Quads

Captain Picard's Hair · Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:51 pm

We've heard a number of times amounts of data being given in Trek in units called "Quads." In the real world, this is probably done to disguise the actual amount of information, in the Trek tradition of "iso-" units and Stardates. However, could this possibly indicate that in-universe their computers run on the base-4 system rather than the binary system used today? I suppose this might be possible if they use photonic computers utilizing polarized light. Photonic circuitry is a technology being developed in laboratories today; it has the advantage over electronic circuitry that it does not generate large amounts of heat like modern electronic circuits.

Of course, no mention of "photonic" circuitry has ever been made in Trek, though they generally didn't give too many details about how their computers worked. One thing they did mention, positronic circuitry, is physically impossible. In any event this will have to remain pure speculation.

Also, in a "real" Trek future, we'd expect to see quantum computers.

Post by **Graham Kennedy** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:05 am

The most common explanation I've heard is that quad is short for quadrillion - so a quad is a quadrillion bytes, i.e. a thousand terabytes.

My problem with that is that we're gonna exceed that sort of capacity a damn sight quicker than three hundred years from now.

Maybe it means "quadrillion terabytes" or something.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:39 am

Plus, it would require vastly greater amounts of data to store a transporter/replicator pattern.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:40 pm

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:Plus, it would require vastly greater amounts of data to store a transporter/replicator pattern.

Yes, the amount needed is absurd. Popular Science wrote an article about this a few years back. Fascinating stuff. Something about our most powerful computer now couldn't store so much as the pattern of a single human skin cell.

Sionnach Glic · Post by **Sionnach Glic** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 5:44 pm

Really? Wow.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:03 pm

Rochey wrote:Really? Wow.

It was something absurd like that. We're so far off from having that storage capability that we could barely have enough data to store and reproduce a cell. But my facts may not be exactly accurate.

Captain Picard's Hair · Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:05 pm

We probably don't have enough capacity in all the computers in the world to store the pattern of Captain Picard's cup of tea.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:08 pm

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:We probably don't have enough capacity in all the computers in the world to store the pattern of Captain Picard's cup of tea.

Thats why we have tea bags =)

Captain Picard's Hair · Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:33 pm

I'm a bit concerned about your New England habit of dumping tea into the ocean. I don't see how one can drink cold, briny tea full of fish.

Bryan Moore · Post by **Bryan Moore** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:18 pm

Captain Picard's Hair wrote:I'm a bit concerned about your New England habit of dumping tea into the ocean. I don't see how one can drink cold, briny tea full of fish.

The same way you New Yorkers can drink water that has been treated from the East River. No filter in the world can take the taste of mobsters and dead hookers out of one's mouth. Which, I guess, is why we need tea.