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My favorite game watching TNG is trying to figure out how the communicators somehow always perfectly know when the user means to use them. It's very common for
by fouronnes3 1y ago
My favorite game watching TNG is trying to figure out how the communicators somehow always perfectly know when the user means to use them. It's very common for a character to tap it to initiate the conversation, but then the back and forth is magically seamless, as well as the end of the communication. All while being mixed up with talking to other characters mid conversation.
- XorNot 1y ago"<number> to beam up" drives my wife nuts and she's right: how the heck does the transporter tech know who they're targeting? Like sure I guess you could infer it by grouping I guess but how does that selection UI work? (Though that's far less infuriating then the question of why transporter pattern boosters exist, can be transported, and yet numerous episodes exist of beaming into an environment and not being able to beam out. Why is standard protocol not to always send down a signal booster?)
- Svip 1y agoThe '<number> to beam up' line is an instruction to the transporter operator; since they can detect life signs, they can guess by proximity. It's thus not the computer making the call, but a human operator.
- nosmokewhereiam 1y agoFun addition: "Beam me up, Scotty" wasn't ever a line on the show, just a fun reference.
- MisterTea 1y agoObviously it's all handled by the AI running on the TPU in the communicator powered by a miniature matter-antimatter reactor.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- teraflop 1y agoAccording to the TNG Technical Manual (which is not entirely canon, but whatever) it's all handwaved by a context-sensitive AI that figures out who you're trying to talk to from context clues. https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/55156/why-is-there-no-combadge-lag-on-initiating-inter-personnel-comms https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/55156/why-is-there...