Why are Starfleet computers so noisy?

Question

Starfleet computer consoles are rather noisy. I can understand — especially with 24th Century touchscreen LCARS consoles — why they might be designed to emit sounds when pressed. (This way, you'll know if you have inadvertently initiated a photon torpedo launch when you were resting your hand on the tactical console...)

But the consoles also make plenty of noise while they are retrieving information, for instance at 00:16s in this compilation:

Present-day computers make unavoidable hard-drive whirring sounds while accessing data, but do not purposely make sound effects to indicate that data is being accessed (at least not typically).

Why are Starfleet computer consoles so noisy?

I perfectly understand the out-of-universe reasons for this — it makes sense from a production point of view, as it helps to create the atmosphere. I'm asking for in-universe reasons. Why would Starfleet engineers add so many sound effects to consoles?

Speculation is fine, but something official — such as a statement from Michael Okuda or a technical manual entry — is preferable.

Answer 1

Probably as acknowledgement for input and processes occurring...for the user and (!) for his or her colleagues

In all the instances shown in the above video, it seems to me that every time a noise is made by the computer, it is when someone has pressed a button on the screen somewhere. Rather than just touching the screen and having no acknowledgement, it is probably useful to know that they have pressed what they thought they had.

Focusing in on the main question about why it makes so much noise when retrieving data we have the out-of-universe reason for 'rule of cool' and informing people that a system is coming online. The latter is also a valid in-universe reason though; if you want to access data it's nice to have some acknowledgement of that. So, by having the sound output acknowledging that, yes a system is coming online to access the data you requested, you know something is working. From a troubleshooting perspective this is particularly useful. I press a button and I don't hear the system coming online tells me what the problem is - there must be a problem with the system connections.

Bear in mind (and I know this is going from a bit of an out-of-universe perspective) that when TNG was made, keyboards and mice were quite noisy and so the idea of not having a sound confirmation of making an action would be alien.

This then raises the question of why audio notifications are better than visual ones; wouldn't audio notifications just annoy everyone around you? Well, it could be argued that this is part of the reason. When you consider when people use LCARS, generally they are in a group environment. So, when they do something, there is a little sound notification, not only alerting the user, but also the people around them. I don't know about you, but if I was aboard the Enterprise-D, I'd want to make sure that other people could tell what Wesley was doing with the anti-matter containment field to ensure he wasn't messing it up without spending all their time looking over his shoulder!

Answer 2

What, you've never heard anyone's touchscreen cell phone making artificial clicking as they type? It works by the same principle - a touchscreen, with "buttons" that don't really exist, right next to each other, easy to miss letting you accidentally not press any input at all. Usually those sounds are a little quieter, maybe using tactile vibration instead of sound.

Heck, nearly every ATM and credit card point of sale terminal does exactly this too. And for the same reason - to reduce errors.

In fact, watching this, it's kind of weird that there aren't a lot of "dammits" and frantic backspacing. ;)

Answer 3

I am going to echo what others have said about the in-universe justification of sounds indicating a part of the system state.

I would like to add, however, that this principle is as a real thing and it goes well beyond having pre-defined sound clips play upon particular events (as it has been supported since at least Windows 95). The generic technique is called sonification, and it is a subject of active research (e.g. one recent research paper, another recent research paper).

The idea is that human (and certainly, other humanoid :-) ) users can easily detect anomalies even in a somewhat complex pattern of sounds. While many of the sound effects we see on Star Trek seem to be pre-recorded (they always play out the same), that data processing one you pointed out might very well be the indication of something being loaded successfully - I speculate that, had there been any errors, a few of the beeps might have been replaced with something else, thereby immediately giving users a hint that there is a problem with X percent of the data.

Answer 4

My speculation: it's so you can perform multiple tasks at once, without looking at every single screen.

Think about the little beeps as auditory progress bars.

I can start a planetary scan on one console, turn around and start a shield modulation on another console, and then start writing up a log on a third console. (Or do all three on the same console.) By listening to the noises made by the first two processes, I can know exactly what the first two processes are doing without turning away from my third task to look at them.

The "real" answer is probably a combination of all of the answers, but this is the first thing that occurred to me.

Answer 5

Why are Starfleet computers so noisy?

Answer: The sound effects for the consoles were designed to bring the panels to life and provide the illusion that they were more than just eye candy.

While the actual sets contain lit consoles, they do not, in and of themselves, make sounds of any kind. Rather, the sound effects, much like the computer voice (voice by Majel Barrett)were added during the editing process.

In short, the sounds were created to provide depth and to create the illusion of functionality.