ENT Tech

[aadarshinah]

This thought hit me as I was trying to fall asleep:

What on earth happened to all the remotes in Star Trek?

Now, granted, even by ENT time you have computers that you can speak answers to and expect decent results from and, by TNG, this computer can have a basic "conversation" with you. But in all that time, in all the episodes I can recall, if you wanted a button pushed, you had to get up and walk to the panel to do so, even in personal quarters.

I suppose it's not really a big deal, the missing remotes, but it does make me curious about peoples' takes on the tech in ENT, especially when it's a prequel series...

[WarpGirl]

Sorry I know you're serious, I just never thought of it before and its so funny! The truth is I don't have a clue...

[Rigil Kent]

Try to remember, the first casualty of the Eugenics Wars was apparently common sense.

But that's a damned good point, I must admit.

[WarpGirl]

Still laughing... At least ENT clothes had pockets!

[Enerdhil]

Had someone counted the number of photonic torpedoes fired during Xindi mission, without necessity of being replaced? Well, that happens for all ST series, but the last ones, at least, have better replicators...

[aadarshinah]

Wow. I'm glad no one thinks its a completely crazy question, 'cause it did bother me enough to force me out of bed and onto this forum...

I know the offical relanuch books explination of at least some of it is that the strange Romulan ship-highjacking array didn't effect human ships as much because they weren't as based off of advanced Vulcan designs as, well, Vulcan ships, or Andorian or Tellarite, and so Starfleet built their ships until at least TOS era with simplicity in mind...

But remotes are simple - in theory. We have them now, after all. And I refuse to believe the fundamental laziness of humanity (when it comes to things like channel-changing and button-pushing) has disappeared entirely by ENT - unless it too was a vicitim of the Eugenics Wars.

As for the torpedos, though, doesn't engineering have some sort of fabrication area? If you could replicate the raw materials and trade for the rest with nearby planets, and someone had the tech knowledge, I don't see why you couldn't build replacement ones, even if the replicaters are very primitive....

[Silverbullet]

Don't know about the Remotes. could be they just sad "computer on" and te Computer turned on. Just like in one series where they said "Light out" and it turned out.

topedoe's I believed the the ship had a magazine in the middle of it which housd the Toepdoes. There would be a lift to the front or aft Topedoe rooms to carry the reload Torpedos to them. Least way that is how shell (very large ones) are reloaded on a battle ship.

Course the magazine would have to be made of a very hard alloy metal and be btween two decks like the Storage or PLant growig decks. (dman, my brain is mush this morning)

SB

[honeybee]

It's actually not a stupid question at all. I loved the long, involved "why is TOS more 'primitive'" than ENT stuff in the RW book. Here's a theory:

I'm guessing there are no/very few remotes on the International Space Station, since everything has to be tied down because of zero gravity.

While they eventually developed space stations and ships with gravity, the tech design evolved from everything being streamlined and stationery. Having a button on the wall, means you don't have to go looking around for a remote control, which makes sense in a professional, high stress environment. Obviously, they carried around communicators and tri corders, but they operated the ship's controls from stationery panels so that they wouldn't lose remotes, everyone knew at any given moment where a specific control was and if the gravity did go wonky - it was one less thing to be floating around hitting people. We know from ENT that the gravity system wasn't perfect even by that time, though they obviously had a lot of loose objects around. Ships controls are too important to risk losing track of.

And even though every remote has corresponding stationery button somewhere, how many times have you spent far more time looking for a remote than it would take you to get off your rear-end and press the button?

[Alelou]

Not to mention that if you have remotes, there's the potential that someone you don't want to control something can control something, or that more than one remote connection will cause interference.

Though not having to look for the damned remote in order to run the spaceship -- that makes a lot of sense.

Also, it could be the fundamental laziness caused such a health crisis that a new ethos took over, especially in space where lack of exercise could be an issue.

[aadarshinah]

I was thinking more along the lines of... well, you know how in TNG Data or LaForge or someone always ends up giving a report in the conference room and they have to stand up by the monitor to change what's on the screen? Now, maybe they would have to stand up anyway to give the report, but it does strike me as curious none of them tried, say, momenarily routing the controls to a tricorder to move between displays - like a powerpoint.

[honeybee]

I'm guessing that technology evolved away from wireless also for security reasons. Think about how they had old fashioned land-line phones in BSG to prevent hacking from the cylons.

Perhaps one less wireless connection meant one less way someone/something could interfere with the ships systems. I'm sure there were wireless systems there, but probably only when necessary. And maybe people did just get sick of looking for remotes. In my smart classrooms, I hate having to dig through the remote drawer when I am standing next to the friggin machine, but I have to because most of the DVD player's controls are on the remote rather than the machine.

[Alelou]

TNG? (Rubs eyes foggily, trying to remember.) Yeah, that would like kind of dorky, with all their oral commands. Why not just say, "Computer, next slide."

If we have any remotes in our smart classrooms at the college (which most of them are), I've yet to see any of them. We always have to hover next to the computer. I do a lot of hopping up and back when I'm in the audience for student presentations.

[honeybee]

I still like the idea that humans just culturally moved away from the desire for everything to be controlled by remote in favor of always knowing where the darn button is!

Voice commands during a presentation could just be considered annoying.

I am currently afraid that my desire for a keyboard will be considered quaint/square/old-fashioned by the time I'm in my 60s or 70s. I couldn't bring myself to get an iPad and bought a notebook instead, because dammit I need a keyboard with keys for long prose. I can short stuff fine on the iphone, but my fingers like to tap keys.

[Silverbullet]

I like voice commands for quarters. On the Joohn or in the shower it would be a pain to get up to push a button or find a remote when one could say Audio on and start talking. In bed, with company, audio. alone computer on with adio and visual. In other areas like a hallway a button on the wall.

since my eyes sight is failing fast. I would love a computer I could talk to and have it type the text and send it on command. coming or here but I cannot afford it.

SB

[honeybee]

Here's a great little article on how TNG predicted the iPad:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/ ... rs-ago.ars