

The Star Trek Computer Is Stupid - coderdude
http://www.science20.com/daytime_astronomer/star_trek_computer_stupid

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maushu
As always with any fiction, vehicles travel at the speed of the plot,
technology works efficiently as the plot requires and the universe laws are
bent to fit the plot.

Besides, like others have said, if the ship's computer was that good... why
have humans there?

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lotharbot
Of course, _Lt. Commander Data_ is that good, but he looks human so it's OK.

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RyanMcGreal
Against the apparently total absence of breakers anywhere in the bridge
console circuitry, the computer's passive-aggressive refusal to anticipate
requests seems pretty tame by comparison.

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yummyfajitas
Not to mention the holodecks which trapped crewmembers in deadly fantasy
worlds twice per season, but were never given a physical "power off" switch.

(Admittedly, a phenomenon of later trek shows more than the first two.)

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RyanMcGreal
You should always have a "safe word" for when a fantasy starts to get too
dangerous.

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billswift
And then you have to trust your partner/computer to _respond_ to it.

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RyanMcGreal
_I'm sorry, Commander Riker. I'm afraid I can't do that._

~~~
billswift
I was thinking more of " _Why should I stop?_ I _like it._ "

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Semiapies
The only thing that spoiled this for me was every single reference to Star
Trek.

 _Star Trek captains never give instructions to or ask questions of the
computer in battle_. The captain is always talking to another crew member
who's at a control station.

Outside of battle, it's clear that a ship's or station's verbal computer
interface is just a spoken command line, complete with scripting capability,
and about as dangerous if you don't rattle off a reasonably precise command.

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InclinedPlane
Every technology in Star Trek works this way. Everything is borderline magic
and incredibly overpowered up until the point that it just doesn't work. Many
Star Trek episodes careen between negative to positive deus ex machinae until
the plot is finally resolved. The fact that somehow out of this sludge good
story writing can even occur is a marvel.

As to the "Semantic Web", it seems to have become this generation's AI future.
In reality the semantic web is likely harder and far more limited than anyone
has given credit. People have fallen victim to the same old confusion of
computers and the human mind. Merely because computers are able to perform
quite sophisticated and complex tasks does not mean that they will be capable
of performing any and every thing a human mind can. Computer systems will
likely work along lines of shockingly different characteristics to the human
mind for some time to come. Furthermore, we should not be stacking the future
on unproven and questionably useful panaceae. Remember when the future of the
web was VRML? Remember when it was "portals"? Predicting the future of the web
more than a few years out is a sure fire way to lose a lot of money, time, and
effort.

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derefr
On Star Trek: it has, at every opportunity, asserted the ideal of "we are
humans, exploring space, because _that is the point_ —the terminal good of our
utility function. If we automated everything, we would no longer _be_ humans
exploring space, so automate we don't."

For the first instance of this, see
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer> — but it proceeds pretty
much like that, although a bit subtler, for every series after that.

~~~
arethuza
The "automated everything" approach is pretty much what the Culture do -
starships are run by artificial Minds of near God-like intellect and power and
they have humans along for pets/companions/passengers.

The ships themselves are fairly memorable characters from the Culture novels
(e.g. the Grey Area, Xenophobe and the Falling Outside The Normal Moral
Constraints).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture>

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derefr
Having not read any Culture novels yet (but planning to), is there any mention
of how [non-trans-]humans managed to survive an AI Singularity?

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arethuza
The Culture books don't directly address the topic of a technological
singularity, although _Look to Windward_ has the Culture dealing with a
society that has partially "sublimed" - which might be similar.

I second the recommendation for Accelerando below - it is perhaps a little
disjointed, but it is really a collection of short stories rather than a
single novel, so this is understandable. Few books have the idea density of
Accelerando. Charlie Stross hangs out on HN as well!

Personally, I think the best idea of what it might be like in the run up to a
singularity is Vernor Vinge's _Rainbows End_ \- the settings and technology
are plausible and as a parent the idea of young kids augmented with
information technology being fundamentally more capable than the previous
generation is fascinating.

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billswift
Unfortunately, _Accelerando_ looks like a fortunate accident. I have browsed
several of Stross's other books in the store and his blog, and nothing else
looks remotely as interesting.

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jokermatt999
I found Halting State to be fairly good. It's more "thriller" than sci-fi, but
there's a number of good ideas in there.

Also, check out Stross's blog posts on the viability of space travel; I found
them rather interesting.

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arethuza
I have a particular weakness for Charlie's "Bob Howard" line of stories - a
mixture of Lovecraftian horror, Cold War spying and Office Space.

A rather grimmer version of this setting can be found in his story "A Colder
War":

<http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm>

 _It would nice if there was a way of turning Readibility on in a hint inside
a link!_

