Roy Tang

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Think about the amount of software and AI that goes into a droid in the Star Wars universe. A droid like BB-8 has to be able to:

  • navigate (walk/roll) over any terrain

  • interface with any other system

  • repair spacecraft like X-Wings

  • have natural language processing that can understand up to billions of galactic dialects

  • make judgments as to whether people are trustworthy

  • be able to communicate and express emotion using a series of tones and beeps (surprisingly for all of BB8 and R2D2’s sophistication, no one considered adding a voice synthesizer to these models - C3P0 shows their software is certainly capable of speaking)

At this point, they’re more like Transformers who can’t speak very well (similar to Bumblebee), actual living machines (which raises the question of whether it’s ethical to be trading or selling them the way the jawas do).

We should get a Star Wars movie where it’s explained how droids are actually created by the All-Spark (directed by Michael Bay? lol)

Also, yes I did rewatch The Force Awakens yesterday

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Comments

Roy Tang
Roy Tang
Also, yes I did rewatch The Force Awakens yesterday
Jaime L. Garcia
Jaime L. Garcia
Don't AstroMech droids also calc hyperspace launch trajectories? IIRC, X-Wings are jump capable.
Sabrina Trinidad Panlilio
Sabrina Trinidad Panlilio
Keep Michael Bay away from my childhood!!!
Roy Tang
Roy Tang
I actually didn't remember if BB8 was an astromech, but yeah sure. The list isn't exhaustive. It does make you wonder, why do X-Wings need a droid to do their jump calculations? TIE fighters don't, the Falcon didn't. Star Destroyers aren't shown to need droids for calculations. Another thing: if they already have the AI communications technology, why are ships like X-Wings and the Falcon and TIE fighters and Star Destroyers piloted manually? Why not by voice command, with feedback in tones and beeps? Or if piloting is too complicated for a computer, why not at least have some simpler functionality like comms handled by droid-like AIs? (Similar to Star Trek)
Jaime L. Garcia
Jaime L. Garcia
TIEs aren't jump-capable (and must always return to a capital ship if you need them to jump). But yeah… the Falcon, nor Capital ships, nor hijacked luxury cruise vessels seem to need a droid for jumping. (Although I'm still wondering why the X-wings had to dock prior to jumping in the latest movie…) The convenient in-joke with droids-replacin g-humans for complex tasks such as soldiering and piloting (See: Separatist army) is that they weren't good soldiers / pilots - just cheap. It's not that big of a stretch to imagine that the Baktoid Armor Workshop (that sold the droids) from Geonosis probably suffered catastrophic losses in both factory damage and PR for backing the losing side. Besides PR, I suspect another the in-universe reason to be economics. I guess it's a lot easier to justify a droid mechanic since the task is often fraught with danger, requires a lot of quick calculations and analyses, and may require space ops (which is hazardous to humans without a lifesupport suit). That said, consistency really isn't a Star Wars strength. XD
Roy Tang
Roy Tang
Merong TIEs that are jump-capable. Notably, Vader's TIE at the battle of yavin was jump capable (allowing him to survive the death star destruction). Also, when Finn and Poe escape in a TIE at the start of TFA, he expects the TIE to be able to jump away from Jakku, IDK if that means First Order TIEs are more advanced in general
Luis Formilleza
Luis Formilleza
TIE Advanced kay Vader. Also pinacompute lang ata ni Luke kay R2 dahil tinatamad siya
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