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MRW I'm trying to slack off for the rest of the year and someone tries assigning me a new task
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine S7E17 "Penumbra"
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
170 points (98.9% liked)
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The idea that they are still using analog technology in the far future pleases me.
Analogue is best for DX (distant communication) because of the cliff effect, it's better to have KSSH than having the signal drop completely.
I feel like that was true at some point in the past, but advances in digital communication probably move the cliff effect further away than the middle shown int he wikipedia article. Like digital has error code correction and data compression and all modern long-distance communication (like space probes, cell phones, or satellites) are digital now.
Starfleet systems are digital, but have to interface with any other possible system, so there’s a layer to it that can interface with analog systems. Which is why you often see and hear analog static during transmissions.
Also, Nicole de Boer is cute as a button no matter what she does.
Alternatively, it could be possible the Starfleet voice protocol is similar to UDP, and the system simulates static to fill in the gaps when there is packet loss.
They aren't. Digital implies electronics. Starfleet runs on duotronics/multitronics and isolinear chips. No more transistors or resistors.
No. “Digital” refers to the logic used to implement a system, which is usually boolean and probably still is in Star Trek.
Things can be digital regardless of implementation; tapes and spinning hard drives, can still store digital binary data.
What? Digital implies digits! Electronic, duotronic, multitronic, whatever it’s called at the time. Starfleet computers are programmed in binary (at least as of TNG), it’s been shown many times.
"Electrons? What is this, the dark ages?"
Funny, but to be fair, electricity probably still has its uses in Trek. For instance, does it really make sense to power a toothbrush directly from EPS conduits? (And yes, they seem to still have toothbrushes in the 24th century according to MA; a bit different, but probably still electric.)
Also, according to MA article on EPS:
Imagine if Bones was an engineer.
“Soldering? My god man, what do you want me to do next? Install vacuum tubes??”
Reminds me of how prevalent "tapes" were in everyday use in TOS
Interestingly enough, tapes seem to be the most reliable of long-life storage so far. We'll see how those 'stone' cd/dvd/bd-r disks work out...but apparently they've stopped manufacturing them now too...
greping the word "tapes" on all the TOS scripts, I see that the term was definitely most commonly used when referring to long-term storage, archives, libraries, etc. That is definitely realistic and in line with our modern understanding of data storage media. But there were still plenty of instances in which it was mentioned how things like tricorders and ship's sensors record straight to tape, which is far less likely.