Science

Star Trek Got it Right on Computers

Posted 18 Jun 2004 at 19:11 UTC by steve Share This

Star Trek may be overly optimistic on FTL drive for starships and matter transmission but, according to a new Minneapolis Star Tribune article by Isaac Cheifetz, it was right on target with computer technology. Even 350 years in the future of ST:TNG, computers barely manage to answer well-phrased questions posed by humans, they never ask the questions. The artificially intelligent android, Mr. Data, is one-of-a-kind and not understood by Star Fleet AI experts. Even Data's creator didn't fully understand AI - Data's "brother", Lor, turned out as a psychopathic killer robot. On the other hand, computer databases connect to each other seamlessly "both at the technical level, and semantically", allow computer users to instantly download data from computers found on alien starships or left behind by ancient civilizations.

Robot of the Day

Roach

Built by
Brian Rudy

Recent blogs

12 Feb 2012 AI4U (Observer)
10 Feb 2012 mwaibel (Master)
6 Feb 2012 Flanneltron (Journeyer)
6 Feb 2012 Mubot (Master)
29 Jan 2012 robotsrawsome (Observer)
9 Jan 2012 The Swirling Brain (Master)
9 Jan 2012 steve (Master)
4 Jan 2012 evilrobots (Observer)
21 Dec 2011 spirit (Journeyer)
22 Nov 2011 robotvibes (Master)
16 Nov 2011 JLaplace (Observer)
8 Nov 2011 wesley.zilva (Observer)
31 Oct 2011 jmhenry (Journeyer)
16 Oct 2011 milk3dfx (Observer)
14 Oct 2011 Christophe Menant (Master)
20 Sep 2011 jcoat (Observer)
17 Sep 2011 githinkgp (Observer)
8 Aug 2011 Pi Robot (Master)

Newest Robots

7 Aug 2009 Titan EOD
13 May 2009 Spacechair
6 Feb 2009 K-bot
9 Jan 2009 3 in 1 Bot
15 Dec 2008 UMEEBOT
10 Nov 2008 Robot
10 Nov 2008 SAMM
24 Oct 2008 Romulus
30 Sep 2008 CD-Bot
26 Sep 2008 Little Johnny

User Cert Key

Observer
Apprentice
Journeyer
Master
X
Share this page