Betty wrote:
My immediate reaction when Neil suggested B7 fic in cyberspace was to instantly flash onto two cliches: the out-of-control holodeck simulation seen so often on Trek, and the dreaded "and then he woke up and it was all a computer simulation." I have the horrible, sinking feeling that if I ever tried to write a B7 cyberspace story, it'd somehow end up turning into one of those, whether I wanted it to or not...
I think I have a big advantage here. I'd loved B7 for approaching 20 years when I saw my first-ever Trek, and the Trek episodes (all flavours, or should that be flavors) combined I've seen would probably still be in single figures.
Ob B7: What do people think the computers of the future will really be like? Do people agree that the Federation computer technology we see on screen is just a smokescreen concealing the Real Thing? How does one go about programming them? -- I've never believed the prodding-with-fancy-screwdrivers line.
Tavia
Tavia wrote:
Ob B7: What do people think the computers of the future will really be like? Do people agree that the Federation computer technology we see on screen is just a smokescreen concealing the Real Thing? How does one go about programming them? -- I've never believed the prodding-with-fancy-screwdrivers line.
Well, this is just a thought, but ... one of the early super-computers (Cray II, perhaps?) was built in a circle, because the limiting speed was how fast electricity could travel along its wires, and the circle allowed the wires to be shorter. Suppose that Federation computers have a similar problem of limiting speed that can be overcome to a certain extent by building specialized modular circuits - maybe tiny atomic-level computers in themselves - for different types of processing. The bit with the fancy screwdrivers then becomes reconfiguring the manner in which the modules interconnect. Pretty lame, but the best I've been able to come up with since the first time I saw Spacefall.
Mistral
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Mistral -
Tavia