Expositron 9000: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Zim:''' I knew it! |''[[Invader Zim]]'', "FBI Warning Of Doom" }}

 

The [[NameTron|Expositron]] [[Trope 2000|9000]] will give one of three answers to whatever question it's given: an [[Info Dump|accurate answer]] based on available data and number crunching, a [[Bat Deduction]] that is unerringly accurate despite lack of data ... or admitting that it lacks the info needed to answer the question. That said, it may still make amazingly accurate predictions based on what limited data it ''does'' have. However it's often the case that the computer's sensors have already recorded all the relevant information needed or it already had files on the topic. This is done to avoid boring the audience and dragging the plot, though the character asking the computer may bring data they've recorded themselves to show some effort. Because of this accuracy, a computer giving a flat out wrong answer would be a subversion.

 

* In episode 43 of ''[[Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan]]'', the villains create and hand out devices that can answer any question, with the hope of making local kids rely on them for all their knowledge and become too stupid to resist them as a result. They end up being [[Hoist By Their Own Petard]] as Vul Eagle manages to get one of the devices and uses it to find where the villains are hiding. (However, when he tries it again later, it doesn't work because the villains have put up a shield around their van.)

 

* ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]''.

** When Captain Dallas tried to get information out of Mother (the ''Nostromo'''s computer) about the title monster he got the "Insufficient Data" type response.

'''Mother''': Does Not Compute }}

** When Ripley tried the same thing later, Mother's first response was just as unhelpful but Ripley got lucky and got some Accurate Answers.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Due to its longer run, ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' did this even more.

* ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Star Trek Voyager]]'': This was practically Captain Janeway's [[Catch Phrase]].

'''Computer''': [Very detailed explanation, which was usually right.] }}

* Done often on ''[[Time Trax]]'' with Lambert asking SELMA, his credit-card-sized computer programmed with all knowledge of the 20th century, to extrapolate from known data into unknown territory. She is always reluctant to do this and gives percentages of how right she might be.