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star trek - Why does the computer have a human female voice?


In Star Trek all Federation computers have a human female voice, provided by Gene Roddenbery's wife Majel Barrett. This, of course, is the out of universe reason; however is there ever an in universe reason given? With the Federation being a multi-gender, multi-species organization why a humanoid female voice? Is the voice based on someone related to the LCARS systems?



Answer



There are two parts here:


1) Why human?



How do you know it's a human voice? Out of universe, we know Majel Barrett is human, and we know that she also played Christine Chapel and Number One (the unnamed second officer under Captain Pike), both humans. But she also played Lwaxana Troi, a Betazoid. And there's nothing in the voice (as far as I can tell) to distinguish it from that of a Bajoran or a Vulcan or any other species. The voice doesn't seem to be Klingon or Ferengi, but that might just be because it's flat, emotionless, and, well, computer-like.


2) Why female?


In-universe (although quasi-canonically), it was Number One who installed the first voice device on the Enterprise and programmed it with her own voice. (This is from Memory-Beta, which cites the novels "The Rift" and "Enterprise: The First Adventure"). She's a human female, so there you go.


Somewhat speculatively, there is some evidence that both men and women find women's voices more pleasing. Research suggests that this might be due to the early bonding between fetuses/infants and their mother. I bet that in a galaxy where there are hundreds of starships using a single programmed voice to get information from the computer -- sometimes in the middle of crisis -- the exact pitch and timbre of the voice has been thoroughly researched.


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