The skytrain in Vancouver might be a perfect example. It has human operators. They press one button 'go' and the same button for 'stop' (perhaps there is an emergency stop). The train can run itself... it does so in Kuala Lumpur without any operators. Why does Vancouver have them? So that a human is still in the loop if a computer fails. It is an alternate failsafe mechanism.
Anyone who has studies sytems engineering knows that with highly reliable systems (98%+ IIRC) that the ideal redundancy number is about 3.... that is, for parallel switch-in redundant systems. If you get more than that, the mere presence of the redundant systems starts to reduce overall system reliability.
Having redundant computers is nice, but having a redundant system (Astrogator) which has a rather different construction (so might not be prey to threats which might knock out all 3 starship computers) can't hurt.
Also, to the last poster: If you take Tech F and say they'd be okay with TL 8 stuff running without supervision, you might be closer to the truth, given the conservative nature of the Imperium. So Tech C would be TL 6. This pretty much precludes automated Jumping.
Anyone who has studies sytems engineering knows that with highly reliable systems (98%+ IIRC) that the ideal redundancy number is about 3.... that is, for parallel switch-in redundant systems. If you get more than that, the mere presence of the redundant systems starts to reduce overall system reliability.
Having redundant computers is nice, but having a redundant system (Astrogator) which has a rather different construction (so might not be prey to threats which might knock out all 3 starship computers) can't hurt.
Also, to the last poster: If you take Tech F and say they'd be okay with TL 8 stuff running without supervision, you might be closer to the truth, given the conservative nature of the Imperium. So Tech C would be TL 6. This pretty much precludes automated Jumping.