Found a flaw!!!!

posted on August 20th, 2010, 5:28 am

Ok...Voyager....Season 3, Episode 23.  I just found a flaw...in all of Star Trek they talk about a trinary system of computing as their computers and in this episode the aliens are walking around voyager out of phase and they scanned the computer and go "as I suspected....simple binary system."  I just found it interesting.

posted on August 20th, 2010, 5:50 am

Idk how you could have that because electricity is either on or off... but W.E. its voager what can you expect.

posted on August 20th, 2010, 6:08 am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_computer

posted on August 20th, 2010, 6:56 am

It's possible to build computers that use ternary transistors and even decimal transistors. The only issues with using more then a binary transistor are A ) It's not so easy to control the level or charge needed to maintain states other then On and Off, B ) Programming would need to be redeveloped for such systems, and 3 ) Money

posted on August 20th, 2010, 7:09 am

Its not limited to Voyager.  They make the reference in other shows as well.  Even in TNG.

posted on August 20th, 2010, 10:31 am

There's also an Analog Processor Chip in development as a DARPA project right now.  It's not purely off/on.

posted on August 20th, 2010, 11:20 am

well, problem with such processors are: very very very easy to disturb, needs new software, also damn expensive. The binare system is simple, easy, and to the most important part: solid.

Only very low electro-magnetical fields are needed to disturb a decimal processor, while u need alot more to have a influence on a signal that just say 0 or 1.

posted on August 20th, 2010, 11:42 am

Is this a thread about an inconsistency in Star Trek? Who'd have guessed it; Star Trek being inconsistent, Voyager even...

posted on August 21st, 2010, 6:59 pm

Sometimes you just have to let the little things go. It isn't like they watch every episode of every ST before writing a script up.

posted on August 21st, 2010, 8:18 pm

aslong the mistakes are not as big as in the sherlock home movie ...

posted on August 22nd, 2010, 2:44 pm

Sometimes you just have to let the little things go. It isn't like they watch every episode of every ST before writing a script up.

In one case a writer gave an arbitrary range to the ship communications (I forget who, and the name of the episodes, SFDebris complains about this problem in his review of the episode where Janeway almost gets dragged to hell by energy beings, and she unfortunately escapes), that was completely different than the arbitrary range she gave to ship communications in the other episode she wrote, both were important to the plots of the episodes. It's not that anyone wants them to watch every show, but it would be nice if more writers at least remembered the major plot points, especially the ones they themselves made up.

posted on August 22nd, 2010, 2:52 pm

It's possible to build computers that use ternary transistors and even decimal transistors. The only issues with using more then a binary transistor are A ) It's not so easy to control the level or charge needed to maintain states other then On and Off, B ) Programming would need to be redeveloped for such systems, and 3 ) Money

Its easier when you have bio-gell packs.

Why are we trying to explain voyager technobabble again?   Very little of the technobabble in any scifi series makes sense, though, A trinary computer seems like a cool idea and possible.   

Idk how you could have that because electricity is either on or off... but W.E. its voager what can you expect.

True, but I think it could be possible to get resistors to react differently to different amounts of energy, verses just on or off, but high, medium, low amounts of energy.

posted on August 22nd, 2010, 3:07 pm

In one case a writer gave an arbitrary range to the ship communications (I forget who, and the name of the episodes, SFDebris complains about this problem in his review of the episode where Janeway almost gets dragged to hell by energy beings, and she unfortunately escapes), that was completely different than the arbitrary range she gave to ship communications in the other episode she wrote, both were important to the plots of the episodes. It's not that anyone wants them to watch every show, but it would be nice if more writers at least remembered the major plot points, especially the ones they themselves made up.

Oh I understand, but I don't think the topic problem can be considered a major plot point. Reminds me of the Xena episode of Simpsons. It's magic people!

posted on August 22nd, 2010, 4:39 pm

True, but I think it could be possible to get resistors to react differently to different amounts of energy, verses just on or off, but high, medium, low amounts of energy.

I believe that would require extremely accurate equipment to both generate the current, as well as design the transistor to utilize those specific amounts.

posted on August 22nd, 2010, 7:03 pm

well what about the human brain in a sence it is a computer and its parts are always powered just some parts are more active then others. perhaps  binary transistor , ternary transistors , ect are steps along a path that will lead to something like the human/alien brain. and voyager does have bio-gel packs that sort and send data faster then isolinniar chips ....?