It literally steers the ship for you. Like you tell it "take me here" and it automatically plots the course and does the guidance. I keep an ear on it, obviously, and if we're actually being pursued or doing something delicate a human pilot is better. The ship's navigation is good for getting from point A to point B, though.
It helps that space is very, very empty, so you can go in a straight line most of the time. You're not so much at the mercy of waves or weather or landmasses like on the ocean.
That's remarkable. Unimaginable. [ Except Irving is imagining it, already trying to work out how it... well, works. ] I take it the, uh... computer, is it? has a map that it can somehow reference, to navigate from?
[ He might not know much about how "programming" works, or what's involved or even, really, what to call it, but after six month of using his network device, he more or less has an idea of programming, at least-- that there's some kind of underlying mechanism and system at work within modern technology that allows it to function how it does. Same as a compass or chronograph, in a way... well, no, not the same, but close enough that anyone with a reasonable understanding of science could draw a basic comparison. ]
What about all the other planets, and stars? The sun, and moon?
I don't really think about the sun and the moon because I don't hang around Earth much. But think of it this way. If the Earth were the size of one grain of sand, then the nearest star to the sun you know would be about three miles down the beach. And there's a lot of stars that are way further.
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It helps that space is very, very empty, so you can go in a straight line most of the time. You're not so much at the mercy of waves or weather or landmasses like on the ocean.
no subject
[ He might not know much about how "programming" works, or what's involved or even, really, what to call it, but after six month of using his network device, he more or less has an idea of programming, at least-- that there's some kind of underlying mechanism and system at work within modern technology that allows it to function how it does. Same as a compass or chronograph, in a way... well, no, not the same, but close enough that anyone with a reasonable understanding of science could draw a basic comparison. ]
What about all the other planets, and stars? The sun, and moon?
no subject
I don't really think about the sun and the moon because I don't hang around Earth much. But think of it this way. If the Earth were the size of one grain of sand, then the nearest star to the sun you know would be about three miles down the beach. And there's a lot of stars that are way further.