To me, the most unbelievable part of Star Trek is not the fact that humanity comes together in a post-scarcity society or there are thousands of sentient and non-sentient lifeforms in the universe. It's that all civilizations somehow developed communication mediums that connect with each other easily
@anthonydavis "got a phone charger?"
"no, an apple one"
"no, a cardasian apple one"
"no, the 4th gen"
Don't use the Klingon one. It'll blast your device with random voltages and then call it weak if it explodes.
The Borg one works with anything but after the first charge, your device will no longer be compatible with any other charger.
The Ferengi one is crap, plus it bills you per minute of charging.
The Romulan one is widely believed to install spyware but nobody has managed to prove it.
@suetanvil @troubleMoney @anthonydavis hahahaha this is brilliant. well done.
The Vulcan one is a featureless gray sphere with a slight flat spot so it doesn't roll. Nobody has any idea how to use it. When asked, Vulcans will respond either implicitly or explicitly that it's obvious and your question makes no sense.
Cardassian chargers have astoundingly terrible ergonomics. It's possible to get one to work with most phones but it's usually not worth the effort.
The Bajoran chargers are just Cardassian chargers with pieces hacked off and the gaps filled with epoxy and duct tape.
They're still easier to use than the Cardassian chargers, though.
@suetanvil @troubleMoney @anthonydavis plus you won't have the Cardassians up your ass constantly about the fact that your device is now Cardassian property
@anthonydavis I've tried to come up with a way for this to actually make sense, and the best idea I've had so far is a standardized protocol that was either developed and scattered everywhere by a precursor civilization or is gifted during first contact with new civs. It would update its library of languages as a background process anytime two ships are communicating, so your neighbor's neighbor's neighbor's neighbor will probably have your language files before the first time you meet
@robotcarsley @anthonydavis perhaps a prerequisite to being able to develop interstellar travel is discovering some heretofore unknown principle that makes the optimal communication protocol obvious
We can barely keep Bluetooth devices comnected and you expect me to believe another previously unencountered species has a hailing frequency that works with our hardware and software?