Skip to main content

star wars - Droid Memory Wipe


So in various stages of the books and movies, droid memory wipes are mentioned. This made me wonder why didn't the Jawa's wipe the memory of R2D2 and C3PO before they sold them? I would think it would be standard practice to prevent the exact issue that arouse that droids go off on their own because of the programming left by their former masters. Especially since they 'scavanged' the droids. If they bought them from a reputable dealer to resell, then that is different, but they technically stole them or at least didn't care who their owner was. One would think that to cover your tracks, you would wipe their memory before selling them.




Answer



Droid memory wipes are established in The New Rebellion as only affecting a droid's personal memories, not their hardwired memories. I'll paraphrase from memory here, as I don't have the book with me:



Security Droid: "When you get a memory wipe, do you need to re-learn all 6 million forms of communication?"


C-3PO: "Of course not, that's hard-wired in."



To use an analogy; when a human gets amnesia, they may forget who their spouse, parents and children are, but they usually remember their skills. A painter may not remember any of their paintings, but they will still remember how to paint. We don't actually know why this occurs, but I'm not a neurologist, I just need an example.


Droids in the Star Wars universe are also shown to be able to 'download' (my word) knowledge and skills which would be unaffected by memory wipes. Again in The New Rebellion, C-3PO passes the time when he's "bored" (that word is actually in the book, though I think Threepio is denying that he's bored) by downloading new languages into his hard-wired memory; this process is shown taking less time than a human learning a new language, but more than simply pressing a button and gaining instantaneous knowledge. It seems akin to the skill downloads in The Matrix.


That answers the question of what a memory-wipe actually entails. As to why the Jawas don't perform a memory-wipe, it is never actually stated in either the film or the novelisation. I don't recall even noticing it mentioned in any EU material either. My supposition would be that memory-wipes on droids require equipment that the Jawas, technological scavengers, simply don't have. We know the Lars family does not have the capacity to wipe droids' memories; they need to visit the nearby town of Anchorhead to do so.


C-3PO's memory is wiped in Revenge of the Sith, but that was a consular ship; a spaceship is likely far larger than a Jawa sand-crawler, with better technology, and a diplomatic vessel is itself quite likely to have specialised software and hardwire onboard for dealing with protocol and translation droids. This is a possible explanation of why they don't also wipe R2-D2's memory; the ship isn't set-up to deal with astromechs in the same way as it is protocol droids.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Tolkien trying to say in this letter?

In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Was Galadriel's temptation of Boromir instrumental to his fall?

We know Galadriel tempted the members of the Fellowship, did she tempt Boromir with visions of taking the Ring and saving Gondor? In the books, Boromir willingly accepts the judgement of the council that the Ring should be destroyed, but after the meeting with Celeborn and Galadriel his personality seems to change. Was the temptation offered by Galadriel in some way responsible for Boromir's fall? Answer It's likely, but not certain I believe it is likely Galadriel tempted him with the ring, and in doing so re-ignited a pre-existing idea to take the ring, but to be clear lets break this down into three parts. Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir after setting off Boromir after being tempted Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir pleas for the ring to go to Minas Tirith, to help Gondor in its defense against Mordor. “ Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more