Comment by XorNot
2 days ago
"<number> to beam up" drives my wife nuts and she's right: how the heck does the transporter tech know who they're targeting?
Like sure I guess you could infer it by grouping I guess but how does that selection UI work?
(Though that's far less infuriating then the question of why transporter pattern boosters exist, can be transported, and yet numerous episodes exist of beaming into an environment and not being able to beam out. Why is standard protocol not to always send down a signal booster?)
The '<number> to beam up' line is an instruction to the transporter operator; since they can detect life signs, they can guess by proximity. It's thus not the computer making the call, but a human operator.
Fun addition: "Beam me up, Scotty" wasn't ever a line on the show, just a fun reference.