Transcript
A captain sits in his chair on the bridge of a starship, his face furrowed in concentration.
Captain: Computer, chart a course through the minefield.
Computer: Course charted, Captain.
The captain looks speculatively out the viewscreen at a planet and a bright star in the distance.
Captain: Computer, devise the best way to shield this planet from the nearby supernova.
Computer: I have generated 50,000 possibilities and selected the most effective.
The captain is in a council chamber with a grumpy alien leader.
Captain: Computer, find some diplomatic solution to this standoff.
Computer: Of course, Captain. I will pitch it to your counterpart in their native tongue.
The captain lounges in their office drinking a cocktail with a little umbrella in it. Out in the corridor, two officers look on.
Captain: Computer, attend my meetings for me.
Ensign: Do you think we should report him to the admiral?
Lieutenant: Are you kidding? The computer’s the best boss I’ve ever had.
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
All hail our new digital overlords!
I love this one, Bunny and Chris!
Convenience, that’s how they’ll get us.
Plot twist, the Captain is a Replicant.
This really is the fundamental paradox of space opera settings. They massively overestimated the pace of advancement of rocketry and massively underestimated the pace of advancement of computing. In reality, we already have autonomous probes but we really haven’t improved on rockets all that much since Apollo.
If only I could get this computer for my workplace… sigh…
Makes me think of that Twilight Zone episode with the do everything robot….