5 ms·

I've seen some valiant attempts at procrastination, but boy--this really takes the cake. Cross-examining engineering dialogue diagnosing fictional technology? R

• jacques_chester 16y ago
  Why not? We software types scoff at VB-GUIs-to-track-IPs, after all.
• Locke1689 16y ago
  A lot of it's wrong too. Instead of minimizing excess reactivity, they seem to be doing everything in their power to increase it. Evidence of the high excess reactivity of a warp core can be found every time one of 'em blows up. For example, in "Generations", they knew the reactor was going to blow five minutes before it actually did, and they couldn't do anything but evacuate. In "Disaster", we saw a similar scenario; the reactor was counting down to doomsday throughout the entire second half of the episode. The only way they could stop these catastrophes was to eject the entire warp core or restore the containment field. You would think that they could simply shut off the flow of antimatter into the chamber (or at the very least, redirect it out into space), but it appears that even if they do so, the warp core contains enough unreacted fuel at any time to destroy the entire ship. It's a textbook example of extreme excess reactivity. This is completely ignorant. Given that there's no such thing as an antimatter reactor, we have no idea how one works. Applying design principles from some trivial mechanical system to a fictional science fiction super-reactor just doesn't make sense.
  • kylec 16y ago
    Exactly what I was going to say. Maybe the warp cores are dangerous because it's simply not possible for them to build one that's completely safe. It's actually reminiscent of the accidents that we've had with nuclear power in the last century - creating a reactor that won't ever go critical is something that's only been possible recently. Though I do have to admit the holodeck failed far, far too often.
    • dalke 16y ago
      The TRIGA design is over 50 years old, with about 65 reactors built. It was designed to be inherently safe, and "safe even in the hands of a young graduate student." So we've known how to do this for some time, at least in the realm of research reactors.
    • wlievens 16y ago
      The holodeck is one of the most-abused plot elements in Star Trek. Basically every time budget was short or the production crew felt like using other costumes, they'd just use the holodeck as magical plot element. With grave plot inconsistencies as a consequence.
      • philwelch 16y ago
        Hey, at least they stopped the TOS practice of using the "it's the Roman/Nazi/postapocalyptic Cold War/Amerindian/Ancient Greek planet!" principle to use other costumes.
    • stuhacking 16y ago
      Can you imagine if you used the gas pedal of your car as a moderator instead of to feed just enough fuel mix into the engine? Take your foot of the gas today and the car stops. Take your foot of the gas in Star Trek and the car explodes. I think this is what he was getting at: The design seems to have instability as a feature.