Uses for the Soliton Wave Generator?

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Given the linear nature of the vector of travel for a Soliton Wave, what uses can you find for it?
I can think of several uses already.

Military: It would make a great simple long range artillery for slow moving, fixed, orbiting objects, etc.
The vast power it has and the Snow-Ball effect for it's power output would make one narly weapon.
Like launching a Tsunami with ever increasing power gain.

Transportation: If you can design the emitter to fire a Soliton Wave that doesn't continually gain power and has a continuous energy output or slowly diminishing one, I can see it as the "Railroad" of the stars where small civilian craft can be powered to Warp speeds between 2x fixed points in space.
This would allow a group of civilians to travel between A & B easily without needing to possess a bulky vessel.
You can then create a Network of Emitters that launches civilian vessels to it's target without needing to task Starfleet as 3rd party Uber's when things are convenient for them.

 

[Saturn0660]

I'll go with that.. Simple cheap transportation. Vulcan and back. Etc etc etc

 

[marsh8472]

You could use a soliton wave to destroy another soliton wave

 

[Qonundrum]

One can collect the gases it emits and sell it to Terileptils...

 

[Ronald Held]

Lots of fixed route cargo runs? Maybe fixed tourist destinations?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

In my vision of the Federation future (Beginning of the 26th Century)
Average Citizens can fly around in their "Space Cars" and use the Soliton Wave Network to travel across closer routes that don't need the Federation Transwarp Hub to cross larger distances.

Think Federation Transwarp Hub is equivalent to traveling across the globe to the other side, or in this case, the Milkway from one far reaching Planetary System to another

Soliton Wave Network as a means to travel across shorter nearby Interstellar Distances that are the equivalent of traveling across State Lines by taking a Road Trip.

 

[Deks]

The soliton Wave generator wouldn't need a stationary target to generate the wave.
La Forge explained that a ship relying on Soliton Waves would generate a soliton Wave itself and disperse it once it reaches a destination.

The planets with soliton wave generators were likely needed because the technology was in the testing phase and not yet ready for a ship to have its own soliton wave generator.

But, I could think of a use or two... for example, it was stated that there is only 2% energy loss between the ship and the wave, and made the technique 450% more efficient than Warp drive.

I suspect that a form of soliton wave technology could probably be incorporated into existing Warp capable ships to allow for such high efficiencies and reduce power loss.
that means that ships could augment their SIF to sustain much higher Warp speeds for longer period of time, and remain in the field that much longer without needing to refuel the Warp core.

since the Deflector dish on most Federation ships can already be used to generate a lot of different types of fields, particles, waves, etc... why not generate a soliton wave and have it interact with the Warp drive to radically enhance efficiency instead?

As for using the Soliton Waves for crossing larger distances in 'space cars' in the 26th century... nah, I see the Federation using Transwarp beaming for that (since Spock mentioned Scott developed it at some point in the late 24th century, so it would likely be used at that point - before the Hobus star going nova).

By the 26th century, the Federation already had active temporal technology for studying the past (as seen in TNG).
I suspect the early 25th century would make large use of wide-spread TW beaming across the galaxy along with temporal shielding for protecting the timeline (or late 24th century - post Shinzon incident).

Soliton Wave technology could likely be used to radically enhance propulsion efficiency in regular Warp drive, and also torpedoes fired at Warp, or even improving general efficiency of all propulsion technologies).
Could they be used for other methods like in sensors? Maybe... but, I could easily see SF combining the MIDAS array and its hypersubspace technology with Astrometric sensors that Voyager developed for real time communications across the entire galaxy with only a handful of MIDAS arrays in key locations to augment signals after every 16 000 ly's.... though since the technology is likely to be improved upon, the MIDAS array type 2 for example could easily extend real-time communication range to 32 000 lys' or more thanks to exponential development.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

The soliton Wave generator wouldn't need a stationary target to generate the wave. La Forge explained that a ship relying on Soliton Waves would generate a soliton Wave itself and disperse it once it reaches a destination.

So a device would fire a Soliton Wave into the vessels own Aft end and ride the wave? All while dragging the unit that initiates the wave?

From all on screen evidence, you need to position the vessel In Front of the wave to utilize it.
But how would you drag the device that launched you into warp?

I suspect that a form of soliton wave technology could probably be incorporated into existing Warp capable ships to allow for such high efficiencies and reduce power loss.
that means that ships could augment their SIF to sustain much higher Warp speeds for longer period of time, and remain in the field that much longer without needing to refuel the Warp core.

That's why I figured civilian Shuttles / "Space Cars" would be the perfect use cases for such technologies. Needing a M/AM Warp Core Engineering certification just to have on staff for safe operation of a vessel seems daunting for regular people. Having a system where you're literally leaching off the energy of the Soliton Waves seems like a much simpler system that can be designed to be idiot proof. No Warp Core, just a giant battery and capacitors of advanced future tech levels in a "Space Car". Computers will take care of the rest.

Since the Deflector dish on most Federation ships can already be used to generate a lot of different types of fields, particles, waves, etc... why not generate a soliton wave and have it interact with the Warp drive to radically enhance efficiency instead?

So you want the Deflector Dish to fire out a Soliton Wave, chase the wave down, than ride the wave? You'd still need a Warp Core of some sort or a huge bank of batteries to just generate the Soliton Wave, then chase it down, then ride it. Given that Energy can't be Created or destroyed, just changed; I find it to be inefficient to have both systems on a StarShip with a Warp Core of any sort.

As for using the Soliton Waves for crossing larger distances in 'space cars' in the 26th century... nah, I see the Federation using Transwarp beaming for that (since Spock mentioned Scott developed it at some point in the late 24th century, so it would likely be used at that point - before the Hobus star going nova).

Even in Memory Alpha, Transwarp beaming had a 4 meter margin of error for the destination point which could be "Very Fatal" if you get beamed into a rock, bulk head, water pipe (^_-), etc.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Transwarp_beaming
The fact that the formula got confiscated by the Federation higher ups is another issue.
I figured that you would need a lot of "Accurate Real Time Intel" about the destination that you were beaming too makes it also very difficult since everything is moving in "Space". Space itself is expanding, planetary bodies are moving/rotating, vessels are moving.
If your data is wrong by a little bit, you could literally beam yourself into space or worse.
Not to mention that Transporters themselves are already energy intensive, imagine the exponential energy increase that goes along with transporting further and further out.

According to the novelization of Star Trek Into Darkness, beaming to Qo'noS for Khan was a more complicated plot. The small portable transwarp beaming device on the jumpship only had enough power to beam Khan to an automated cargo station on Earth's orbit. From there he accessed a heavy-load transporter to beam onto an unmanned vessel in orbit of Luna. Khan had equipped the ship with another unauthorized transwarp device wired into the empty ship’s engine. Utilizing the entire energy output of the engine for a single massive burst, he could have beamed anywhere in our galactic region. Transporting to Qo'noS completely burned out the device, so no one was able to follow him using it.

So I can't see Transwarp beaming as a common thing, no matter the reason.
Not to mention defensive measures need to be taken to protect against that vector of attack.

By the 26th century, the Federation already had active temporal technology for studying the past (as seen in TNG).
I suspect the early 25th century would make large use of wide-spread TW beaming across the galaxy along with temporal shielding for protecting the timeline (or late 24th century - post Shinzon incident).

I figured Temporal Shielding + Transwarp Beaming Shielding would be standard everywhere. The sheer amount of issues that can be caused by people beaming bombs or WMD's from far away would be too tempting for any enemies of the Federation.

Soliton Wave technology could likely be used to radically enhance propulsion efficiency in regular Warp drive, and also torpedoes fired at Warp, or even improving general efficiency of all propulsion technologies).
Could they be used for other methods like in sensors? Maybe... but, I could easily see SF combining the MIDAS array and its hypersubspace technology with Astrometric sensors that Voyager developed for real time communications across the entire galaxy with only a handful of MIDAS arrays in key locations to augment signals after every 16 000 ly's.... though since the technology is likely to be improved upon, the MIDAS array type 2 for example could easily extend real-time communication range to 32 000 lys' or more thanks to exponential development.

I can see Long Range Cruise Torpedos riding a Soliton Wave, that's a good idea. As far as enhancing the propulsion efficiency in regular Warp Drives, they might figure out how to make normal Warp Drives more efficient by studying how it works, but I can't see how it would directly make things more efficient due to the linear nature of the wave and how it travels in space.

Given the linear nature of the Soliton Wave, it literally travels in a straight line, I can only see it as civilian transport from A to B.

As far as sensors, I can't see it benefiting sensors other than as inspiration into how to make the waveforms travel better or more efficiently across space.
I can't see a direct benefit given that there is already Hyper Subspace Radio by the end of Voyager.

 

[Deks]

So a device would fire a Soliton Wave into the vessels own Aft end and ride the wave? All while dragging the unit that initiates the wave?

From all on screen evidence, you need to position the vessel In Front of the wave to utilize it.
But how would you drag the device that launched you into warp?

Beats me, but La Forge said that future ships equipped with Soliton Wave technology would generate their own waves that would propel them to warp, and you wouldn't need bulky warp engines to begin with (or stationary generators).
I suspect such a ship would be able to generate a wave behind or in the middle of the ship, and then propel itself into Warp.
Crazier things were seen done with Federation technology.

So you want the Deflector Dish to fire out a Soliton Wave, chase the wave down, than ride the wave? You'd still need a Warp Core of some sort or a huge bank of batteries to just generate the Soliton Wave, then chase it down, then ride it. Given that Energy can't be Created or destroyed, just changed; I find it to be inefficient to have both systems on a StarShip with a Warp Core of any sort.

No, as I said, the ship could generate a soliton wave behind it or simply in the middle of it as if its already riding it.
Depending on the size of the wave, you just need to generate a big enough energy reaction around the ship that would result in a formation of a wave.
You'd likely need to excite subspace to kick start a soliton wave reaction while the ship is stationary or moving at impulse.

Even in Memory Alpha, Transwarp beaming had a 4 meter margin of error for the destination point which could be "Very Fatal" if you get beamed into a rock, bulk head, water pipe (^_-), etc.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Transwarp_beaming
The fact that the formula got confiscated by the Federation higher ups is another issue.
I figured that you would need a lot of "Accurate Real Time Intel" about the destination that you were beaming too makes it also very difficult since everything is moving in "Space". Space itself is expanding, planetary bodies are moving/rotating, vessels are moving.
If your data is wrong by a little bit, you could literally beam yourself into space or worse.
Not to mention that Transporters themselves are already energy intensive, imagine the exponential energy increase that goes along with transporting further and further out.

And yet, in ST 2009, we see Kirk and Scott being beamed by Spock to the Enterprise that was at warp.
Granted, Scott ended up in a water tank, but I suspect that you can compensate for that with more accurate computers... both 23rd and 24th century computer technology and subspace sensors (accurate to the subatomic) would be more than up to the task.
The computer (if told to do so) could make auto corrections itself far faster.
Heck, even in the 22nd century, it should be possible.
Look at what our computer technology is already achieving when we combine automation with AI algorithms that learn.
By the NX-01 era, computers would be ridiculously more advanced and precise.
Plus, beaming onto planets is infinitely easier as they move through space much slower than a ship at Warp.

Oh, and in the 24th century, we saw both in TNG and in Voyager ships beaming people with regular transporters at warp or from warp onto/from a stationary target.

I can see Long Range Cruise Torpedos riding a Soliton Wave, that's a good idea. As far as enhancing the propulsion efficiency in regular Warp Drives, they might figure out how to make normal Warp Drives more efficient by studying how it works, but I can't see how it would directly make things more efficient due to the linear nature of the wave and how it travels in space.

The soliton wave technology was fairly new. Nothing was stated about it being fairly linear. Course corrections can be made even using Warp drive (though it's not recommended as they could fracture the hull).
And it's not besides the Federation to merge different technologies into one (Voyager crew did it by merging both SF and Borg sensors to create Astrometric ones which are 10x more accurate and have a range of 2500 Ly's).

As far as sensors, I can't see it benefiting sensors other than as inspiration into how to make the waveforms travel better or more efficiently across space.
I can't see a direct benefit given that there is already Hyper Subspace Radio by the end of Voyager.

That's why I said that I can sooner see SF combining the Hypoersubspace technology with Astrometric sensor technology to say massively enhance the range of sensors and communications.
Soliton Waves don't necessarily have much use in this application.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Beats me, but La Forge said that future ships equipped with Soliton Wave technology would generate their own waves that would propel them to warp, and you wouldn't need bulky warp engines to begin with (or stationary generators).
I suspect such a ship would be able to generate a wave behind or in the middle of the ship, and then propel itself into Warp.
Crazier things were seen done with Federation technology.

So I'm thinking some form of Space Sail Boat or Wind Surfing idea with a giant mast that catches the Soliton Wave. If it's from behind, I would have to imagine some base station or another ship firing the Soliton Wave at your ships Aft Section for that to work.
From the visuals of the ep and the wording on how the tech work, you had to be in front of it to catch onto the Soliton Wave and harness it's energy. It's not something you can fire and then have a set of reigns and have it drag you through into warp.

No, as I said, the ship could generate a soliton wave behind it or simply in the middle of it as if its already riding it.
Depending on the size of the wave, you just need to generate a big enough energy reaction around the ship that would result in a formation of a wave.
You'd likely need to excite subspace to kick start a soliton wave reaction while the ship is stationary or moving at impulse.

The way it's portrayed in the episode and in dialog, it's NOTHING like the exhaust thrust of a modern day Jet Engine or the Plasma exhaust of the Impulse engine. They specifically call the test drone ship the "Soliton Wave Rider".
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Soliton_wave_rider
For it to work, your ship has to get enveloped by the wave, then the energy of the Soliton Wave phenomena is siphoned into the ships power systems and used to create the warp field and keep up with said phenomena. Ergo creating a continuous feedback loop of riding said wave, siphoning energy, and maintaining the warp field.

I just don't see how you can extrapolate the Soliton Wave's behavior as if it's similar to propulsive thrust like a Jet Engine or Impulse Exhaust.

If you generate the Soliton Wave behind you, the Field Coil emissions has to face outwards away from your vessel, ergo it can't push you into warp and the wave would go away from your vessel leaving you with energy wasted on firing the wave out into space for no reason.

If you have to design your vessel such that the Field emitters are on a pylon far from the front of the ship and firing energy at the ship to power it up and move it into Warp, I can see any number of ways for that to go wrongly on timing and ripping the ship apart. Anything that goes wrong with the power of the Soliton wave, and it can literally destroy the ship just like the Soliton Wave Rider. Especially given how close your vessel is to the emitter and the time it would take to get the ship ready, even by computer.

I guess it's a difference of opinion on how phenomena works based on Canon info.

And yet, in ST 2009, we see Kirk and Scott being beamed by Spock to the Enterprise that was at warp.
Granted, Scott ended up in a water tank, but I suspect that you can compensate for that with more accurate computers... both 23rd and 24th century computer technology and subspace sensors (accurate to the subatomic) would be more than up to the task.
The computer (if told to do so) could make auto corrections itself far faster.
Heck, even in the 22nd century, it should be possible.
Look at what our computer technology is already achieving when we combine automation with AI algorithms that learn.
By the NX-01 era, computers would be ridiculously more advanced and precise.
Plus, beaming onto planets is infinitely easier as they move through space much slower than a ship at Warp.

Oh, and in the 24th century, we saw both in TNG and in Voyager ships beaming people with regular transporters at warp or from warp onto/from a stationary target.

But as with tech in Star Trek that is similar to tech IRL: for scanning resolution that is subatomic accurate, you're not going to be able to do that at "Light Years" distance. You literally have to stand next to the target to get that. When you're trying to scan things super far away, the detail you get gets progressively worse due to laws of physics and computers can only process out so much noise from the signal.

Yes the computer can do things faster, but there are limits based on the data you receive from a sensor along with the resolution of said data.
You really can't compare Automation in today's world, especially with the current type of AI that is popular to Scanning resolution and processing of info. They're vastly different subjects.
Yes, beaming onto a planet would be easier than a ship moving at warp, however the telemetry of the sensor data is a real issue along with the resolution of said data.
The further you scan out and try to make a accurate prediction, the CEP (Circular Error of Probability) will grow.
At some point, the energy cost along with accuracy risk of Transwarp beaming wouldn't be worth it due to getting beamed into a solid object which is a real threat.
Anything short of beaming the target into the atmosphere and let them free fall and parachute to the ground.

The soliton wave technology was fairly new. Nothing was stated about it being fairly linear. Course corrections can be made even using Warp drive (though it's not recommended as they could fracture the hull).

You didn't need to state it, you should really watch the episode again, the video about the Soliton Wave and how it moved easily showed it as a linear form of energy that went in a straight line / vector in space.
Yes, Federation Pair Nacelles allows their vessels to turn while at warp.
The Ring Shaped Warp Drives that the Vulcans originally used were really efficient only for going in a straight line.
It had horrible turning capabilities.
As far as your vessel turning away from the Soliton Wave, that sounds reasonable, but you will lose your source of power and any remaining power in the battery of your vessel will be what it has to survive on and travel the remaining distance away with no source of power generation.
The Soliton Wave isn't a horse, you can't just wrangle it by the reins to make it go a different direction, it's a Energy Phenomena that looks like a bunch of Sine Waves that are fired out into space, similar to a large Energy Bolt blast in Star Wars in terms of it's traveling vector being very linear, just on a much larger scale and more useful.

And it's not besides the Federation to merge different technologies into one (Voyager crew did it by merging both SF and Borg sensors to create Astrometric ones which are 10x more accurate and have a range of 2500 Ly's).

I'm not worried about the merging of tech, I'm trying to figure out how it functions as a basic principle given the evidence you can deduce from it's on screen demonstration and the dialog by the cast & crew.

 

[Deks]

The thing you need to keep in mind with Soliton Wave technology as it was shown in TNG is that it was an experimental prototype.
Perhaps at this phase, the generators had to have been planet based (and not mounted on a ship) and needed to engulf a ship to propel it to Warp as was seen and then needed another planetary generator to disperse the wave.

We've seen starships generate and disperse different types of waves. Dispersion would likely entail use of generating a soliton wave on an inverted frequency that would cancel the existing one (in the process, shutting down Warp speed).

I think you may be putting too much emphasis on an unrefined piece of technology.

Also, I find it a bit concerning we never hear of this technology again.
We are already living in day and age where we could easily create a wide-scale use of a prototype technology in a year or two after the prototype was done by shifting away from cost efficiency factor to technical efficiency and use of superior synthetic materials and automation.
Since the Federation already has a non-monetary system, and focuses on technical efficiency as well as superior synthetic materials, and likely automation (in some form), you'd think we would see 'something' of this technology by the time TNG ended, or even in DS9, or Voyager.
Except... nothing.

This is basically one more example of developing pretty interesting technology that is forgotten by the next episode.

We need more follow-up with those invented and forgotten techs.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think you may be putting too much emphasis on an unrefined piece of technology

I base my conclusions on what I can see that makes sense.

We are already living in day and age where we could easily create a wide-scale use of a prototype technology in a year or two after the prototype was done by shifting away from cost efficiency factor to technical efficiency and use of superior synthetic materials and automation.

Depends on the technology subject. Let's give HyperLoop as an example, there are plenty of good technical reasons why Humanity hasn't built a MagLev Vacuum Train / ShuttlePod system earlier even though the individual components have been around for quite a while.

Since the Federation already has a non-monetary system, and focuses on technical efficiency as well as superior synthetic materials, and likely automation (in some form), you'd think we would see 'something' of this technology by the time TNG ended, or even in DS9, or Voyager.
Except... nothing.

Some technologies aren't worth it when there are other existing solutions, some tech can't be easily scaled down or up as you would wish.

This is basically one more example of developing pretty interesting technology that is forgotten by the next episode.

We need more follow-up with those invented and forgotten techs.

I concur, following up on "Forgotten Tech" would make life interesting / better.

Here's an example of IRL tech that should be followed up on.
PropFan engines is one of those technologies.
You can get the fuel efficiency of TurboProps at the speeds of TurboFans, with the only downsides of louder engine noise.
We could've had this back in 1981 for mass Airline Travel. Imagine the sheer amount of CO2 that could have been avoided had this been implemented back in 1981 while making things more efficient.

 

[Deks]

I base my conclusions on what I can see that makes sense.

So do I, but you are forgetting that Soliton Wave technology as seen in TNG was basically an experimental prototype in early phase.

Depends on the technology subject. Let's give HyperLoop as an example, there are plenty of good technical reasons why Humanity hasn't built a MagLev Vacuum Train / ShuttlePod system earlier even though the individual components have been around for quite a while.

Jacque Fresco proposed an even faster system with fully vacuumed trains in 1974 in his interview on Larry King.
The technology was well understood by that point and could have been done.
There were no technical barriers to execution (nor were resources the problem)... the problem was/is with the socio-economic system viewing things like that a 'massive undertaking that would be economically cost prohibitive to build'.

Also, Elon Musk got his idea for Hyperloop from ET3 - Evacuated Tube Transport Technology (a much more advanced conceptual system that would be far faster and more efficient than Hyperloop).
Its just that Musk's Hyperloop gets more recognition because he has a corporation to back him up, and we live in a world where corporations pretty much run the show.
It doesn't make ET3 less viable or technically impossible to build though, it just makes Hyperloop a priority because it comes from a corporation that is established and has a vested interest in developing Hyperloop as its own system (and not someone's else system).

Some technologies aren't worth it when there are other existing solutions, some tech can't be easily scaled down or up as you would wish.

Not so sure about that in a day and age of full scale automation, computers being able to do most if not all of the work with simple instructions in a fraction of the time.
Superluminal processing of data in Trek would result in being able to test the prototype using the vast Federation science database with latest methodologies and billions of permutations in seconds... plus with holodecks, you can easily test the systems.

Most problems in Trek propping up with new technologies is humanoids not being able to take everything into account even after saying they have. For humanoids, this is impossible, because even a specialist would contain a fraction of the knowledge that exists in their given field. A computer database would have access to infinitely much more data in any given field (which continues to evolve daily even in reality) and can access and process it far faster than Humanoids.
We are already doing this in real life by using AI and supercomputers for researching new quantum metamaterials, finding new magnetic materials, new drugs, teaching humans about art, about space, etc.
In Trek, it would be a lot simpler/easier and faster to do this via automation and get a viable/scalable unit out in a fraction of the time.
In reality (if we eliminated money and focused on what's possible from a resource and technology point of view from a sustainability POV), we'd likely cut back from 10 or 20 years it takes to develop a 'product' down to 2 years... but bear in mind that in Capitalism, it usually takes 10 to 20 years because they want to make a 'cost effective' solution that will make profits ('cost effective' by no means also means 'technically effective or efficient').

I concur, following up on "Forgotten Tech" would make life interesting / better.

Yeah... I actually liked some 'uber' technologies that were developed in some episodes but never followed up on. It showed that they can make a huge jump when they actually work at combining their knowledge and technology to find an answer... but the writers weren't nearly that clever to keep those things around because they'd have to adapt the story to suit the change in setting (which would be more realistic as the Federation would be realistically evolving rapidly in the series).

Here's an example of IRL tech that should be followed up on.
PropFan engines is one of those technologies.
You can get the fuel efficiency of TurboProps at the speeds of TurboFans, with the only downsides of louder engine noise.
We could've had this back in 1981 for mass Airline Travel. Imagine the sheer amount of CO2 that could have been avoided had this been implemented back in 1981 while making things more efficient.

Well, we had the ability to do something even better in the early 20th century.
Vertical take off and landing with fully electric planes for example - eliminating huge highways for planes and reducing overall footprint on Earth.
Tesla demonstrated Wifi power transfer in late 19th century... Geothermal energy for power and heat generation went commercial in 1911 (could have easily used that for baseload power instead of coal and tapped into dormant and live volcanoes - we even could have used synthetic diamond drills in 1950-ies to dig deep into the Earth and gain access to richer geothermal resources - and not just drills made from synthetic diamonds, but also hardware made from similar carbon materials that would allow it to withstand high pressures and heat).

If you're interested in that stuff, I suggest you google 'Jacque Fresco interview with Larry King 1974 full'. It's about 42 mins long, but quite informative on a variety of technologies that we had the ability to implement globally in 1970-ies had we wanted to.

We also had the technical ability to make massive orbital habitats in the 1970-ies for lower cost of what the USA military was getting at the time.
And, it was also possible to start colonizing the solar system at the same time (the moon I think we had the ability to start colonizing in 1950-ies though - and it would have been a lot easier to do that since it would also provide a sort of a 'jumping board' that would give us easier access to the rest of SOL).

It's not a matter of science, technology or even resources... for us (real life humans) it comes down to using an outdated socio-economic system that keeps us from making a proverbial 'quantum jump' that would make most of what we use today (and even many things we saw in Scifi) look like child's play.

Because, if we actually bothered to make those things when they became possible, it would have given us even better understanding and shot up our development further.
Unlike us, the Federation for example has no monetary barriers and can easily use its technology to make a prototype viable on a larger scale use in less than 1 year.

Remember the Slipstream drive?
The first version Voyager crew tacked onto the Warp core topped out at 300 Ly's per hour.
The second version they developed happened between 4 and 7 months later, and it incorporated Borg technology and other things which allowed the drive to achieve speeds of 10 000 Ly's a minute.

Plus, Metaphasic shielding was invented in Season 6 of TNG, and a month or two later, Geordi already implemented a Metaphasic program for the entire ship (untested, but it worked in Descent).

I think we also had other examples of prototype technologies that essentially ended up being 'complete' and fully functional versions that SF ended up using.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

So do I, but you are forgetting that Soliton Wave technology as seen in TNG was basically an experimental prototype in early phase.

No, I didn't forget, but based on the behavior of the Energy Phenomena, I extrapolated what was reasonable to develop into IMO. Our opinions differ on what is feasible based on how the phenomena works.

Jacque Fresco proposed an even faster system with fully vacuumed trains in 1974 in his interview on Larry King.
The technology was well understood by that point and could have been done.
There were no technical barriers to execution (nor were resources the problem)... the problem was/is with the socio-economic system viewing things like that a 'massive undertaking that would be economically cost prohibitive to build'.

Also, Elon Musk got his idea for Hyperloop from ET3 - Evacuated Tube Transport Technology (a much more advanced conceptual system that would be far faster and more efficient than Hyperloop).
Its just that Musk's Hyperloop gets more recognition because he has a corporation to back him up, and we live in a world where corporations pretty much run the show.
It doesn't make ET3 less viable or technically impossible to build though, it just makes Hyperloop a priority because it comes from a corporation that is established and has a vested interest in developing Hyperloop as its own system (and not someone's else system).

My issue with HyperLoop has always been the Vacuum Tube portion, to make it cost effective & safe from all major worst case scenarios, especially from Rapid Decompression due to the Tube being punctured via (Natural Disaster, Terrorism, Drunk Jackass firing a gun, etc). There are two technologies that can make my variant of HyperLoop work.
1) Remove the Vacuum tube from the equation.
2) Passive Magnetic Levitation
3) Scale the ShuttlePod up to fit 34 passengers in a School Bus size configuration with Electric Motor running Ducted Fans that uses a Suck and Push methodology

Not so sure about that in a day and age of full scale automation, computers being able to do most if not all of the work with simple instructions in a fraction of the time.
Superluminal processing of data in Trek would result in being able to test the prototype using the vast Federation science database with latest methodologies and billions of permutations in seconds... plus with holodecks, you can easily test the systems.

Most problems in Trek propping up with new technologies is humanoids not being able to take everything into account even after saying they have. For humanoids, this is impossible, because even a specialist would contain a fraction of the knowledge that exists in their given field. A computer database would have access to infinitely much more data in any given field (which continues to evolve daily even in reality) and can access and process it far faster than Humanoids.
We are already doing this in real life by using AI and supercomputers for researching new quantum metamaterials, finding new magnetic materials, new drugs, teaching humans about art, about space, etc.
In Trek, it would be a lot simpler/easier and faster to do this via automation and get a viable/scalable unit out in a fraction of the time.
In reality (if we eliminated money and focused on what's possible from a resource and technology point of view from a sustainability POV), we'd likely cut back from 10 or 20 years it takes to develop a 'product' down to 2 years... but bear in mind that in Capitalism, it usually takes 10 to 20 years because they want to make a 'cost effective' solution that will make profits ('cost effective' by no means also means 'technically effective or efficient').

We're already using computer aided Design & testing for everything, that part isn't new or surprising. But at the end of the day, we still have to verify the calculations with real life test models and make changes based on the results.

As far as capitalism and taking 10-20 years, there are plenty of products that don't take that long, it all depends on what you're building and how rigorous of a testing phase along with what safety / product requirements you will need.
If it was my version of the UFP, every product on the market would require a LITANY of tests that would require countless computers, man power, real world testing before it hits the masses.
(e.g. I would still want drugs to take 10-20 years to evaluate the Long Term effects; nothing short of time & testing will give you those results).

Major Car Platform revisions take 4-5 years with minor incremental upgrades every year.

Don't just discount Capitalism just because you hate it. It's not as bad as you make it out to be.

What we need to fix within Capitalism today is "Limitless Greed", "Lack of ethics / compassion / morals in business", Cronyism, Corruption, Nepotism, Favoritism, Bias, Political Agendas, "True Transparency about the entire process of Employement, Hiring, Evaluation, Payment based on rank", etc.

Yeah... I actually liked some 'uber' technologies that were developed in some episodes but never followed up on. It showed that they can make a huge jump when they actually work at combining their knowledge and technology to find an answer... but the writers weren't nearly that clever to keep those things around because they'd have to adapt the story to suit the change in setting (which would be more realistic as the Federation would be realistically evolving rapidly in the series).

Most of the writers aren't technologists or have a technical background. Their science person is only good for a specific set of things when it comes to the script. They don't have a on staff technologist to constantly due research and help evaluate things that are potentially possible.

Well, we had the ability to do something even better in the early 20th century.Vertical take off and landing with fully electric planes for example - eliminating huge highways for planes and reducing overall footprint on Earth.

VTOL capability like the V-22 Osprey started in the 1980's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey#Origins
It was only very recently (2007) that it was more or less perfected for mass use by the US Military.
And only in the next few years will the civilian version be coming out for sale.
There were a lot of deaths & accidents on the way before we can get the tech working.
As far as "Electric Aircraft", the battery weight issue still hasn't been resolved.
Only very recently (Past 2-3 years) have we got enough battery power density to weight ratio can we get light trainers.
I follow the aviation technology industry fairly closely along with a good grasp of the history of various tech.
So your perspective on what was capable back then is a bit misinformed.

Tesla demonstrated Wifi power transfer in late 19th century... Geothermal energy for power and heat generation went commercial in 1911 (could have easily used that for baseload power instead of coal and tapped into dormant and live volcanoes - we even could have used synthetic diamond drills in 1950-ies to dig deep into the Earth and gain access to richer geothermal resources - and not just drills made from synthetic diamonds, but also hardware made from similar carbon materials that would allow it to withstand high pressures and heat).

Tesla's claims have never been proven.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wireless_System
Only recently have we been able to demonstrate significant power transfer at a short distance.
Not to mention the health effects of beaming massive amounts of energy through microwave radiation.
That part is very heavily regulated, so you generally DO NOT want to do that.

As far as GeoThermal energy, I have close family friends who work with the CA Department of Power. The #1 reason that GeoThermal doesn't scale well is due to the costs of constantly replacing the piping and dealing with corrosion of the hot water. It's not that it doesn't work, it's the maintenance costs don't beat out other Green Power options like Solar, Wind, or Water based systems.

Synthetic Diamond technologies were only in it's infancy stage in the 1950's, it wasn't until the 1980's that mass production was a realistic option due to technology development.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

If you're interested in that stuff, I suggest you google 'Jacque Fresco interview with Larry King 1974 full'. It's about 42 mins long, but quite informative on a variety of technologies that we had the ability to implement globally in 1970-ies had we wanted to.

We also had the technical ability to make massive orbital habitats in the 1970-ies for lower cost of what the USA military was getting at the time.
And, it was also possible to start colonizing the solar system at the same time (the moon I think we had the ability to start colonizing in 1950-ies though - and it would have been a lot easier to do that since it would also provide a sort of a 'jumping board' that would give us easier access to the rest of SOL).

It's not a matter of science, technology or even resources... for us (real life humans) it comes down to using an outdated socio-economic system that keeps us from making a proverbial 'quantum jump' that would make most of what we use today (and even many things we saw in Scifi) look like child's play.

I've seen a lot of "Jacque Fresco's" work / interview. A very Utopian Idealist, but I don't necessarily agree with him in many ways.
And a lot of your theories on what was possible back then isn't based on real technological capability IRL and when the tech development actually happened.
We still have a LOT of research that needs to be done to figure out true sustainable Moon bases.
Even NASA agrees that we aren't even ready now.

It's not a matter of science, technology or even resources... for us (real life humans) it comes down to using an outdated socio-economic system that keeps us from making a proverbial 'quantum jump' that would make most of what we use today (and even many things we saw in Scifi) look like child's play.

Because, if we actually bothered to make those things when they became possible, it would have given us even better understanding and shot up our development further.
Unlike us, the Federation for example has no monetary barriers and can easily use its technology to make a prototype viable on a larger scale use in less than 1 year.

I don't believe that Capitalism is as outdated of a Socio-Economic system as you would believe. There are countless other issues to tackle along with guiding more of society into the STEM fields and making sure they are capable of succeeding in it and wanting to work in it.

We have too many people who want an easy life, want to be celebrities, want to be lazy, or want to be criminals.
Nobody wants to work and truly contribute to society, and that is a human issue and we need to figure out how to instill ethics, drive, proper desire, and willingness to contribute to society along with proper rewards for Hard Work.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Remember the Slipstream drive?
The first version Voyager crew tacked onto the Warp core topped out at 300 Ly's per hour.
The second version they developed happened between 4 and 7 months later, and it incorporated Borg technology and other things which allowed the drive to achieve speeds of 10 000 Ly's a minute.

Plus, Metaphasic shielding was invented in Season 6 of TNG, and a month or two later, Geordi already implemented a Metaphasic program for the entire ship (untested, but it worked in Descent).

I think we also had other examples of prototype technologies that essentially ended up being 'complete' and fully functional versions that SF ended up using.

In my "Writers Reference Manual" that is over 550+ pages for my new Star Trek Universe, Soliton Wave tech is already in use for civilians while StarFleet already has access to a bunch of Post traditional Warp Drive FTL solutions.
The sheer volume of technology, societal changes, government changes, organizational changes, etc is countless.

I still abide by Canon as much as possible, but I make countless improvements everywhere I can see in the Star Trek Universe.

I have written changes for everything from Governmental Systems in the UFP, along with it's economic model.
Societal Norms, etc.