Customer Reviews

The Computers Of Star Trek

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Writing books about "The [Something] of Star Trek" seems to have become something of a fad ever since Lawrence Krauss's wonderful "The Physics of Star Trek," whether that "Something" be biology, philosophy, religion, or, in this case, computers. This book becomes tiresome, or at least off-topic, largely because there is a dearth of primary-source material on the computers of Star Trek, meaning that there is unfortunately little for the authors (who are computer scientists) to analyze scientifically. Specifically, the authors' primary sources consist of a scant smattering of material from the television shows and movies and the "Star Trek: The Next Generation--Technical Manual." To quote the book, "The technical manual devotes only five pages to the Enterprise computer. Based on its vague and sketchy description, we've inferred [a] general design." In other words, the book is based largely on assumptions and inferences, some of which are rather nonsensical. For example, in reference to the Star Trek memory storage unit known as a "kiloquad," the book says, "it's easy enough to deduce...that a kiloquad equals 1,000 quadrillion bytes." The only "evidence" given to support this conclusion is that "kilo-" means 1,000 and that "Checking a dictionary reveals that the only numerical term involving quad is quadrillion." This kind of speculation would be mildly interesting if only a paragraph were devoted to it, but instead, the authors assume throughout the remainder of the book that this is the definition of a kiloquad, and analyze the plausibility of data storage space on this extremely tenuous basis. This is after quoting the following wise excerpt from the "Star Trek Encyclopedia:" "The reason the term was invented was specifically to avoid describing the data capacity of Star Trek's computers in 20th century terms." This is one of countless examples. Much of the book seems to consist of the authors making unconvincing inferences, repeating themselves when they run out of source material, and making occasional (and unsuccessful) forays into philosophy and physics. The book is interesting when it makes a real point, but has too much filler material. There simply isn't enough source material for a 200-page book of this sort to be successful.

I picked up this book because I'm a computer major in college and have been a Star Trek fan for years. I wasn't disappointed as the authors have put together a very funny and very entertaining book about how computers are portrayed on all the different shows. They compare the computers on the different versions of the Enterprise (and Deep Space Nine and Voyager) to the computers we use today. They examine Data and the holodeck and the Borg also. Reading the book makes it clear that we are much further towards developing computers like those shown in Star Trek than anyone involved with the show could imagine. Computers they use three hundred years from now will be available in twenty-thirty years. The book is filled with interesting examples taken from the different shows and the authors know how to keep the reader entertained. I found this book not only fascinating but very funny as well. This is the best non-fiction book on Star Trek I've ever read, and I've read them all.

This series of books (The <fill-in-the-blank> of Star Trek) may be winding down. Unfortunately, the main thing you can say about the computers of Star Trek is that the show's creators showed an extraordinarily lack of vision in that regard: even the Enterprise-D computer is clearly a deluxe, sixties-style mainframe and not the network of computers we would expect today.

Clearly, many of the issues are for dramatic reasons: you can't have the computer fighting the battles nor people communicating with the computers through thought alone. The latter would be tedious to watch and the former would take all the interest out of it.

Regardless, the book, while interesting to read, comes off as critical and even shrill as a result - not nearly as affirming or interesting a read as, say, The Physics of Star Trek.

The authors have a great deal of knowledge about the actual science of computers, but they should not meddle with the Star Trek universe, since (acoording to the "acknowledgments" section, they had to watch all episodes of all series prior to writing the book. They call subspace "a gas that acts as telephone wires", they wonder why holodeck fails if the computer cores are "100% redundant" (have you ever heard of programming error?). If you are interested in "The computers of" part of the title, give it a try. If you got the book because it has "Star Trek" after it, dont even bother (I literally could not read past the first couple of chapters).

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The preponderance of Star Trek fans that will read this book might lead one to believe that without a somewhat extensive knowledge of the show's inner workings, it would not be a worthwhile read. On the other hand, while knowledge of the show may preclude understanding some of the book's humor and would certainly add to the enjoyment of the book, non-"Trekkers" like me are still able to admire this book as a fascinating exploration of a not-too-distant future of our own highly-computerized society. It is obvious that Ms. Gresh has an extremely personal and comprehensive knowledge of computers and electronic workings in general, and it shines between the Data jokes and the recounted Holodeck mishaps. Good work!

The authors had to decide what the balance would be between computer science content and Star Trek content. Unfortunately, they erred on the side of too many overlong explanations of computer science, which the reader must wade through to get to those too-sparse nuggets of insight about Star Trek. For example, the Borg get only six pages, and the Holodeck gets eight pages (including several pages of programming code!).

The writers are at their best when explaining how each Star Trek series is a commentary on the era in which it was written. For instance, there are several episodes where Kirk rants that computers can never replace people - a very 1960s sentiment - whereas in the more recent series, the Borg represent our fears that technology will lead to loss of individuality. More analysis along these lines would have improved the book, rather making it a primer on programming.

Perhaps it's impossible to ever make sense of computers in Star Trek, since so much of it is technological nonsense (e.g., food replicators). Nevertheless, there was a missed opportunity here to speculate more deeply on the role of information technology in the world of Star Trek as compared to its role in current society.

If you know anything about computer engineering, kindling is a good use for this book. This book covers the possibilties of the uses for the computers, not the explanitions of how they work (get the TNG Technical Manual for that). The authors know a great amount about computer science, but each and every time they venture beyond this they look like idiots. They neglect
computer engineering concerns of space, power, and other practical matters.

They also neglect civil liberties issues. They suggest that putting chips in the heads of the crew would be a great way to communicate with the computer. Although this may be faster, it also allow the computer to track you.

Their analysis of the Enterprise-D computer as a 1960's model mainframe is fairly correct, but they start to use this as a basic assumption in every analysis afterward even when it isn't warranted. They also neglect the possibly of a more complicated client-server archetecture. If you go to the holodeck, just because you can access your personal programs, doesn't mean
that they are stored on the main computer.

This is just another book wherein the author takes apart a science fiction proposition by analyzing the crap out of it and desiring very much to show their own superiority. I honestly had to stop reading it altogether because of this mindset of the authors.

They could have worked at integrating the science fiction of Star Trek into what we already know about science. Instead there is nothing but criticism at every turn.

It's a great book if you enjoy looking for that which is bad or even a little wrong in the Star Trek universe. I guess that some kind of weirdo enjoys that pursuit. However, as an intelligent report, it fails.

I am so peeved at this book that I will send it for free, no charge, no shipping, no nothing to anyone that wants it. I would shred it but that would be wasteful; it's a great example of a bad example.

"The Computers of Star Trek" is an attempt at an analysis of "Star Trek" technology as opposed to what we'll *really* see in that day and age. Though at times interesting and accurate in many cases, this book's dry and and uninteresting style leaves the reader wanting. At times, it explains concepts that are likely to be over the average readers' head without much background info, and even supplies large blocks of complex computer code unlikely to be of interest to anyone except an advanced programmer.

I had hoped for something a bit more analytical and thoughtful, but this book is largely pedantic and plodding. This book gives a large amount of coverage to Data, but largely nitpicks over his technical aspects, without really delving into the more complex aspects of his psyche. To further disappoint, this book was obviously written well into the run of "Star Trek: Voyager." Yet almost no mention of him is made, except "the heuristic IF-THEN method of applying intelligence, very much like the Emergency Medical Holographic Doctor on Voyager." This is ridiculous --- at the point this book was published, the Doctor already had his mobile emitter and had been on some pretty complex and character-building adventures. And *this* is the best they can say about him?

The book goes on to mention the Borg, pointing out their motto "Resistance is futile." It notes that there's "no compromise with the Borg." Apparently, once again, they didn't watch "Voyager," or even "Next Gen" too well. Compromise *is* possible with the Borg. Fans may not always like it, and it may not always make sense, but this book pretty much completely glosses over the development of the Borg. One thing I did agree with is the book's comments about the medical technology on "Star Trek." Completely unreasonably --- not at all what you'd expect for that age.


I wish I read a review of this myself before wasting my time with it. It wasn't a total washout, but it wasn't a great read either.

What one might call the field of 'Star Trek non-fiction' has boomed since the 1995 publication of Dr. Lawrence Krauss's "The Physics of Star Trek". Now, we have books exploring many of the real-world issues presented in the Star Trek franchise, from issues of hard-science like biology, to social-science issues such as the depiction of race and gender.

And then there is this book.

Judging from the number of glowing reviews already present on Amazon, there are plenty of people who truly admired and appreciated this book. But if you come to this book after reading Dr. Krauss's two outstanding works, as I did, you may find yourself oddly disappointed.

First off, the tone seems wrong. While "The Physics of Star Trek" and "Beyond Star Trek" covered some pretty serious terrain in physics, Dr. Krauss's tone was one of an amiable expert communicating with an interested, non-technical audience. The tone presented by these authors occasionally borders on that of computer support people you talk to on the telephone--convinced that they already have the answers and that only your ignorance of the issues prevents you from agreeing with them (such as their frequent early repetition of their pet theory of 'body networks', where at some point in the future everyone will have nano-sized computers distrubuted throughout their bodies which will be able to communicate seamlessly with the computers contained in any other body). Most of the pictures in the book are simple structural diagrams unfamiliar to those who haven't studied computer science. There is even the equivalent of two published pages of VRML code in the chapter on the Holodeck (and if you don't know that VRML stands for Virtual Reality Markup Language, the code will mean nothing to you at all). Rather than a general-interest book, "Computers of Star Trek" seems like a book written by insiders for insiders, no hoi palloi invited.

Also, while the authors are doubtless knowledgeable in their chosen fields, they (or their editors) occasionally show a surprising disdain for basic research. The Amazon review by ST:Voyager's own Rick Sternbach shows one such instance. Another comes from the above-mentioned 'body network' idea--unless the authors intend for us to be continually plugged in to a network jack, the computers of our 'body network' will have to emit electromagnetic radiation to communicate with one another; radiation that would kill us, either quickly (by killing our cells directly) or slowly (by mutating our cells into cancerous melanoma). This book would have been significantly improved had the authors read other "__ of Star Trek" books in advance.

The authors do have some interesting things to say, and if you're the sort who's going to buy all of these 'ST non-fiction' books anyway, then this review shouldn't deter you. But if you're new to the genre and looking for someplace to start, this would not be the book I'd recommend.