system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[BSG] What is the nature of the calculations required to make an FTL jump?

What exactly are they calculating? Why are the calculations so difficult? For routine jumps, does this process still have to take place, or can pre-calculated data be punched in in order to make the jumps almost immediately once the decision to jump has been made?
gpt
One thing to remember is that their computers are intentionally kept below a certain threshold of capability.  
Since this is a space folding type drive, the calculations that need doing mostly involve the specific parameters of local spacetime both at the origin and the destination.  Gravitational gradients, vacuum density,  and a few more exotic parameters as well.  
Those parameters are constantly changing, so it is not possible to pre-calculate jumps by great spans of time.