How to explain Starfleet forgetting alternatives to warp drive

[Tim Walker]

I
The Dominion was supposed to be 2000 years old and they weren't super advanced. As far as Trek technological development goes, there seems to be a technological plateau then you just evolve into energy beings or something.

The Dominion may have become conservative in terms of engineering, after assimilating the technology of the last conquered planet.

There is actually an analogy to Voyager/slipstream from history. At an exhibition in Paris, back in October 1910, Henri Coanda displayed a biplane powered by a ducted fan. Coanda later claimed that during a flight in December 1910, this biplane used a form of jet propulsion...then crashed and burned. This would have involved igniting fuel in the air stream-somewhat similar to an afterburner.

BTW, there was an accent mark over the last "a" in "Coanda", an accent mark that my keyboard lacks.

The Dominion may have experimented with Slipstream, then decided that Slipstream was too unstable to be worth pursuing.

 

[at Quark's]

Or perhaps some other prerequisite technologies were simply too primitive to make the technology practicable.

For example, it seems that Voyager built a working slipstream engine in Timeless which started to fail after 17 seconds. Perhaps there was nothing wrong with that slipstream engine itself, but the Voyager computers simply weren't fast or advanced enough to compute the necessary corrections, and/ or their sensors not advanced enough to detect the beginning fluctuations in time (or measure them precisely enough).

There are real world examples of this too. Technologies of which the principles already were known, but that only became practicable after the advent of electronics, for example.

 

[Farscape One]

It seems to be unique for every species. The Voth were certainly more advanced (more advanced than the Borg, even), and had been around for millions of years, but didn't seem on the cusp of becoming energy beings. Assuming the Dyson sphere builders were corporeal (why else would they have built the sphere?) they probably also were thousands of years ahead, technologically. The Zalkonians on the other hand seemed roughly as advanced as the Federation (with the exception of their breathing-stifling weapon), and they were on the edge of that transition. Perhaps other factors come into play as well (e.g. the attitude of said species, though the Zalkonians didn't seem that open minded).

The Zalkonians definitely put a question mark on whether a species advances evolutionarily once they hit a certain technological point.

I honestly don't think technology is the factor, though certain technologies probably help the species get to a point where, evolutionarily, they evolve into energy beings.

As you said, the Voth were certainly among the advanced races in the franchise that we saw, and they didn't seem to be on the cusp of any next level of evolving.

I think a bigger question is this: why did so many of the highly advanced species out there die out hundreds of thousands of years previously?

The Iconians were bombed out, but they couldn't have all been on just their homeworld. They had to have colonies.

Same with the T'Kon Empire... a single star going nova couldn't have wiped out their entire empire. (Though what happened to Romulus sort of gives credence to this.)

The people from "The Chase"... we have no idea what happened to them. Though I have wondered if they evolved into Changelings.

The Kalandans from "THAT WHICH SURVIVES" were clearly extremely advanced, though McCoy theorizes thecsame disease that killed the peoole on that outpost killed the rest of them.

Who built the Guardian of Forever?

Who built the Dyson Sphere?

How about the Preservers? Who were they and what happened to them?


I know I probably strayed too far from the topic, but once I was trying to respond to this post, I just couldn't stop the theorizing.


Anyway, my take on Starfleet not adopting other forms of travel...

As has been mentioned, they seem to play it ultra safe. If even a hint of failure shows, it gets shelved.

Lack of resources might also be a huge factor, such as the rarity of what was used in "TIMELESS".

 

[at Quark's]

Or they survived, but transcended the physical plane long ago, and now simply don't interfere with the primitive species rising there now - their own kind of prime directive.

 

[fireproof78]

As has been mentioned, they seem to play it ultra safe. If even a hint of failure shows, it gets shelved.

I always go back to this. Starfleet shelves technology incredibly quickly. They like the status quo and maintain it unless something proves itself. And they are not the only power to do so. The Klingons were experimenting with the phasing cloak and abandon it. Same with the Romulans after an accident.

 

[JesterFace]

Beverly took the Pasteur to Warp 13 in All Good Things….

I know, Q and all that. Still…

Might the warp scale been modified and warp 13 was the new warp 8,8?

 

[Sci]

The idea that evolution is an ordinal progression from inferiority to superiority is a deeply un-scientific, problematic idea that has no basis in reality, and I wish previous Star Trek productions has never introduced it.

 

[publiusr]

The Zalkonians definitely put a question mark on whether a species advances evolutionarily once they hit a certain technological point.

I honestly don't think technology is the factor, though certain technologies probably help the species get to a point where, evolutionarily, they evolve into energy beings.

That weapon of theirs might have an explanation at last:

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-nerve-cells-brain-halt-movement.html

Eesh…

 

[Oddish]

Evolution is mutation, reproduction, death, and no more. By the laws of mathematics, it will produce lifeforms that survive longer and produce more offspring, but that doesn't make them "superior"... just better suited for existing under certain conditions.

 

[Macintosh]

Evolution is mutation, reproduction, death, and no more. By the laws of mathematics, it will produce lifeforms that survive longer and produce more offspring, but that doesn't make them "superior"... just better suited for existing under certain conditions.

The non-random selection of randomly varying traits.