The ship's computer being limited to turning on the lights is just one of many points in Star Trek where the writers intentionally avoid using the fictional technology to its full capabilities in order to keep the plot exciting and suitable for a main stream audience. Transporters and replicators are another example: Suitably used they could be terrifying weapons.
> Transporters and replicators are another example: Suitably used they could be terrifying weapons.
One thing I was always wondering is why it took as long as ST:VOY to see transporters being used as a way to deliver armed torpedoes directly into the target.
In later seasons of Stargate SG-1 they sidestepped this problem cleverly - when humans received transporter technology from a more advanced species, they had non-overridable safeguards[0] (and an inspector on-board) preventing them from being used as a weapons delivery platform.
[0] - which, in the best fashion of this series, were overridden several times anyway. A lesson for those who think that if something is banned, it won't be used.
Star Trek, for all it's technology, was always a story about humans. Even Data's journey is about as human-centric as you can get. In that way even the recent series have mirrored an older age of science fiction ("Using science to opine on the human condition" etc).
The Culture novels managed to convince me that a story about true AI needs to not only look a little different, but fundamentally different. Not least, answering "Why still humans around?"
