Comment by corvad
14 hours ago
I would argue that the people programming things that are used on starships are not in the field. The people in the field are the specialist who need to be there to monitor and explore. Most of the engineering work of design and development happens on research stations and other places that may not be reflected in Star Trek specifically. It would illogical to send a programmer so far away for work that can be done from anywhere. And that is retaining the concept of programming that is argued by society right now as being in risk. Not to mention that programming is not always by definition writing software at a keyboard.
Solid take. Do modern day battleships have programmers re-writing core OS components? Hopefully in a few hundred years, we have a lot of the basics locked down so you only need people who are good in working with expertly crafted tools in the field.
There were also call-outs to the facility where the Doctor was created. Sounded like a dedicated research installation which must be full of programmers.
> Solid take. Do modern day battleships have programmers re-writing core OS components?
They do and they don't.
For example F16 pilots in Ukraine were unable to fly combat missions because USA stopped help during March 2025. Jamming pods are making Russian radars less effective and they were not getting software updates from USA.
So programmers are not on the frontline, but they are still absolutely vital part of such an old plane like F16 is. Now consider F35 which is very reliant on the software.