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star trek - Why don't Starfleet vessels have intelligent on-board computers?


Computers on board Starfleet vessels are quite primitive compared to on board computers such as HAL 9000. At their best, they can decipher requests such as "Computer, delete that last sentence" and utter things such as "That crewman is no longer on board this vessel". Even real life computers will be capable of this within a decade or so (by some estimates). Even computers such as HAL 9000 are likely to be available within a few decades.


So, in a genre where intelligent computers are abound, why this strange absence? Did the Federation run into some Battlestar-Galactica-like problem with AI in the past and decide to keep on board computers decentralized?


But if that is the case, how can one explain Data and highly intelligent holographic characters? The technology and programming constructs clearly exist, yet Starfleet vessels continue to be manned by hundreds of people standing in front of consoles.




Answer



TOS-era, the Federation has a bad track record with AI:



TNG-era, they made some headway, but AI is still largely unexplored:



  • The obvious example, Commander Data and other Soong-type androids - but the Federation doesn't know how to make them.

  • The Exocomps, which were accidentally evolved rather than created.

  • Professor Moriarty, a holodeck "malfunction" that researchers still haven't figured out.

  • Nanites, which were also accidentally evolved and not safe to have technology around.



Basically, the technology that exists either isn't reliable or isn't reproducible.


And, as Iszi reminded me in the comments, Soong-type androids are neither reliable nor are they reproducible: Lore and Lal.


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