interface with any other possible system, so there’s a layer to it that can interface with analog systems. Which is why you often see and hear analog static during transmissions.

    Also, Nicole de Boer is cute as a button no matter what she does.

    • teft@piefed.social
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      7 days ago

      Starfleet systems are digital

      They aren’t. Digital implies electronics. Starfleet runs on duotronics/multitronics and isolinear chips. No more transistors or resistors.

        • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.website
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          6 days ago

          Funny, but to be fair, electricity probably still has its uses in Trek. For instance, does it really make sense to power a toothbrush directly from EPS conduits? (And yes, they seem to still have toothbrushes in the 24th century according to MA; a bit different, but probably still electric.)

          Also, according to MA article on EPS:

          From the EPS taps, the energy was distributed through conventional electricity; however, this conversion often occurred deep inside the components of a subsystem.

        • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          Imagine if Bones was an engineer.

          “Soldering? My god man, what do you want me to do next? Install vacuum tubes??”

      • aeronmelon@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        What? Digital implies digits! Electronic, duotronic, multitronic, whatever it’s called at the time. Starfleet computers are programmed in binary (at least as of TNG), it’s been shown many times.

      • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.website
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        7 days ago

        No. “Digital” refers to the logic used to implement a system, which is usually boolean and probably still is in Star Trek.

        Things can be digital regardless of implementation; tapes and spinning hard drives, can still store digital binary data.

    • data1701d (He/Him)@startrek.website
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      7 days ago

      Alternatively, it could be possible the Starfleet voice protocol is similar to UDP, and the system simulates static to fill in the gaps when there is packet loss.