Swirly thing on the bridge

[knightgrace]

It is the Duotronic display.

How do I know?

Look at the M-5 Multitronic Computer display. A more complex imaging display.

In case you missed it, Dr. Daystrom likes certain things his way.

Now, let's go back to the 1960s.

The IBM 360 computer has a large display panel, showing the status of the computer...

This display reflects that, but in a far more complex way...

It, in its way tells us the exact difference between a Duotronic system and an IBM 360, and the M-5 Multitronic display shows the level of improvement between the 360, and Multitronic systems...

Duotronics is where the lines intercept. Color patches, show the upgrade to Multitronics. Black and white to color...

 

[Phaser Two]

I always thought it looked like scanner waves

Yeah. As noted above, the McMaster diagrams call it "sensor sweep."

 

[knightgrace]

Then why does the Multitronic M-5 have those swirly colors?
A circular display is part of the language of Star Trek design.... Not that, that is the only indicator, another is that it is behind Spock's viewer, which most likely is most properly called a 'periscope'. Gasp!;^)

But exactly what does it depict? Ordered disorder. In other words Duotronics relies on a certain amount of chaos, and it is the chaos that does the actual work. Not the hardware.

Using chaos is another direction for computers to as opposed to Quantum Mechanical computers. The two are equivalent. But looking at, from this point of view, it has to be restricted chaos. Why?

Plus or minus. Like a continuously variable transmission that is restricted to a set of gear ratios.

This explains why the comment in season 1 episode 1 of Strange New Worlds about A. I. upgrades, explains so much. More 'gears'. Or more lines...

So count the number of lines and you have the number of active possibilities. And the amount of chaos.

 

[Henoch]

Then why does the Multitronic M-5 have those swirly colors?
A circular display is part of the language of Star Trek design.... Not that, that is the only indicator, another is that it is behind Spock's viewer, which most likely is most properly called a 'periscope'. Gasp!;^)

But exactly what does it depict? Ordered disorder. In other words Duotronics relies on a certain amount of chaos, and it is the chaos that does the actual work. Not the hardware.

Using chaos is another direction for computers to as opposed to Quantum Mechanical computers. The two are equivalent. But looking at, from this point of view, it has to be restricted chaos. Why?

Plus or minus. Like a continuously variable transmission that is restricted to a set of gear ratios.

This explains why the comment in season 1 episode 1 of Strange New Worlds about A. I. upgrades, explains so much. More 'gears'. Or more lines...

So count the number of lines and you have the number of active possibilities. And the amount of chaos.

I kind of get where you are going with this theory.

Another clue that it is not a sensor scanner display is where it is not used; namely on the only device that we know is definitely a scanner, i.e. the tricorder. Just a thought.
<edit. Never mind, it is on the tricorder, too:

 

[Christopher]

A circular display is part of the language of Star Trek design....

No doubt because it was common for early electronic equipment such as oscilloscopes and radar screens. Early cathode ray tubes were conical, the easiest way to make them, so early screens were circular (and were spherical cross-sections so the screen would be a constant distance from the electron gun). They started making TV screens rectangular because that's the format movies were in (as mandated by the shape of a strip of celluloid film divided into frames), but often it was just a semi-rectangular frame hiding the edges of a basically round CRT. And displays on scientific devices often stayed circular.

Early television technology frequently asked questions

As we look at the history of television, I wanted to tackle some of the frequently asked questions about the origins of the technology, as well as share some cool resources on movies and television.One commonly asked question is why the early televisions had round screens. The television picture...

geekhistory.com

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I've always thought that the swirly thing was cool.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Chekov was once given a swirly by a Jr. High bully from Leningrad

 

[MarcKle1964]

"Hi! I'm Swirly! Can I teach you a lesson?"

Swirly gets infected by LD's Badgey due to timetechnobabble...you see Badgey spinning as his voice taunts the crew.

 

[knightgrace]

The Control Data Corporation CDC 6600, had the first Cathode Ray Tube driven Control panels...came out in 1964, while the IBM System 360 came out in 1966. Computers were changing fast back then. Now...

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The Control Data Corporation CDC 6600, had the first Cathode Ray Tube driven Control panels...came out in 1964, while the IBM System 360 came out in 1966. Computers were changing fast back then. Now...

The need to simulate far-future tech was a challenge. That's why Lost in Space used so much real hardware in the Jupiter 2. Those B205 consoles (as just one example) were already obsolete in 1965, but we didn't know it and they looked fantastic. 20th Century Fox must have thought so too, because boy did they use them in their sci-fi.

All things considered, Star Trek did a great job of faking it from scratch. Spock's moiré dial might look like a screen saver today, but that's one panel out of 56 around the bridge. The other 55 still play pretty well, and that goes double in standard def.

 

[knightgrace]

Also remember that this came before Xerox Palo- Alto Research Center invented Windows.

Not Apple. But the Apple McCantosh, was fantastic for its time.

The post showing the face of the Tricorder, could have also shown the Communicator. It has one too.

Henock did a good job tracking that one down.

I suppose that the Shuttlecraft instrument cluster should have had one as well. Closest was what was going on, on the starboard instrument cluster.

Does this mean that the Shuttlecraft didn't have Duotronics??

 

[Henoch]

I suppose that the Shuttlecraft instrument cluster should have had one as well. Closest was what was going on, on the starboard instrument cluster.

Does this mean that the Shuttlecraft didn't have Duotronics??

The Enterprise's helm and navigation control panels didn't have one, so, why would the helm and navigation control panel on the Shuttlecraft have one? Maybe it's somewhere else perhaps behind one the pull down side drawers.

 

[knightgrace]

Been thinking upon this...

The answer is 'no'. Computers back in the day, required control panels. They had to be obvious. So what is going on with the Shuttlecraft? Older computer system. Why? Espionage.
Only on those systems that are life/mission critical do you find this. A Tricorder and Communicator are mission critical. But there was enough computational power in the older system, that could handle the needs for a short time.