Ask Lemmy

There are tons of protocol droids in universe. He cobbled scrap bots together. Clever, but he didn’t invent or program it. More like fancy legos

Look at it from the perspective of 1977 or just before, when the scripts were written. I wasn't alive back then, but from what you read, it was a time when (real-world) devices came with manuals, schematics, block diagrams, and if they were missing you could probably find them or get them from the manufacturer.

Apple I and II are just hitting the market, with a strong background in DIY culture, and in the unlikely case you had access to one of these (or something like an Altair 8800 etc), you'd probably know how to fix a blown cap with a soldering iron.

Maybe I'm glorifying the past here but, Star Wars was written at a time when things, including computers, were expected to be repairable. So what you're writing really only makes sense from a contemporary 2020-ies perspective, nobody would have raised an eyebrow at that detail in 1977 ... probably.

I think the reality is that Anakin was written as a tech wizard by writers that saw a lot of technology as just magic that tech wizards can do.

He was able to build a droid out of spare parts not because there was an open protocol droid system that enables technically inclined people to learn how to build their own custom versions. He built a droid because that's what a child tech genius would do. How did he program it? More tech magic. He's impressive, you aren't supposed to understand anything of what he did, it was just a plot device to show what the chosen one was capable of before the Jedi even found him.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, just so much of technology in media is written this way.

Star Wars has a data transmission problem in that software isn't easily distributed across the galaxy.

Its much more likely Anakin found the programming or just a part with the "OS" installed and put it into a bunch of spare protocol droid parts. Maybe it took some tinkering but I don't think he did a bunch of low level stuff as he's a slave without real education, and I don't believe anything of that level of skill comes up again.

Also noted, I don't think the droids in Star Wars are 1 for 1 "operating systems" as we know them as they (can) have advanced personalities in a way that our software certainly doesn't do.

This is the loveliest conversation I have seen all week. I have been incredibly burned out with Reddit of late, so this is refreshing.

C-3PO is proprietary. How do I know this? George told me it is supposed to be the first warning sign that Anakin is evil.

Little did we known he used two swimming pools worth of water everytime he translated for r2d2

my jawa friend says, and i qoute

Ibana Utinni! Togo m'bwa kwa chee kah

Make of that what you will

Everything is open source if you can read Assembly! (Replace Assembly with whatever the Star Wars equivalent is, which is probably just Assembly.)

Just because you can open the can doesn't mean it comes already open.
That some people can run Linux on a PS5 doesn't make the PS5 open hardware.

The internet doesn't exist in SW, so likely things are based on physical modules; so he probably scavenged, repaired, or assembled a physical module that embodies the droid's mind and everything is more or less hard-coded. And because the internet--and perhaps copyright law--doesn't exist, he doesn't need to activate the module with a central server.

I don't really even think programming is touched on, it's more just based on electronics. Software isn't really at thing.

[Edit: I mean, obviously software exists, but it doesn't function like real software does in the world. Tech is largely based on droids, which are delightfully physical and embodied for a visual medium, and droids are more like artisanly-modified cars than software that can be updated and copied. That is to say, the technology in Star Wars takes a lot more cues from mechanics and electronics than it does from software and programming. It is a markedy and consciously retro type of future (or should I say "past?").]

This is exactly the content I want from the internet. Thank you.

According to a comic released in the early 2000s. Anakin found the husk and most of C3P0's parts in the junkyard before he rebuilt him.

So how much of him was originally there vs. Rebuilt by Anakin is unknown. But we have seen other protocol droids and they have the same body shapes and parts. But those are the exterior parts. The interior could have been different hardware all together.

No, the prequels just have shitty writing.

When I was a kid and thought about robots I never considered their intelligence would require a massive physical infrastructure just to make the best guess of the next word.

Unrelated question: is there any scene in any of the Star Wars where C3PO does anything useful? Like translate something or advice on protocol or something? I remember it kind of walking around and commenting on things but I don't remember it ever actually do anything. R2D2 hacks stuff, helps pilot things and delivers holographic messages but is 3CPO anything other than a toy? Some sort of next generation Furby?

It is a universe where DRM tied to a central server is impossible. It is likely the software beyond the OEM is cracked to hell and modified far beyond its original purpose. After all, the Millennium Falcon's nav computer is repurposed droid software.

Open Source was not invented yet, back then.