posted
This topic came from the other one asking why we are not in space with designs like the DY-100 class. That topic has gone off somehwere else and is fairly old now.
If we go by the last 200 years you will find a huge jump in technology than 2,000 years ago. If you place someone from the early 1800's on a ship from the US Civil War, he wouldbe out of place. Because of alot of technological advancements. Same goes for placinf a Civil War era person on a World War 1 ship.
I go by the Navy because for one, the Navy terms are used on Trek. Even now, its to a point where there is no seriously need for a surface ship.
Now that we have computers, it has been perdicted that computers will double their power every 18 months. I remember when I was 10-12 300 MB of memory is alot and 4 MB of ram was like having 8 GB ram now. Imagine that computer power in 2061-2063, when we are 'supposed to have warp drive'. Hell future wars might not even be between nations but our creations.
Trek in the terms of computer power, is not far away. With this type of power, humans can go in space with the use of computers doing the calculations needed.
Thoughts?
-------------------- Matrix If you say so If you want so Then do so
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
Well, when you start getting computers to control the operations of a ship you get into problems like in 2001 when the computer is given conflicting orders and trys to make sense of things and ends up killing people.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Well we are sending computers to space now it is just too expensive to send people. A lot of the engineering for extended manned missions has been done but there is no financial backing for the projects. The drives are being tested (DS1,2) and materials testing is being done all the time. The sad truth is there is no political will to engage in these projects, and without the will there will be no money and no deep space missions.
-------------------- "and none of your usual boobery." M. Burns
Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
But imagine the use of a computer program that could do calculations in an instant. Imagine what that type of program would be like in the hands of Einstein-type person.
It wouldn't matter if its too expensive now, ($20 per kg) could bring that down to 2 cents per gram if the propulsion system is effiecient enough. The propulsion system we have is extremely inefficient which relies on a focused explosion to propel it upwards. Tat consumes massive amounts of fuel and energy. Which in turn makes the ship unnessarily too large.
-------------------- Matrix If you say so If you want so Then do so
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
Chris: I'm pretty sure that only happens w/ neurotic AIs. If you give a computer conflicting instructions, it will probably just carry out whichever it's given last. Or it'll just crash.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The patch to fix that Human Elimination Protocol glitch will be available on the Microsoft site some time in late Q3.
-------------------- "Nah. The 9th chevron is for changing the ringtone from "grindy-grindy chonk-chonk" to the theme tune to dallas." -Reverend42
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Shik
Starship database: completed; History of Starfleet: done; website: probably never
Member # 343
posted
quote:Originally posted by Matrix: But imagine the use of a computer program that could do calculations in an instant.
Like, uh, one of those thigns...what're they called again? Damn.
Oh, yeah. A pocket calculator.
-------------------- "The French have a saying: 'mise en place'—keep everything in its fucking place!"
Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Show me a duck that explodes when it eats French money, then reassembles itself and quacks to the tune of Bach's "tocatta and fugue in D minor".
I'm not sure I understand your point.
[ April 05, 2002, 09:24: Message edited by: TSN ]
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
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my math teacher in high school pointed out to us that the TI pocket calculators we were required to buy for the course had computing power equal to the computers that were aboard the Apollo missions for their computations.
Oh, and by the way...
[ April 05, 2002, 10:16: Message edited by: CaptainMike ]
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
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My cats' breath smells like cat food.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
Shik answered my question about finding a computer that can do calculations by saying "pocket calculator" right? Fine those $1 calculators that you can buy in a dollar store can help you with basic addition, subtraction, division, and mulitiplication problems. The more advanced ones that schools usually have, the Texas Instruments tpye, can do a bit more. Then the graphing calculator can do everything up to advanced calculus.
However has anyone ever tried to develop anything advanced one one of those things, such as a computer a thousand times more efficient than the ones we have now, that could fit in a space of a average watch? No? That's what I mean, its to the point where we are relying on the computer to start doing our math and now later I'll bet they are the ones you will design a FTL drive, not us. We will be sitting in the sidelines watching.
If you call that a pocket calculator, fine. I call that the future or computers.
Registered: Jul 2000
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