Transwarp Fungus can only mean it is the veins of Yog-Sothoth and The Goat With A Thousand Young.
The Spore Drive Technology. What Do You Think About It?
- Thread starter Kane_Steel
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Transwarp Fungus can only mean it is the veins of Yog-Sothoth and The Goat With A Thousand Young.
fungus NO multivariate quantum field fluctuational time thingy so ... traveling is like bending the cosmic super-string to the will of the worm... errrr the ripper that seems to abide by what we want.. or really?
This is like when a person can understand that it is possible there is only one electron/photon in the universe that is being everywhere and it is just different points in the past and future simultaneously ---psych
This is like when a person can understand that it is possible there is only one electron/photon in the universe that is being everywhere and it is just different points in the past and future simultaneously ---psych
I don't totally get how it works... yet. Apparently, we'll get more of an explanation next week. But it seems like a cool idea so far. In a way, it kind of reminds me of spice from Dune. I see from reading other comments I'm not the only one who's hypothesized that a danger of the technology could be reality altering properties (sort of like wormhole travel in Farscape), which could help explain why the series doesn't seem entirely consistent with canon. Or it could send the Discovery into the future, which would would be a way to have subsequent seasons set in different time periods, sort of like Fuller originally envisioned, but without having to ditch the main cast every year.
Minor problem ...
the spore drive chamber was built before they knew they needed a Tardigrade occupant, yet it is designed to perfectly accommodate said occupant. Why was that chamber even in Engineering from the perspective of the characters in the third episode? What purpose did it serve prior to the Tardigrade?
it was as just a spoiler alert - for them too... you know?
So this spore thingy needs a poor tortured creature to make it work.You just reconciled it. Congratulations.
Bravo future world of diversity. It's okay to be diverse as long as it's not some alien critter, they're fair game.
It's pretty clear that Burnham was very much against using the creature to operate the spore drive once she realised it was hurting the creature. The continued use of the creature is probably going to be a cause of conflict between Burnham and Lorca, In fact, having to use a living being to operate it is probably going to be why the Federation does not continue to use it.
I hope so. I've never been a fan of these types of angles. If an alien is non-humanoid (the creatures from Voyager's Equinox, Species 8472 etc.) they're not respected. I would like Michael a whole lot more if she comes through for it.
I think it's pretty obvious she will, starting in the next episode. As will Tilly and even Saru eventually, if his remark about fitting in with Lorca's crew means what I think it does.
"Torture is justified when we’re at war".
23rd century United Federation of Planets and Starfleet ethics.
23rd century United Federation of Planets and Starfleet ethics.
I think she will. Burnham was the only person not looking at the creature as a vicious predator and was able to make a connection with it. There were a few hints this episode that crew are not happy with Discovery being used the way it is. Saru seems to not particularly like Lorca and Stamets hates his engine being used for war. I think this ideological conflict is going to play out over the course of the season. I get the impression that Starfleet has not been to war in a very long time and the war with the Klingons has them rattled and their values are slipping as a result. I think one of the themes of this season is going to be about why Federation values need to be respected, protected and upheld even in the face of a ruthless enemy. It's a pretty topical theme considering the state of the world at the moment.
Just a shot in the dark here but I would guess the reaction cube is in essence it's own reactor/drive sort of speak. Especially considering during the Black Alert the Warp Core was isolated and shielded during the event (potentially even fully disengaged). My guess would be the Tardigrade essentially works like the dilithium crystal of the M/AM reaction. You could in theory have a M/AM reactor without the crystal but it would be impossible to regulate the power output flows hence why it's considered so volatile and dangerous without the crystal. So some how the control panel controls how the spores interact with the ship at a quantum level using the network to essentially tunnel through the quantum realm but without a means of organizing the extremely complex numerical data into an accurate chart/reaction the equation was always 50/50 as per the usual rules of quantum spin. So the Tardigrade is able to organize that information and direct it seamlessly which allows for 100 percent quantum prediction rather than the standard spin 50/50 guess work. So think of the reaction cube as a Warp Core just missing it's own version of a dilithium crystal.
On a side note I feel the Tardigrade is a natural inhabitant of the Mycelial Network (a quantum realm macrocosmic scaled version of our Earthen microscopic world). The Tardigrades navigate our reality as well as the Network through as Burnham describes it a symbiotic relationship like Bees to Flowers. The Tardigrades roam the universe spreading the branches of the Network while the Mycelium is able to flourish as it is brought to new locations allowing for the Taridgrades to survive on whatever they consume from the spores themselves essentially like pollen. It would also explain why a Tardigrade in the first place. A hyper-resilient creature that can survive at extreme highs and lows with even the ability to potentially survive in a vacuum or in absurd pressures. Without knowing how volatile the Mycelial Network is it could be assumed you need to be that tough to survive there and for sure you do if you're just wandering our regular space and all its dangers.
I don't know where I'm getting this distinction from but there are Federation values whatever they may be from this timeline and then there's the Prime Directive. Excuse my ignorance of the exact foundation but when did the Prime Directive take shape? Is Discovery the lead up to it? I know this critter is not a civilisation as such but using another species is wrong.
I think Burnham mentions the Prime directive in the first episode in regards to the Aliens that they need to save from an 89 year drought. I don't think it's said in any episode of any series when exactly the directive came about, though.
It looks like that chamber is where the spores are always injected. So since they have it on both ships it's where they put the creature. I don't think it's designed for it because of the creature has no room to move at all. The creature just happens to fit in it.
If it was designed for it then that would only be the case on the Glenn. Since the Glenn was using the creature maybe they told Discovery to make their chamber bigger without telling them why in case they'd have to do the same actions there. In that case I don't think the Discovery designed it the creature knowingly.
No, you're missing my point ... there's a clear reason to have that chamber there from a production standpoint, because that's where the giant water bear will go. So they put a big empty box on the set that fills with spores and doesn't do anything else until the tardigrade shows up. Now they did use it to give Burnham a grand tour, but the ship didn't move, so was the chamber just a separate, but related research product or did it have a specific purpose for the new drive system, too? From a production standpoint, that box is there to hold the tardigrade, but from an in-universe perspective it was just ... there. Why?
I hate pulling at these threads, but here's another potential problem, and it's likely bigger than my earlier nitpick.
If I understand things properly, the Tardigrade (TG) is useful because it works like a supercomputer correlating data with the mycelial network and navigating the ship through farther and farther voyages (sperion levels?). We know the spore drive never succeeds the warp drive, so something has to doom the mechanism to failure -- as late as the 24th century, no one uses it. Last week, it seemed as though spore drive might introduce cumulatively disastrous outcomes or introduce supernatural predators via some vaguely Lovecraftian mechanism.
This week, it's starting to look like they're setting us up for an ethical failure: that using the system requires injuring an intelligent life form. This is a big problem, because:
If I understand things properly, the Tardigrade (TG) is useful because it works like a supercomputer correlating data with the mycelial network and navigating the ship through farther and farther voyages (sperion levels?). We know the spore drive never succeeds the warp drive, so something has to doom the mechanism to failure -- as late as the 24th century, no one uses it. Last week, it seemed as though spore drive might introduce cumulatively disastrous outcomes or introduce supernatural predators via some vaguely Lovecraftian mechanism.
This week, it's starting to look like they're setting us up for an ethical failure: that using the system requires injuring an intelligent life form. This is a big problem, because:
- Stamets says he needs a more powerful computer to complete the calculations needed to make the jumps. TG makes a good stand-in, but presumably, someone can install an additional computer to do these calculations; especially if they're already making short jumps. Certainly, by the 24th century, this would be doable without using a TG.
- Even without a computer, the interface technology used on the Glenn is surely a crude prototype. Something can be done to reduce the physical stress on the TG, probably by making it non-invasive.
- If an improved, less stressful interface is possible, then, considering the TG seems intelligent, there should be a way to humanely treat it as a service animal at least, and possibly a full-on member of the crew and Starfleet. Even if the process remains stressful, TG crew could be trained to help operate the system for extreme missions requiring something faster than warp drive. TG crew could be rotated out of service after every such mission.
- Many other galactic governments would have a lot less trouble tormenting TGs with spore drive. Can you imagine the Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, or even the Andorians getting squeamish over hurting their TG navigators?
The spore drive concept is stupid and unrealistic, because while wormholes and warp drives at least fleetingly touch base with reality (as in: Its theoretically possible in physics) the spore drive completely ignores that quantum effects don’t exist above the Planck scale.
Aside from that, the little Tardigrade fella, let’s call him Cuddles, apparently can communicate with the spores, and has a huge galaxy map in his memory, no?
So Cuddles can apparently traverse along the sub space spore corridors, and travel at will, looking for spores to eat.
That raises some questions: (Aside from, where the heck did they find him?!?)
If he can travel using shroomspores, why doesn’t he just get up and leave? The fancy cell the captain set up for Cuddles shouldn’t be a problem if he can just shroom away?
AFAIK This hasn’t been addressed, and I wonder if they have an explanation.
Aside from that, the little Tardigrade fella, let’s call him Cuddles, apparently can communicate with the spores, and has a huge galaxy map in his memory, no?
So Cuddles can apparently traverse along the sub space spore corridors, and travel at will, looking for spores to eat.
That raises some questions: (Aside from, where the heck did they find him?!?)
If he can travel using shroomspores, why doesn’t he just get up and leave? The fancy cell the captain set up for Cuddles shouldn’t be a problem if he can just shroom away?
AFAIK This hasn’t been addressed, and I wonder if they have an explanation.
'Cuddles' has already been named: 'Ripper', and they didn't find him, he found them. During a jump he wandered into their spore storage.
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