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Intergalactic space: the space between galaxies is the closest thing you will get to empty space. While space is essentially empty, empty is relative. (Which is pretty much everyone these days) The flip-side is when older scifi becomes "invalid" and "nonsensical" when read by readers with plenty of first-hand experience with internet and computers. It's interesting how this shows the reader or viewer relying on real-world experiences and present-day common sense to "make sense" of the science fiction story. But today, when google search and retrieve a global knowledge database in a second and the GPS plots my route across the country almost as quickly, we expect computers to answer quickly. "Computers take their time" fit with the viewer's expectations at the time. In Star Wars, the slow computer is an excuse for building tension. This allowed other things to happen in the episode before the data came in and revealed a plot-twist. In Star Trek the next generation, for instance, the ship computer could spend hours searching for and retrieving information. I'd like to see someone bring out actual estimation of encountering a sufficiently dangerous object on a 1 lightyear path between two solar systems.įrom an outside view, this is simply a dated plot-device. I understand why you would have a computer calculate your route if there's no particular hurry, but isn't the risk of hitting anything way smaller than the risk of getting hit by ships that are right on your tail? Or am I missing something here?Īdditionally, you could perform a jump of just a few lightyears, which reduces the chances of hitting anything even more. percent of the time? That is, if all you want to achieve is get away, not get anywhere specific. So if you're not heading straight for any of the large bodies inside the solar system you're in (be it stars, planets or asteroid belts), shouldn't you be fine just jumping into hyperspace and fly straight 99.999999. Here's my problem, the universe is essentially empty, stars effectively have an angular size of 0. Traveling through hyperspace isn't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that'd end your trip real quick, wouldn't it? The ship begins to rock violently as lasers hit it.Īre you kidding? At the rate they're gaining. It'll take a few moments to get the coordinates from the navi-computer. How long before you can make the jump to light speed? The answer references this piece of dialog from a new hope: This question was inspired by this answer concerning rebels escaping at the battle of Endor