Is the Star Wars Galaxy Funtionally Illiterate?

[Tech priest support]

Yes I could assume it was realized that the way to kill something that damn big was to cause it's main reactor to explode and they worked from that.

 

Other things to do might be to attack the main weapon, attack the dish, fire high yield warheads down the emitters on the dish. Maybe the empire had a defense against that.

 

In a higher sf setting creating a quantum singularity (micro black hole) on it could have destroyed it as the black hole consumed it's mass and grew.

 

But apparently both sides had crack analytical teams. I mean that scene were the flunky advised tarkin "We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger." OK the empire had some good smart thinkers there. I can imagine that scene inside the deathstar during the attack...

 

In a tactical combat analysis center a group of officers and studying the attack. "Hmm, the rebels sent a squad of Y wings down the trench. Hell of a move, dangerous, no room to maneuver in there. What were they after? Let's see, they skimmed the trench, and...fired proton torpedoes here, but why? What were they aiming at.... Get me a view of that area! Zoom in....what's that? There, that hexagonal opening....thermal exhaust port....get me full schematic of that....straight into the main reactor...HOLY XXXXING SACRED MOTHER OF GOD!!!"

 

The death star was a stupid idea to begin with but we can blame it on palpatine being evil, he wanted a terror weapon because he was an evil prick with....inadequacy issues. OK stupid idea but palpatine ordered it. At least the empire had some brains in it that were able to figure out what the rebels were up to fast.

[pinecone]

Shoot, this is the Star Wars universe, maybe they just use crystal dowsing...they can't even conceive of something as wonky and slow as using an search program....

[bigdamnhero]

Sidebar: I was just listening to a podcast the other day talking about how reading Braille is becoming a lost art among the younger generation of the blind and visually impaired, because everyone has a smartphone that can just read stuff to you verbally. Numerous advantages, of course, especially in terms of cost - Braille printing ain't cheap as I understand it, and Braille books are bulky as hell. So from that standpoint, it's a huge win. But the article also pointed out that by not learning to read, blind kids are not learning to write at anything approaching an age-appropriate level. Even with high-quality voice-to-text programs, they don't necessarily understand proper grammar, sentence structure, etc and tend to "write the way they talk." Seems to me that could be overcome with different instructional methods, and they didn't offer any evidence that they're learning less from screen readers than they would from Braille. But I still found it interesting.

[Christopher]

Sidebar: I was just listening to a podcast the other day talking about how reading Braille is becoming a lost art among the younger generation of the blind and visually impaired, because everyone has a smartphone that can just read stuff to you verbally. Numerous advantages, of course, especially in terms of cost - Braille printing ain't cheap as I understand it, and Braille books are bulky as hell. So from that standpoint, it's a huge win. But the article also pointed out that by not learning to read, blind kids are not learning to write at anything approaching an age-appropriate level. Even with high-quality voice-to-text programs, they don't necessarily understand proper grammar, sentence structure, etc and tend to "write the way they talk." Seems to me that could be overcome with different instructional methods, and they didn't offer any evidence that they're learning less from screen readers than they would from Braille. But I still found it interesting.

Actually that reminds me of something. Extra History recently did a series on "the Bronze Age Collapse". And the ability to read did come up in it. Inlcuding the emergence of our current Alphabet:

 

Actually, the whole series about the "Bronze Age Collpase" might be interesting. Especially episode deals with the Theory of "Systems Collapse". How a more complex modern System is more robust to minor shocks. But also less to major ones.

This might apply not only to our modern world, but also the whole Star Wars setting.

[bigdamnhero]

Actually that reminds me of something. Extra History recently did a series on "the Bronze Age Collapse". And the ability to read did come up in it. Inlcuding the emergence of our current Alphabet:

Ooooo! Hadn't watched that one yet!