Timeline for Why are characters in Star Trek so specific when speaking?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
12 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 31, 2019 at 10:52 | comment | added | Stese | @Duthomhas - My thinking on this is that with stored preferences... come privacy concerns... the less it sorted about a persons preferences, the less this an issue, so maybe in a communial society such as this, it's designed out to prevent privacy becoming an issue... | |
| Jan 7, 2019 at 16:26 | vote | accept | user | ||
| Jan 3, 2019 at 19:54 | comment | added | Remy Lebeau | To expand on Jon Clement's earlier comment, take for example Google Home. Even though it understands natural speak commands quite well, certain commands do have a syntax to them to make it easier for parsing ("OK Google, <do action> <on/from service> <on/to device>"). You can provide all of the info up front, or you can let Google ask for clarification (ie, which device, if multiple are present and there is no default, or multiple can service the command - like playing music on a speaker or the TV). So who is to say computers in the future can't be the same way to make the programming easier? | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 18:22 | comment | added | Dúthomhas | ...Additionally, the OP did note to us something computers do for us now: remember preferences. There's really no reason Picard's replicator shouldn't remember his favorite tea. (Unless he gets enough of it from more public replicators, AND those replicators aren't sufficiently tied into the ship's systems enough to know who is asking.) | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 18:19 | comment | added | Dúthomhas | While this answer does address a possibly valid issue, it does not answer the basic premise: excess specificity. Even scientists will not add unneeded verbiage. He will go to the diner and ask for "decaf", instead of asking for it by full name and brand, possibly adding, "you know, the only kind of decaffeinated coffee you sell to everyone, all day, every day." Everyone on board has a sonic shower. I'm not sure there can be an in-universe explanation for this; it only serves to tell the story, to narrate their future world against ours. | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 14:25 | comment | added | Jon Clements | @user 1) it's only covers one part of your question, 2) it's mostly the same as this answer - just pointing out another rationale for why it might occur and 3) your question's currently on hold as too broad... | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 14:23 | comment | added | user | @JonClements if you want to convert that to an answer it will get my up-vote. | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 13:59 | comment | added | Jon Clements | There's also some scenes when asking the computer/replicator systems for something where the system keeps coming back asking for clarifications... it's possible when you know the system's going to do that - you pre-empt it and just give it all the info. in a single sentence instead of the entailing back'n'forth. | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 13:55 | comment | added | user107907 | Your answer reminds me of the scene where Tom Paris struggles with the replicator and its many soup options. None of the current Starfleet members struggled with the replicator, but the way he gets angry with it makes him look less professional. | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 13:29 | comment | added | o.m. | @user, what kind of civilians? Spacers? Scientists? | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 13:24 | comment | added | user | I was wondering about that, but I don't know if there are examples of civilians using similarly explicit language. | |
| Jan 3, 2019 at 13:17 | history | answered | o.m. | CC BY-SA 4.0 |