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I didn't mention in it that thread, but it's defintitely one of the simplest and most sensible alterations that could be suggested.

Mikey wrote:Jordanis - it's certainly a tremendous sight better than the Fed systems are now, and I appreciate the thought process, but just to play devil's advocate and pick your brain a bit:

It appears that not all of the "wandering damage" is transmitted via the computer itself, although the isolated computer systems would certainly solve the problem of the ejection system always being unavailable a/o broken. Hoever, that damage may also travel through the ODN lines (which may or may not benefit from that same isolation, depending on the necessity for bridge access) or power relays, which I would think you can't avoid having communicate with the core - that's kind of its whole purpose.

I'm not knocking your idea by any stretch - I merely wonder if you have an idea for these circumstances as well.

Well, there wouldn't be any ODN linkages. That's the degree of isolation I mean. Physical separation is the only 100% effective firewall. Basically, you'd have to have a human link in the chain, who is signaled by the helm ordering a certain speed, and who then reaches over to the isolated system and sets the power accordingly. Given the number of times the warp core computers seem to get messed with, this would seem to be a necessary precaution.

As for the damage from through the power relays, the only thing I can see coming from there is feedback--power surges back up into the warp core and destabilizes it. You basically need a fancy circuit breaker. Presumably, it is possible to make a switch whose physical properties trip a magnetic gate into place when, say, the EPS temperature rises above a certain point, or pressure increases, or whatever the tell is. The key, of course, is to make it reliant on the physical properties of a physical switch rather than on a computerized sensor.

Sounds good. I didn't assume a human componenet in the communication chain where none was mentioned, but G-d knows engineering always seems to have plenty of people milling about in dangerous areas anyway.

Funny to think of how many ships could have been saved by a simple thermocouple.

Mikey wrote:Sounds good. I didn't assume a human componenet in the communication chain where none was mentioned, but G-d knows engineering always seems to have plenty of people milling about in dangerous areas anyway.

Funny to think of how many ships could have been saved by a simple thermocouple.

Well, it makes sense. The entire concept of circuit breakers seems to have been lost, so they never thought to invent EPS versions too. Perhaps during the third world war?