Star Trek: The Next Generation/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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 * Why doesn't the computer ever tell the crew that a critical feature such as the tractor beam has been maliciously sabotaged until they have the misfortune to find that out the hard way?
 ** Because the first rule of sabotage is to do it in a way that people won't find out immediately. If the saboteur doesn't know how to disable the test circuit, he can't even finish his sabotage before the computer's already finished paging Security about an incident-in-progress in Jeffries Tube #XYZ.
+*** Exactly. Saboteur makes the computer think some part of the tractor beam has been removed for an entirely normal reason (maintenance being the most obvious). The computer's not sentient (despite earlier entries wondering above), it can't think "Boy, it sure is taking them a long time to do this maintenance. Maybe I better alert security that something might be up." If something's been removed and the computer's been told there's a good reason for the removal (by way of the proper access codes or whatnot), it's going to assume that the removal happened for a good reason, and that it will be put back (or not) when the person with the access code is good and ready. Or, more directly, think of it this way: When you start up your computer, and some file necessary for running, say, Photoshop has been corrupted or deleted, does your computer immediately pop up a message telling you? Or does it wait until you try to run Photoshop?
 == The infallible autopsy ==