Questions tagged [communication]
The act of conveying information from a sender to a receiver.
57
questions
12
votes
1
answer
325
views
Short story about a guy who turns an untranslatable alien signal into a sports betting wire
I was re-reading Varley's A Persistence of Vision and the Eight Worlds story "The Black Hole Passes" which uses the "Ophiuchi Hotline" setting reminded me of this story. I read ...
- 138k
0
votes
0
answers
137
views
How did Lo'ak learn the language of the Tulkun?
At one point during the movie, Jake Sully's son Lo'ak is abandoned (by Na'vi of the Metkayina clan) in the middle of a sea predator's territory. Lo'ak is saved from the predator by Payakan, a member ...
- 4,716
13
votes
1
answer
849
views
Was the method of transmitting an image in "Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space" inspired by scientific literature or vice versa?
In my answer here where I suggested Danny Dunn and the Voice from Space, I mentioned the image that the protagonists receive from space via a radio telescope, which was decoded in part because they ...
- 233k
2
votes
1
answer
199
views
Communication through deep space in Halo
In universes like Halo, where civilizations span hundreds of planets/moons etc. How would they be able to reliably communicate without having extreme latency? Is there some sort of "reasonable ...
- 23
2
votes
1
answer
595
views
How does the communication in The Expanse find its way to the receiver?
If two persons in the Expanse are communicating and don't know where the other person is, how can the communication find it's way to the target?
This goes double if people think the person is on ...
- 16.1k
15
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Who uses combadges other than Starfleet and Bajoran Militia?
In TNG and DS9, Starfleet members and soldiers/officers in the Bajoran militia use long distance communicators shaped like the symbols of the organizations they serve attached to their uniforms- do ...
- 26.9k
20
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Does "2001 A Space Odyssey" involve faster than light communication?
The scene is where the astronauts are talking to ground control about HAL's erratic behavior.
The astronauts are somewhere near Jupiter and ground control is on Earth so the minimum communication ...
- 397
5
votes
2
answers
314
views
What is the earliest story or book combining technological FTL communication with lack of FTL travel?
What is the earliest story or book combining technology for FTL communication with a lack of FTL travel?
I first remember encountering this concept in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game:
("Ender's ...
- 3,895
4
votes
0
answers
87
views
Aliens farmed for secretions, young man given power to communicate with them
I'm looking for the title and author of a science fiction book that I read about ten years ago.
It involved people on an alien world where a local insect species are farmed (rather haphazardly) for ...
- 227
9
votes
1
answer
588
views
Is there an official way to refer to communicating by putting your head in the fire?
In books four and five, several characters communicate by sticking their head into a floo fire. This makes their head appear in the other fireplace where they can talk with whoever is there.
Is there ...
- 95.7k
10
votes
3
answers
421
views
What are the limits on transferring objects during fireplace-to-fireplace conversations? Is it exploitable?
Early on in chapter 11 of Goblet of Fire, there is a conversation between the Weasley parents and Mr. Diggory. Mr. Diggory's head is appearing in their fire and he is using this to talk. During this ...
- 4,869
17
votes
4
answers
3k
views
What is the communications range of a standard Starfleet combadge?
This has been suggested to pretty far, even light-years, plus have been turned into a subspace beacon or transponder especially if damaged to aid in finding the owner either to rescue a survivor or to ...
- 179
-2
votes
1
answer
104
views
Simultaneous use of Palantiri [closed]
Palantiri need to be oriented correctly to See:
To communicate with another stone, the viewer would orient himself and look toward the location of that stone, and the two stones would automatically ...
- 1,251
4
votes
1
answer
193
views
A man on a high gravity planet becomes more alien with exposure to planet and starts to understand aliens
That's about all I remember. I was really impressed with the way the author portrayed the changes in the man and the alien communication. I think the man was on a science base which got damaged.
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
458
views
In the movie Arrival, were the visitors "playing dumb"?
It appears a clever trick the visitors were using...
- 1,077
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How do Starfleet comm badges know how to connect between personnel?
How do Starfleet comm badges work as far as connections? One user taps their badge and says “me” to “receiving person”.
It’s obviously heard as an inter-comm on the ship, so I can understand how ...
- 3,612
11
votes
2
answers
591
views
Do Starfleet communicators require a server?
Do we ever find out, anywhere in Star Trek, whether standard-issue Starfleet communicators (e.g. TOS-era handheld communicators or TNG-era commbadges) require a server to communicate (like a cell ...
- 19k
5
votes
5
answers
388
views
Do non-Starfleet communicators also have Prescient Routing Tech?
Followup to: Why is there no combadge lag on initiating inter-personnel comms?
Many misunderstood the previous question, so I'll try to rephrase it.
Sometimes we see Riker's perspective: his badge ...
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How do Atlanteans communicate underwater?
We have seen Atlanteans in both Marvel comics and DC. Beings who can live and breathe under water as well as on land, their physiology has been shown to be very different from humans.
Sticking my ...
- 26.9k
4
votes
0
answers
421
views
Battlestar Galactica Communications
Do they have audio-visual communications in the 2004 series like they showed in the 1978 series? I know in the Galactica's CIC it shows them using old phone handsets that are hard wired. Did the ...
- 2,555
8
votes
0
answers
211
views
Why the internet and PCs never became a staple of science fiction? [closed]
I just came out of a screening of Lo and Behold: Reveries of the connected world , a documentary by Werner Herzog about the past, present and future of the internet (very recommended indeed.) One of ...
- 181
12
votes
1
answer
202
views
Short story with audible computer networks
I am looking for a short story where all the computer to computer communications were audible to humans. After being exposed to this for long enough the younger generations start creating music ...
- 129
3
votes
2
answers
634
views
"Cause and Effect": Why didn't the Enterprise check with a Starfleet "time beacon" earlier on?
I have seen this episode a number of times. I believe while it is mentioned that the Typhon Expanse (as being explored in the episode) is largely unexplored, there does not appear to be any issue ...
- 231
7
votes
1
answer
317
views
What is the benefit of keeping an open com channel
Sorry if this has been asked before but this has bugged me for some time
Usually to contact someone the badge is tapped and something is said like 'riker to bridge', yet when someone is in danger its ...
- 4,834
29
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Why didn't Sirius remind Harry about the mirror when he used Umbridge's fireplace?
I understand from this answer why not-so-bright Harry didn't understand the true usefulness or significance of the two-way mirror until it was too late. This was basically because Sirius described it ...
- 62k
10
votes
2
answers
920
views
Why don’t they switch to text communication when there’s a bad connection?
It happens sometimes in Star Trek that the quality of video chats is too bad. Why don't they switch to audio or text only? This would save bandwidth and they would communicate better.
- 411
5
votes
1
answer
468
views
How do they hear incoming transmissions through their communicator?
I was wondering how people in Star Trek hear the incoming transmissions. I thought they used speakers located in the rooms and corridors of space ships, but they also work outside. Does the sound come ...
- 411
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Communcations and the MDV in "The Martian"
In the book "The Martian", communication is lost with Earth after the Mars Ascent Vehicle leaves. It seems to me the Mars Descent Vehicle (MDV), which they landed in, would have had some kind of a ...
- 50.9k
4
votes
2
answers
271
views
How do distant clones solve the simultaneity problem in Diaspora?
Maybe I misundertand something, but I find Greg Egan's treatment of the simultaneity problem between distant clones in Diaspora problematic, strangely at odds with the overall technically detailed ...
- 255
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How would the act of networking Galactica's computers allow the introduction of a computer virus?
In Battlestar Galactica, the Colonial fleet is separated from Galactica when they are forced to jump to the emergency FTL jump coordinates. Battlestar Galactica is left behind, and after they realize ...
- 651
30
votes
6
answers
3k
views
How is breaking news reported in the Harry Potter universe?
Throughout the Harry Potter series, we see several forms of journalism and communication. The most obvious is the Daily Prophet, represented by Rita Skeeter, which, as the name suggests, appears to be ...
- 5,602
7
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Alien communication via a Chess Knight piece
I'm looking for a short story, most likely written before 1985 about an alien being able to communicate with a man only because he was playing chess (by himself?) and thinking about his Knight move.
...
- 9,738
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Out-of-universe, how are Star Trek combadges attached?
How are combadges attached?
(Is there any reference in-universe to how they stay on? This question primarily focuses on in-universe explanation -- there is a mention of out-of-universe in an ...
- 59.9k
7
votes
2
answers
807
views
First reference to a wireless communication technology in Science Fiction?
Considering we have a 'wireless communication technology' currently in the form of mobile phones and two-way radios, and have had so for quite some time, I was wondering what is the first reference to ...
- 69.4k
2
votes
0
answers
42
views
Location without combadge [duplicate]
In DS9 'Dax' they cannot find the location of the kidnappers of Dax. However, during the episode 'The Nagus', Sisko requests Jake's location from the computer, and it's given.
In previous episodes, ...
- 1,076
0
votes
2
answers
341
views
Why aren’t transport requests addressed to a specific transporter room instead of the ship?
When somebody requests a beam-out, they say:
[officer’s name] to [ship], [amount of people] to beam up
I know the AI would know to route this channel to a working transporter room after the word “...
- 1,076
4
votes
1
answer
209
views
What is the limit of the Farscape communication ("comms") device?
The Farscape Wiki says:
"Comms or communication devices were integrated systems connected to
and controlled by Leviathans such as Moya.
The devices had a fairly wide range, but a distinct ...
- 61
6
votes
1
answer
471
views
Need Name of Children's Short Story (1970s SRA, maybe) - Boy Fixes Radio of a Crashed Alien Craft
I'm interested in the title and/or author of this story. I was in grade school from 1971 to 1978. The story collections we read were SRA (reading laboratories). Usually boring stuff. But I found back ...
- 63
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Science fiction short story about a Schwarzchild radius growing
I read this short story in an anthology from NMSU library in the 1980s. It had adult themes, and I still can't forget how shocked I was. Possible author was Stanislaw Lem but I might be wrong.
The ...
- 1,128
17
votes
4
answers
3k
views
How do non-officers communicate on board Federation ships?
In the middle of "Starship Mine"
I'm surprised to find out that non-officers don't have their own comm-badges. How do they communicate with each other in all these situations, where officers use ...
- 9,339
2
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Why don't they use short wave radios in The Walking Dead?
Charging the batteries using solar powered chargers could work right?
- 780
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Maximum distance and speed for communication in StarTrek franchise [duplicate]
In the middle of TNG: "Transfigurations" an alien ship is detected on long-range sensors. Worf says, that it travels with Warp 9.72 on interception course and it will take 10.53 hours to meet it.
We ...
- 9,339
11
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How can there be different languages with universal translators?
I've not watched every episode of Star Trek or read every book, but I was wondering why there are still different languages amongst different species, groups, etc ?
For example, if a group of people ...
- 1,675
15
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Are communications jammers common in the Star Wars universe?
During the speeder bike chase in Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywaker instructs Leia to jam the communications of the Imperial Scout Troopers they are chasing/being chased by.
The jammer seems to be ...
- 253
14
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Story about extraterrestrial slug trying to communicate
As a child circa the late 1970s, I read a poignant science fiction story that I would love to be able to identify. As best I can recall after all these years, the story went something like this:
A ...
- 141
17
votes
8
answers
5k
views
How come so many species in Star Trek universe have compatible communications technologies?
In-universe, I mean.
I understand about universal translators, but how come ship-to-ship communications are compatible, right down to the 3D presentations on their view screens? For example, Janeway ...
- 534
11
votes
1
answer
28k
views
Meaning of the term - in the blind
Various characters in the movie Gravity use the term 'in the blind' at the end of a transmission.
This is said most often by Lieutenant Matt Kowalski after the initial incident. It is also heard ...
- 8,925
13
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Was there any kind of meaningful communication between humans and Tyranids in Warhammer 40k?
Although Orks, Chaos marines, etc. are always hostile to humans, they can be talked with, even if not reasoned with. Very rarely, even a (very short-lived) truce can be made with them.
However, was ...
- 12.1k
4
votes
2
answers
383
views
Is there filtering on Star Trek audio/video communication channels?
Occasionally in Star Trek Enterprise, a visual or audio communication channel will be open between Enterprise and an adversary. While the com is open, the crew will tell the captain things that they ...
- 375
18
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Is there an in-universe explanation for how mobile communicators stop listening in TNG?
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, DS9, and Voyager, it seems common for officers to touch their communicators to initiate a conversation but it's unclear when the person on the other side stops ...
- 3,456