Spoilers New season 3 badges

[Blue Squadron]

Voice activated...?

We can do it now with Google and Siri and it seems fair to say that the speech recognition engines were way more advanced even by the time of TNG.

It’s SciFi for goodness sake, and it’s set 1000 years into the future from where we are now — they can make the tech to pretty much anything they want it to do!


Remembering the Sternbach and Okuda responses to questions like “How do the Heisenberg compensators work?”

— “They work very well, thank you.”

 

[Tuskin38]

So what about telepathic species that can’t speak and don’t have hands?

 

[Blue Squadron]

Maybe there's a neurosensing option -- if their AI can detect minute changes in biochemistry then it shouldn't be impossible! We're drifting into Julian May metapsychic territory here but telepathic neurosensitive gel-packs...?

It's the 32nd Century -- who knows...?!


(And where does a sentient jellyfish pin a combadge anyway? And what do their uniforms even look like? And... and... and...)

 

[Deks]

This show just can't win. People are complaining that the 32nd century isn't advanced enough. Then when they show us advanced tech it's too advanced and stretches credibility. Ffs seriously. Tricombadges are no more far fetched than humans being able to have children with aliens or warp travel or the half million other things trek asks us to accept.

Tricom badges are something that should be doable by 25th century easily (along with a site to site transporter).
by the 31st century, these things would be part of one's uniform (which would have highly adaptive properties in combination with programmable matter).

 

[Deks]

Or warp travel causing humans to have alien babies .

Threshold wasn't that bad when you take into account epigenetics and the fact SF shields on a shuttle probably wouldn't protect the occupant from every single anomaly in the universe when you're everywhere at once.

 

[Deks]

Can you gurantee that "non-Federation" members will follow your regulation in any way shape or form?

I doubt it, they're going to operate on whatever layer of Subspace they wish.

And we know that there are plenty of species with "Cloaking" that can travel at warp and remain cloaked.

I don't want to risk my Transporter signal integrity by shunting my Matter & Data stream across Subspace when you don't have absolute control or minimize the risk by doing traditional Transmission from Orbit to Planet and vice versa over normal space.

If you're transporting inanimate goods that have no risk of "Life & Limb", I wouldn't care.

But I'm not risking a Sentient & Sapient being over a situation you can easily avoid.

Its a scifi show.
And if I was a writer, TW beaming would be so commonplace by the 32nd century (among other things) that any potential questions on the signal integrity, etc. would probably arise from Discovery crew who have no idea how the technology works.

Also, how many things can jam an existing transporter signal?
Plenty... and you don't see people getting themselves dispersed into energy on a daily basis.
The same principle would apply to TW tech... only, it would have advanced so much by the 31st century that there would be no concerns as you raise them.

Heck, Linus is more of a danger to himself when he keeps beaming all over the ship and missing his destination.
What?
Did the new tricom badges not come with instructions?
Better yet, how do they control where they beam to exactly? Thought based?

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Its a scifi show.

Even if it's a Sci-Fi show, I try to follow internal logic and consistency along with trying to match real world science if applicable.

And if I was a writer, TW beaming would be so commonplace by the 32nd century (among other things) that any potential questions on the signal integrity, etc. would probably arise from Discovery crew who have no idea how the technology works.

Also, how many things can jam an existing transporter signal?
Plenty... and you don't see people getting themselves dispersed into energy on a daily basis.
The same principle would apply to TW tech... only, it would have advanced so much by the 31st century that there would be no concerns as you raise them.

That's why I don't really care if you Transwarp beam Non-(Sentient and/or Sapient) stuff like packages or objects.
But if you stick a Sentient/Sapient being into your Transwarp device, I wouldn't do it unless it's an absolute emergency and it's a life & death situation.

I'd also make it clear and show that sometimes, stuff gets lost in the ether and show that there is danger to transporting goods that far when you have absolute free form space and people traveling through and frough at FTL while Warping/Folding Subspace.

Even though modern day air travel is incredibly safe statistically, accidents still happens. And showing that accidents do happen with Transporters in the TNG era didn't stop people from using it considering the vast majority of Transporter Usage has no issues what so ever.

I guess where you like to make things "Fantastic" for the sake of it, I prefer as much reality injected for as much grounded-ness despite being in the future. I don't want to make things seem "Perfect" just to be fantastical. I'd prefer more elements of reality while showing what can be done inspite of flaws that may occaisionally occur.

Heck, Linus is more of a danger to himself when he keeps beaming all over the ship and missing his destination.
What?
Did the new tricom badges not come with instructions?
Better yet, how do they control where they beam to exactly? Thought based?

I guess the user tutorial sucks or he needs hand holding?
Or something is not calibrated correctly for detecting his hands?

From what I can tell, they bring down a menu and you pick your beaming destination from a list of locations.

Double-Tap is the "Transport Home" gesture which I assume is pre-programmed for somewhere safe.

While deliberate transporting should require you to work the UI.

 

[NCC-73515]

He just pretends and wants to snoop around XD

 

[IMC Headquarters]

My issue isn't that TriComBadge integrates multiple functions:
Comunicator <- Seen in TNG Era
Tricorder <- The Tricorders Hand Held Sensor was fairly tiny, 800 years of innovation can fit the sensor into a tiny foot print.
Real Life miniaturization of sensors has already happened, see SmartPhone tech and all of it's sensors. Range is still limited.
Holographic UI Projector and Gesture sensor <- Holographic Projection should be at that point by 32nd Century
PADD <- is just a Tablet / Small Computer interface, replaced by the Holographic UI
Personal Transporter <- If it's just remote accessing the Ships Transporter and giving it commands, I have no issue.

If it's functioning at super long ranges WITHOUT the Ship or a Full Blown StarShip level Transporter, then I call BS.

The power to transport that far from Orbit to Planet without the backing of a StarShip level Transporter breaks the immersion factor.

The Emergency Transporter Unit from ST:NEM had a range of tens to hundreds of meters only and it was one way, but even with 32nd century tech, I can only see the Transport of up to 100 km at most for total distance transported given how tiny the energy supply is.

But that's more than enough for local spelunking.

Even if it was a "Folded-Space" transporter, there has to be some practical limit without a larger power source.

Personally, I think "Folded-Space" transporter would be a easier method of teleportation since you don't have to break down the target at a molecular level and reassemble them to move somebody or something. I'm sure they've come up with a solution to protect against cellular damage by the 32nd century.

Oh I allow for advances in miniaturization. If it remotely accesses the ship's transporter system then how does one program a destination on the fly, as it were? And if the transporter system is disabled, then you're ship out of luck. If you think dropped calls are bad...

Still, I'd call BS too, if they are fully capable of independent super long range teleportation. Might as well call them portkeys.

He seems to get home each time, but can't reach the right single-tap destinations. Maybe he can't see the interface properly with his giant eyes.


The only thing they can't handle is getting stepped on.

Linus was using it in "blanket" mode.

Maybe they should be coated with Mugato Glass...

What if I told you my phone is also a computer and a camera and I can watch movies and TV on it?

I'd say you're out of your Vulcan mind! Can it also break you down into packets of data and sell those to the highest bidder? I mean, break you down and reconstruct you somewhere else?

Ok.
In just a few decades, humanity in real life has put the telephone, the camera, scanning machine, microphone, and a whole bunch of other technologies that used to be 'separate' (and big) into a smartphone that fits inside a pocket and has a battery that can last 1 or 2 days with moderate use - that's a few decades... and science and technology advance at an exponential pace with the law of accelerating returns.

The Federation had 930 years (and the benefit of 350 alien species cooperating and sharing knowledge/resources/science and technology to minimize these things and put them into a badge - which probably happened around the 30th century).
Also, we know from the Na'Khul that the 31st century has power cells the size of a coin (and these would probably be an equivalent to a starship from the 24th century in regards to energy density/capacity... or 27th/28th at most given the laws of accelerating returns - to be fair, with laws of accelerating returns, they'd be FAR more advanced than that by the 31st century - but this was not really portrayed in Trek because they would have also included Transwarp beaming into the badge with a galaxy-wide range at least).

Although, to have all of this in a badge (while certainly neat) is a bit of a security risk.
If someone takes away the badge, all your technology is gone.
It would have been far better if all of this was part of their uniforms (there's plenty of surface space there to spread the technology around), or integrated inside their skin like a second layer that's coded to their biology and spread throughout the entire surface area - such as networking a whole bunch of technology over and over again to vastly increase their range/capabilities, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's 31st century technology (not 32nd) because from what we saw, advancement seems to have ceased when the Burn happened... and Starfleet is using same ship designs as from when the Burn occurred (which granted doesn't say much because programmable matter can probably make any starship [no matter how old] perpetually upgraded with latest technology).

Yeah. Relieve the landing party of their communicators and see how they get out of the jam of the week... I do miss that trope.

Starfleet's been licking its wounds and not advancing much on the tech front. Are holograms and programmable matter the ultimate tools for comfort and survival?

This show just can't win. People are complaining that the 32nd century isn't advanced enough. Then when they show us advanced tech it's too advanced and stretches credibility. Ffs seriously. Tricombadges are no more far fetched than humans being able to have children with aliens or warp travel or the half million other things trek asks us to accept.

Hmm...I don't expect Organian-levels of evolution in nine hundred years. And I know they have to show things that are relatable to the audience. And there is nothing more relatable than a personal communicator which can capture the world in your hand and take you anywhere in the world with a few taps and swipes.

I would have preferred, over the transporter mode, that the badges also function as the portable phasing-cloaks like Daniels used to walk through bulkheads. Would make great sense for personal defensive purposes. I can buy that.

Thank you all for your responses! I've enjoyed reading your creative insights on this.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'd say you're out of your Vulcan mind! Can it also break you down into packets of data and sell those to the highest bidder? I mean, break you down and reconstruct you somewhere else?

Yes, currently I am in Nigeria and need your help. Give me your email address and you will be richly rewarded.

 

[IMC Headquarters]

Yes, currently I am in Nigeria and need your help. Give me your email address and you will be richly rewarded.

Authorization codes coming your way!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Yes, currently I am in Nigeria and need your help. Give me your email address and you will be richly rewarded.

You forgot to mention that you were a deposed member of the royal family.

 

[Deks]

Yeah. Relieve the landing party of their communicators and see how they get out of the jam of the week... I do miss that trope.

Starfleet's been licking its wounds and not advancing much on the tech front. Are holograms and programmable matter the ultimate tools for comfort and survival?

Trek writers have a massive problem: they don't think big enough or creative enough in regards to technology and science.
Its not so difficult to imagine all the technology inside a badge to be shrunk down to a subatomic level and then replicated over and over again billions or trillions of times and networked together to be spread across the entire surface area of ones clothing (which would be entirely made of programmable matter and a part of the individual which would make it virtually impossible to remove without extensive/advanced surgical knowledge... or it would be underneath the skin, spread/stretched throughout the ENTIRE skin surface area like a second skin... less than a paper thin - its subatomic, you wouldn't even see it - with power sources also scaled down or shrunk to a similar degree... even if they need to remain the size of a coin, you can probably make them very thin and flexible so they are unnoticeable and just network hundreds of them throughout the entire surface area of the skin or clothes.

Honestly, Transwarp beaming would have bypassed the Burn easily (which could have been scaled up really in its scope and suggest the Federation extended through multiple galaxies in this time).
Any limitations to Quantum Slipstream, Coaxial Warp, Transwarp etc. would have been overcome/surpassed at most 100 years after late 24th century (heck, a few decades at most... considering that both QS and Coaxial Warp both WORK... and TW... heck, Voyager had a freaking TW coil in their hands and scanned the heck out of it).
Need a new energy source? Loads to chose from in Trek the Federation encountered or started researching by mid/late 24th century that would replace dilithium and M/AM in late 25th century already.

The Federation should have been extragalctic by the 32 century... Dyson Swarms (or actual Spheres) in the entire Milky Way and adjacent closer galaxies (basically with the Federation surpassing Type III civilization status and starting to become Type IV).
The Andromeda galaxy too (easy to reach with QS drive V2 in just 4.5 hours - because its a speed of 10 000 Ly's per minute per VOY episode 'Timeless')... tons of options to do there with the radiation and to fix it.

I mean... so many options for advancement and (massively) 'scaling up' technologies and UFP we saw in the late 24th century.... instead... we get... well, what we got.

Trek writers I think need to consult with some actual scientists and technologists... inventors too... perhaps Ray Kurzweil... read something from Buckminster Fuller and Jacque Fresco.

Programmable matter is not anything new. What the Federation/SF does with programmable matter, WE will be able to do really soon in real life (it will likely take us LESS than 50 years to get there at a rate of exponential advancement because we already developed molecular manufacturing in 2015 and had AI controlled atomic scale manufacturing since 2018). We're also experimenting with converting light into matter... and its going to get wilder the further we go.

I mean, if just 1 species with exponential advancements in tech and science achieves so much in such a small span of time... imagine what just 4 different species who decide to cooperate, share/merge their resources and knowledge together can do in just a few decades... now 100 years, or just 200 years.
The Federation in the late 24th century should have ALREADY been exploring other galaxies... not still the Milky Way.

 

[fireproof78]

Trek writers have a massive problem: they don't think big enough or creative enough in regards to technology and science.

Nope, they don't. And that's not about to change.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Trek's never been about the tech. The tech is window dressing.

 

[Deks]

Nope, they don't. And that's not about to change.

Yes they do.
They cannot keep internal setting consistent enough... and then they flung the show 1000 years into the future and make changes that would be equivalent to about 100 years of passage of time.
I am enjoying Discovery, but I can still be critical of what I think are its flaws (considering the kind of show it is).

 

[Deks]

Trek's never been about the tech. The tech is window dressing.

Even window dressing needs to be convincing... and I am not impressed at the technology shown thus far.

Also, Trek HAS been about technology on more than one occasion. And writers had PLENTY of opportunity to make a better portrayal of technology and its use within Trek canon. They just refuse to do so.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I refuse to believe these comm badges are also tricorders, PADDs, and personal transporters. A cool concept, but absolutely ludicrous. The computational power, as well as the energy needed to break a body down and reconstruct it, not just once, but numerous times in succession, housed in that little metal oval, really stretches credulity. Even by Trek standards. Flame me if you must, but also give me some hypnotically convincing technobabble to sell how it works. Please!

People would say the same thing about an iPhone a few decades ago. It's a phone, a computer, a messaging device, a camera, a video camera capable of making movie quality videos (and movies have been filmed on them), a music player, a video player, it's connected to the largest source of human knowledge in all of recorded history, you can play games on it, it can be used as a credit card, and it fits in your pocket. We give them to children to keep them quiet, we're practically addicted to them, and you feel weird if you leave it at home like you left a part of your body behind. This is technology centuries ahead of the fictional technology I've already seen, it's going to do some things we didn't think was possible.

Ha! Moderately amusing though...

(and nice to see more of Linus)

More Linus is always a good thing. I'm glad he's being used more, Trek needs more non-human looking aliens as crew members and I'm glad make-up effects have reached the point where that's more practical. I'm still shipping Linus and Philippa, and based on the Instagram account for the show so is Linus.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Even window dressing needs to be convincing... and I am not impressed at the technology shown thus far.

YMMV

 

[fireproof78]

Yes they do.
They cannot keep internal setting consistent enough... and then they flung the show 1000 years into the future and make changes that would be equivalent to about 100 years of passage of time.
I am enjoying Discovery, but I can still be critical of what I think are its flaws (considering the kind of show it is).

WTF?

I was agreeing with you that they don't think big enough. Then noted that it probably wasn't going to change.