Yes, that was intentional on my part.
If you enter the Star Wars Expanded Universe, theres all kinds of fanwanks about how it wasn’t a mistake and Han meant he knew a shortcut or something.
Just exactly how does a shortcut work in space. On a route on which is longer than 12 parsecs so you could possibly save that much, you’re going to be in empty space virtually all the time. You go straight.
If there were wormholes and such, you might possibly know of a secret one, but that’s not how Star Wars FTL works.
Fanwanks may be superseded by canon soon. Rumour has it that the spice mines of Kessel make an appearance in the new Solo movie out next May.
IIRC something like the Kessel run involves dodging asteroids, and Han knows the shortest route to get through safely.
A view of Bill Shatner trying to break something outside on the ship
Another name for a “fake window” is a “television”. So you can pretty much show whatever your want. A view of the outside. Landscapes from Earth or wherever. Shows on Netflix. Pretty much anything.
About what I was going to say. A looped 10-15 minute video of a gremlin out on the spacecraft tearing apart the skin and charging up to the window a few times.
Firstly, yes, that’s what I’m saying in the question, you can show anything.
But secondly not sure I agree they’ll just play the role of television screens. The crew will have access to many monitors and screens which they’ll interact with in their daily duties, and may use for games, TV etc. But you could make a case for showing something like an “outside” just to help maintain sanity.
I’m aware they don’t do this with submarines, but subs are very much “bare bones” in a number of ways and for a number of reasons. If we’re imagining ships with large, comfortable living spaces, then it makes sense to install (pseudo-) windows.
One thing I wondered reading the OP was: Do you really want windows on an interstellar ship moving at very high speeds? No matter how durable the substance you use to make the porthole, it’s not going to be as meteorite or radiation proof as the rest of the ship. Heck, at relativistic speeds a grain of sand moving the opposite direction would probably be enough to shatter the window and blow all your air out into space.
Well you say “no matter how durable” but of course it does matter if it turns out there are transparent materials as strong as graphene or whatever, which AFAIK is not impossible.
In any case, I thought it was obvious enough in the description, plus the fact I put “window” in scare quotes, that I wasn’t talking about actual holes in the hull. Just screens along shared parts of the ship and what they should show – images of an “outside” might be useful in keeping everyone sane, but images of outer space are both boring and will make the crew feel like it’s perpetually night. So what should they display? That’s the question.
Everybody else is following the Great Arc … [giggle] …
“Gone to plaid” {YouTube}
A fake window is not the same as a television. A television shows you a flat image. A window allows you a view of a three-dimensional scene. To make a fake window, you’d need holography, or at least some clever optics: You could get away with using lenses and mirrors if everything “outside” were far enough away, but you’d still need those lenses and mirrors to put the image at a sufficient distance.
Just paint the stars on the wall … at a hundred times the speed of light, it’s still a good fortnight to Alpha Centauri …
Thanks Chronos, can’t believe I forgot about that aspect. :smack:
Yes for the purposes of this thread lets assume we have screens that are (at least) capable of displaying 3D scenes with 10km in focal length and parallax.
And now of course I know why we haven’t yet done this with subs or other spaces where we can’t install real windows :smack::smack:
WOW–you mean the airline industry actually did something to accommodate the wishes of their customers?
I’m amazed…
So (to get back on topic)–are you suggesting a radical idea?: That when starship travel becomes as common as jet travel is today, the “starline” industry will also listen to the wishes of their customers, and paint the windows accordingly? Or will customers still be limited to one small carryon item,…Oh, and one space suit? 
There won’t be physical displays at all. The cyborg crew who are on watch will just perceive the ship’s state - probably all of it at once, simultaneously, with filters to differentiate between more of the same and interesting events that could affect the mission. The crew who aren’t on watch can do whatever they want.
You’ll be charged an additional fee for each extra air bottle… and there’ll be a weight limit on the space suit, so people will buy cheap, lightweight knockoff copies that’ll leak on their first spacewalk.
ETA: Capitalism in space is an objectively horrifying idea.
I think this is what we should see outside our starship windows.
Lightyears of community theater? I’ll pass.