# Obsolete Star Trek technology **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 17, 2011, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709 "2011-04-17T07:50:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/61 "2011-04-18T15:06:09Z")
> [@Dahnlor](#): > > True, the communicators are probably the most obsolete. They’re just glorified walkie-talkies. They don’t have voice mail, play music, take pictures, video games, GPS… But they can go ship-to-shore. Do _that_ with your iPhone! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vislor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vislor/32/5933_2.png) [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/62 "2011-04-18T15:12:57Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > In “Court Martial”, Kirk’s guilt seems established beyond any shadow of a doubt, until they finally prove something almost unimaginable- that the computer records could be false because someone hacked them. No, you’re thinking of Star Wars and what happens to a planet there. What? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![vislor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vislor/32/5933_2.png) [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/63 "2011-04-18T15:32:04Z")
A few more. The idea behind the consoles, IIRC in the technical guide, was that each station could be individually configured for whoever was using it. That means, technically, that Helm could be become Science could become weapons/tactical. However, the reality of it was that back then, they had to design and print it out and then light it and they never actually showed us anyone customizing it. I can’t imagine how much work it was to make a touch pad for the few times we see someone “flying” the ship and respond to the actors touch! Also, IIRC, when Data is put on trial (Measure of a Man?), they list his memory and it was in the terrabyte range? I don’t think they were using fake units then and it was probably low by today’s standards. Wireless, which has been mentioned but again, wasn’t a concept when TNG started and while they advanced a few things, as someone else said, they seemed to stick with TNG tech level without advancing it much or at all. Lots of pads - I can forgive this from the standpoint that even today, most pads can only run one thing at once. So, each one could be a report from a separate officer. But, I do hope we get multitasking pads soon! And I’m not arguing that one pad could hold all of the reports but that I can understand why they have so many. Entertainment - I think the idea here is to use something “timeless” which is why we get them doing plays, reading books and the like instead of the latest FPS. And really, wouldn’t a FPS in the holodeck be like training to them? Wouldn’t it be boring since they are in the military and probably have to do that? (Worf and Guinan are doing exactly that in one episode but it’s hit the dancing light.) But I also agree that Barclay wouldn’t have been alone. I would hate to be on clean up for the holodecks at any point, especially when “something” has “gummed up the works” and needs to be removed! Computers - While TNG ones were better than the all independent ones of TOS, they still had no idea of the net and collaborative computing. I think they still had central computer functions instead of being spread out on the ship. Also, assuming they have the memory to have most things on a local file, the idea of any latency in looking things up is probably wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/64 "2011-04-18T23:08:06Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > Some of the things we have on the drawing boards right now look to be more effective (like those shells which explode after a given distance, preferably over your enemies’ heads). [Right now?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_fuze#World_War_II) Yeah, Starfleet seems very _badly_ underequipped when it comes to land weaponry—especially in later series, when they were _actually fighting a war_. At least part of this can be rationalized away—most of the fighting we saw was by naval officers caught out of their element, not Marines; and a more “meta” explaination that the Federation _was_ culturally and technically unprepared for large-scale ground combat. After all, they’re not a warlike culture, and most of the fighting they were accustomed to was in capital ships, not on the ground. But really, c’mon, even the Klingons were using mortars. The Starfleet infantry we saw didn’t even have _canteens_. Maybe it’s telling something significant that Starfleet had a ship named after Marshal Zhukov. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/65 "2011-04-18T23:10:17Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > In “Court Martial”, Kirk’s guilt seems established beyond any shadow of a doubt, until they finally prove something almost unimaginable- that the computer records could be false because someone hacked them. > [@BigT](#): > > And the systems were so unspecialized that that somehow affected the computer’s ability to play chess. Hmm… actually, now that I think about it some more, I may have to take back that one. I was originally thinking purely in terms of data records- the equivalent of an .AVI file in a directory somewhere. But presumably preventing the corruption of important files is one of the computer’s major tasks. So perhaps what Lt. Cmdr Finney did was more equivalent to hacking a mainframe’s operating system and bypassing the security protocols intended to guarantee data integrity. Leaving an unanticipated “bug” that showed up when the chess program was run. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/66 "2011-04-18T23:49:44Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Except that Fermat’s Last Theorem was solved in the real world in 1995. In ST universe, the Earth of the 1990s suffered through a devastating war, world wide in scope, genetically engineered humans being the antagonists. So, I give Picard a break by noting that in HIS universe, the theorem had not been solved. People of his 1990s were too busy dying and throwing mutants into deepspace sleeper ships. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/67 "2011-04-18T23:54:16Z")
Also… Instead of looking for TV advances, in ST universe, TV is essentially gone. In the actual spirit of the thread…, current iPhones and Droids make the computer interfaces of even the later movies look dated. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/68 "2011-04-19T00:17:24Z")
> [@NoClueBoy](#): > > In ST universe, the Earth of the 1990s suffered through a devastating war, world wide in scope, genetically engineered humans being the antagonists. So, I give Picard a break by noting that in HIS universe, the theorem had not been solved. People of his 1990s were too busy dying and throwing mutants into deepspace sleeper ships. > > :dubious: I recall “Visit to a Strange Planet” and “Visit to a Strange Planet, Revisited”, in which (IIRC) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy briefly swap places with Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley as a result of a transporter accident. Those were focused chiefly on the characters (and actors) trying to fake their way through the situation, and just assumed Starfleet tech was superior. Has anyone done a story in which the Enterprise, on one of its many inadvertent trips to the past, winds up in our timeline…and the crew (FTL travel aside) find themselves woefully outmatched, technologically? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/69 "2011-04-19T00:21:07Z")
Social networking seems to have not occurred to the Trek people. Of course, who knows how social networking might work in 500 years? It might not last another ten years before it is replaced with the next iteration … ---
**Author:** ![tingbudong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tingbudong/32/520_2.png) [@tingbudong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tingbudong)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/70 "2011-04-19T01:26:40Z")
The whole talking to and with computers. While conversations with computers are not the only interaction medium, talking sure seems to be the most preferred method in the ST universe. I know that that tech is present now and is constantly improving but I can’t see it becoming the dominant way we interact with computers. It’s awkward and doesn’t offer much in the way of privacy or security. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/71 "2011-04-19T01:41:11Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Hmm… actually, now that I think about it some more, I may have to take back that one. I was originally thinking purely in terms of data records- the equivalent of an .AVI file in a directory somewhere. But presumably preventing the corruption of important files is one of the computer’s major tasks. So perhaps what Lt. Cmdr Finney did was more equivalent to hacking a mainframe’s operating system and bypassing the security protocols intended to guarantee data integrity. Leaving an unanticipated “bug” that showed up when the chess program was run. But let’s remember how Kirk eventually found Finney – everyone had been taken off the ship except for a few on the bridge. Then they amplified the sounds of the ship until they heard individual heartbeats, then “masked” the heartbeats until only Finney’s was left. Then Kirk, on a hunch, found Finney hiding in engineering. Shouldn’t Kirk have been able to ask even a buggy computer “are there any warm-blooded, breathing objects of about 160 pounds anywhere else on the ship?” > [@Balance](#): > > I recall “Visit to a Strange Planet” and “Visit to a Strange Planet, Revisited”, in which (IIRC) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy briefly swap places with Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley as a result of a transporter accident. Those were focused chiefly on the characters (and actors) trying to fake their way through the situation, and just assumed Starfleet tech was superior. Has anyone done a story in which the Enterprise, on one of its many inadvertent trips to the past, winds up in our timeline…and the crew (FTL travel aside) find themselves woefully outmatched, technologically? 🙂 Consider everything that killed the redshirts – exploding rocks, deadly plants, bullets, ninja stars, radiation poisoning, Jack the Ripper – the crew could be outmatched by damn near anything that took them by surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/72 "2011-04-19T06:05:20Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Consider everything that killed the redshirts – exploding rocks, deadly plants, bullets, ninja stars, radiation poisoning, Jack the Ripper – the crew could be outmatched by damn near anything that took them by surprise. True, but not what I meant by outmatched. The average redshirt could be outmatched by a pretty butterfly fluttering around the edge of a cliff. I meant in areas like information technology and, above all, communication. Things like, say, the network of amateur astronomers spotting, verifying, and reporting the presence of the Enterprise in a matter of hours. (They find and track much smaller things all the time.) Within a day, there’d be websites selling t-shirts and other memorabilia and flamewars on forums over favorite crewmembers. Or something like this: Spock, speaking quietly to Kirk: “We must have two kilograms of plotdevicium to repair the power couplings. We only have three hours to find it before orbital decay becomes critical. While searching on foot with tricorders is our customary approach, it may not be practical in this instance.” Kirk: “That’s not enough time to scan the whole planet for it. We _must_ ask the natives for help. Perhaps a geologist could narrow down our search area, or some sort of mining official.” Random Passerby, pulling out his earbuds: “Hey, let me google that for you.” [RP fiddles with a tiny glass plate] RP: “Here are the coordinates of a deposit, the Wiki article on our coordinate system, some satellite images, and a StreetView to help you recognize the place. The Dopers say you should be able to use your transporter to extract pure plotdevicium directly from the ore. Want me to send Uhura the links?” Kirk: “W…TF?” Spock: “I could not have used a more appropriate colorful metaphor, Captain. The natives appear to have assimilated into some sort of technological hive mind.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/73 "2011-04-19T07:07:56Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > But really, c’mon, even the Klingons were using mortars. The Starfleet infantry we saw didn’t even have _canteens_. The Feds did have mortars back in Kirk’s day, he [uses one](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Grenade_launcher) in the episode with the Gorn. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/74 "2011-04-19T07:09:17Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Well, that and the hand phasers and the Klingon bat’leth are examples of a basic problem; when the basic design is already good, then it’s hard or impossible to come up with a futuristic design that isn’t obviously inferior. Honestly, I don’t know why they try to reinvent the wheel. While watching Aliens, Babylon 5, or Blade Runner I don’t ever recall hearing anyone in the audience complain about their weapons looking too familiar. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/75 "2011-04-19T10:49:24Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The Feds did have mortars back in Kirk’s day, he [uses one](http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Grenade_launcher) in the episode with the Gorn. Indeed—and they also had phasers with a wide-beam setting, and could stun with the _ship’s phaser banks, from orbit_. Federation weaponry after Kirk clearly went the way of plumbing after the fall of Rome. Probably due to the Khitomer Accords. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/76 "2011-04-19T12:01:02Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Well, that and the hand phasers and the Klingon bat’leth are examples of a basic problem; when the basic design is already good, then it’s hard or impossible to come up with a futuristic design that isn’t obviously inferior. They went so far as to offer an in-universe rationale in _Stargate SG-1_: “This [Go’uld staff] is a weapon of _terror_. It’s made to _intimidate_ the enemy. This [P90 SMG] is a weapon of _war_. It’s made to _kill_ the enemy.” ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/77 "2011-04-19T13:45:21Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Or something like this: > > Spock, speaking quietly to Kirk: “We must have two kilograms of plotdevicium to repair the power couplings. We only have three hours to find it before orbital decay becomes critical. While searching on foot with tricorders is our customary approach, it may not be practical in this instance.” > > Kirk: “That’s not enough time to scan the whole planet for it. We _must_ ask the natives for help. Perhaps a geologist could narrow down our search area, or some sort of mining official.” > > Random Passerby, pulling out his earbuds: “Hey, let me google that for you.” > > [RP fiddles with a tiny glass plate] > > RP: “Here are the coordinates of a deposit, the Wiki article on our coordinate system, some satellite images, and a StreetView to help you recognize the place. The Dopers say you should be able to use your transporter to extract pure plotdevicium directly from the ore. Want me to send Uhura the links?” > > Kirk: “W…TF?” > > Spock: “I could not have used a more appropriate colorful metaphor, Captain. The natives appear to have assimilated into some sort of technological hive mind.” _Excellent_ point. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/78 "2011-04-19T14:06:08Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > But let’s remember how Kirk eventually found Finney – everyone had been taken off the ship except for a few on the bridge. Then they amplified the sounds of the ship until they heard individual heartbeats, then “masked” the heartbeats until only Finney’s was left. Then Kirk, on a hunch, found Finney hiding in engineering. Shouldn’t Kirk have been able to ask even a buggy computer “are there any warm-blooded, breathing objects of about 160 pounds anywhere else on the ship?” I don’t know. It was so messed up that multiplying the volume by “one to the fourth power” was actually louder. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/79 "2011-04-19T14:18:58Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > In TOS they often referred to tapes: I made a tape of it sir, pull the micro-tapes from the sensor memory banks, etc. Were those little square “tapes” really just cassettes with spinning tape inside? The square tapes were probably meant to be actual square tapes. It’s not even obsolete technology now and won’t be for at least a decade (if not longer). Physical square tapes (yes, the kind with spinning tape spooled inside) are to this day the most robust and widely used data archiving solution, even in large data centers. That said, it would be slightly unusual to use them for day to day work involving smaller units of data. You usually see them in places with absolutely huge volumes of data to archive. These days, the Enterprise memory banks would probably operate off local storage for daily use and pooled data would regularly be backed off to tape. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709/80 "2011-04-19T14:28:22Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I don’t know. It was so messed up that multiplying the volume by “one to the fourth power” was actually louder. Clearly he meant “four to the first power”. -Joe [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obsolete-star-trek-technology/578709.md?page=5)