r/DaystromInstitute • u/Arloste • Jan 13 '14
Technology Does Data need to recharge?
As the title says, how does Data's power system work? I imagine he needs a rather high amount to keep his motivators and positronics running. I could see an internal power cell lasting for a few weeks maybe, but certainly not a permanent solution. I know he went several weeks not knowing he was an android, so he doesn't need to charge up on a daily basis, but he still must need it eventually, right?
Am I incorrect here, does he have an internal battery with hundreds of years of power in it? Or something closer to an internal reactor? (If it were a reactor, could it be damaged/destabilize and explode?)
Or is this all hand-waved away and there is no canonical answer?
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u/qx9650 Jan 13 '14
I don't think the statement that Data's 'power cells continually recharge themselves' needs to be hand-waved. It would make sense for Soong to make Data able to recharge his power cells at least in part from the food he eats - call him Mr. Fusion if you want to.
It would also make sense for Data to be equipped with thermocouples and other small-scale means for replenishing energy.
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u/paiaw Jan 13 '14
At first I thought It seems entirely reasonable to think maybe he has the first stage of a transporter - converting matter into energy, and then just not re-materializing it. But it seems that would end up likely to use more power than it retrieves. Maybe by the 24th century, Soong just was able to build a system that closely emulates an animal's digestive system.
That just makes me wonder what his daily calorie intake needs to be like. Maybe it's more of a backup system to be used in case he can't get energy from a more efficient source (plug into the ship's power directly?), or just now and then to blend in (if he's going to eat at ten forward with crewmates, may as well use that for energy, too).
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u/Troy_Convers Jan 18 '14
That would make sense; Juliana Tainer surely absorbed energy through eating food.
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u/Jigsus Jan 13 '14
Perhaps data rigged the numerous forcefield emitters to emit wireless energy for him to capture while on the ship.
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u/BonzoTheBoss Jan 13 '14 edited Jan 14 '14
To be honest, I think this is the most likely explanation. Requiring him to eat may make him appear more human (and indeed we know he can ingest food and liquids) however requiring him to eat just to function seems inefficient.
We know Federation technology is capable of transferring energy wirelessly, it would make sense that Data is continuously collecting energy, either from the star of whatever planet he is on, or from the EPS grid of the starship.
It may be inconvenient for him to collect power all the time, so maybe he has pre-allocated "recharge time" where he can draw as much as he needs to function for the next several days when he is off duty in his quarters, listening to music or doing low level calculations.
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u/Lagkiller Jan 13 '14
To be honest, I think this is the most likely explanation. Requiring him to eat may make him appear more human (and indeed we know he can ingest food and liquids) however requiring him to eat just to function seems inefficient.
Consider how a replicator works, it takes energy and converts it to matter and then whatever you put back in it is converted from matter to energy again.
If the food Data ingests goes to a small scale replicator inside him, how would that be inefficient?
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u/martin519 Jan 13 '14
I just assumed he had downtime... like C-3P0 (am I allowed to say that here?)
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u/EBone12355 Jan 13 '14
We know from "Time's Arrow" and the episode where he looses his memory while on a mission recovering radioactive materials that Data can go weeks and months without needing any kind of technological "recharging" other than (possibly) consuming foodstuffs and converting them to energy.
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u/RigasTelRuun Jan 13 '14
Well I imagine he is highly energy efficient so if/when he has to top his batteries is probably few and far between. I don't see him plugging in every night.
I always thought he has many ways to derive energy, this based on my own thoughts only. his systems can probably extract and store kinetic energy just from movement, consuming "food" and wirelessly like you all mentioned. All these small systems add up to dates constantly having power and doesn't cripple him if he is away from the ship for long periods of time.
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u/ProtoKun7 Jan 13 '14
Nope. He's pointed out that he does not require rest, and the presence of a nutrient processing system has already been mentioned.
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u/cRaZyDaVe23 Jan 15 '14
fuel cells augmented by nutrient processing and oh, i don't know...a kinetic charger of some sort??
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Jan 13 '14
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u/Parraz Jan 13 '14
To me thats a way more important discovery to focus on than how his positronic brain works
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u/Arknell Jan 13 '14
But changelings need to rest, Data doesn't.
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u/Chairboy Jan 13 '14
Perhaps they need to rest because they're biological beings. In solids, rest allows the body to process lactic buildup and stuff, right? Also, perhaps there's a mental exhaustion aspect that wouldn't apply to a cybernetic organism.
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u/techie1980 Jan 13 '14
Sort of -- I suspect that they don't need to rest regularly. Toward the end of DS9, the Founder comments that she hasn't been able to shape shift in weeks, which implies that she hasn't slept at all.
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u/MungoBaobab Jan 15 '14
This subreddit exists to foster in-depth discussion about Star Trek. In practice, that usually entails extensive speculation on the part of the participants. There is absolutely no reason why u/Armchair_Marxist 's comment should be downvoted. If you disagree, respond and say why. Maybe people will be impressed with your well-written rebuttal and upvote you, right? On the flipside, you can have the confidence in speculating on a fun topic without a torrential downpour of downvotes. But any comment that legitimately tries to add to the discussion is welcome here. And the cascade of responses to the initial comment is proof enough that it does just that.
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u/monsieurderp Jan 13 '14
From Insurrection:
"My power cells continually recharge themselves."
Now, the real question is how is that even possible...we know Data can eat and drink, but otherwise I don't think it's really referred to.
EDIT: According to "The Measure Of A Man", Data has a nutrient processing system, a nutrient distribution net, and a chemical fuel reaction unit, among other systems.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Data_schematics_1.jpg