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You know, if Luke Skywalker hadn't listened to Obi Wan and switched off his targeting computer that Death-star would still be out there menacing peaceful planet

You know, if Luke Skywalker hadn't listened to Obi Wan and switched off his targeting computer that Death-star would still be out there menacing peaceful planets. Good job the Rebels didn't disable manual over-ride.

krisoft 4y ago
Yeah, because space based fairy tales provide a proper basis to engineer a fighting force. There are many good reasons why one would want a manual over-ride. The imagination of popular script writers is not one of them.
- nonrandomstring 4y ago
  I'm glad we're in agreement. If only Ronald Regan has listened to his 'Star Wars' advisors. And a shame Boeing's 737 MAX software team had parents who took them to see Smokey and the Bandit in 1977.
  - ncmncm 4y ago
    RR (rather, the people writing his script) knew that Star Wars didn't need to actually work, as such. It only need to panic the Soviet military brass enough to to get them to crash the Soviet economy.
    - nonrandomstring 4y ago
      > Star Wars didn't need to actually work, as such. It only need to panic the Soviet military brass enough to to get them to crash the Soviet economy. It's a good, and perhaps trivially true theory, insomuch as warfare is always bluff. I think by mid-80's the writing was already on the wall with respect to Soviet over-reach and CIA knew that. But don't you think the ruskie scientists knew "space lasers" were never going to happen? As I understand it, the best we ever got were some kinds of chemical MASERs (Ammonium liquid phase) that could take out a slow missile at a couple of kilometres on a perfect day. Any confirmed advances on that? Ironically enough, in the context of this thread, such weapons absolutely could not function without total computer control of the ranging and targeting angle.
      - DuskStar 4y ago
        The Navy is currently deploying 100kW-class solid state lasers. It's taken a while, but the dream of laser AA is coming!
      - ncmncm 4y ago
        > But don't you think the ruskie scientists knew "space lasers" were never going to happen? Evidently the brass were not confident of that.
nonrandomstring 4y ago
Oh dear! Why all the Star Wars hate? Did I wander into a convention of TREKKIES? :)

krisoft 4y ago

Yeah, because space based fairy tales provide a proper basis to engineer a fighting force. There are many good reasons why one would want a manual over-ride. The imagination of popular script writers is not one of them.

nonrandomstring 4y ago
I'm glad we're in agreement. If only Ronald Regan has listened to his 'Star Wars' advisors. And a shame Boeing's 737 MAX software team had parents who took them to see Smokey and the Bandit in 1977.
- ncmncm 4y ago
  RR (rather, the people writing his script) knew that Star Wars didn't need to actually work, as such. It only need to panic the Soviet military brass enough to to get them to crash the Soviet economy.
  - nonrandomstring 4y ago
    > Star Wars didn't need to actually work, as such. It only need to panic the Soviet military brass enough to to get them to crash the Soviet economy. It's a good, and perhaps trivially true theory, insomuch as warfare is always bluff. I think by mid-80's the writing was already on the wall with respect to Soviet over-reach and CIA knew that. But don't you think the ruskie scientists knew "space lasers" were never going to happen? As I understand it, the best we ever got were some kinds of chemical MASERs (Ammonium liquid phase) that could take out a slow missile at a couple of kilometres on a perfect day. Any confirmed advances on that? Ironically enough, in the context of this thread, such weapons absolutely could not function without total computer control of the ranging and targeting angle.
    - DuskStar 4y ago
      The Navy is currently deploying 100kW-class solid state lasers. It's taken a while, but the dream of laser AA is coming!
    - ncmncm 4y ago
      > But don't you think the ruskie scientists knew "space lasers" were never going to happen? Evidently the brass were not confident of that.

nonrandomstring 4y ago

Oh dear! Why all the Star Wars hate? Did I wander into a convention of TREKKIES? :)