Which Star Trek technology would people abuse the most if it was released today?

[Gingerbread Demon]

I am thinking either replicators or holodecks but knowing people it's definitely going to be holodecks.

I'd be tempted to holodecks but I would abuse replicators so much more versatile.

I don't know if you could abuse the use of transporters or other exotic tech.

 

[1001001]

Since “Trek Technology” is literally in the title, moving to Trek Tech.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

All of it, people can't be trusted, we're too "Primitive" compared to the future "Enlightened" humans.

 

[Paul Weaver]

Not sure how you could abuse a turbolift to be honest. Or transparent aluminium.

 

[flandry84]

In my world the EMH would be working overtime.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

In my world the EMH would be working overtime.

Would it be sentient, or a glorified "Medical Appliance" in Holographic Humanoid form?

 

[publiusr]

I would like it if there were stun-only phasers—but if they got out en masse, lots of folk would wake up with no wallets—and possibly in a HOSTEL situation…it would actually be a worse situation than everyone having loud, slug throwing guns of today that give away your position and whose bark sets people to running.

You try to run from an attacker—a quieter stun strike—and you’re helpless on the ground and they can club you to death—really take their time.

Imagine you are walking down the street—lights out!

And you wake up chained to a wall (like “Fortunato”) behind freshly lain bricks over some slight or other.

Stun-only weapons could stop a mob—but also a movement…where everyone wakes up in ‘cuffs.

Force fields are probably the most innocuous, that and clean fusion.

No pollution, no one could beat you up if you had a personal force field.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Transporters.

Imagine a highly motivated and well-funded terrorist organization being able to beam a nuke into the central headquarters of their adversary. Or lock on to enemy troops and beam them all out of existence entirely. It is the most terrifying kind of Trek technology that stands to do the most harm in mass quantities (outside of a matter/antimatter explosion that will destroy the whole planet in an instant, of course). Even the metaphysical/philosophical implications of the tech are still hotly debated by the fandom to this day. Does the body actually "die" in order to get dematerialized and an entirely new person created on the other end? If one believes in a soul, does it get permanently untethered or does it some how find its way back to the host body after it's put back together and re-integrate? Does the person simply stare blankly into nothingness, sans-consciousness, the actual person lost forever? Will there be tons of new ghosts floating around from untethered transporter souls? How does any of that even work?

Teleporters (via mini-wormholes or space-folding) are only a little less dangerous-sounding - at least, as it applies to keeping the person in one piece - but can still wreak havoc as a highly effective asymmetrical warfare tactic. We are a LONG way from the "evolved sensibility" that TNG espouses for humanity. In fact, the cynic in me is pretty sure we'll never get there.

And then there is always the time travel thing. If we need to have that kind of tech, I'd prefer it to be a "read-only" set-up, so that it can be used to look back into the past to see what happened, thereby ensuring an accurate historical account for research purposes. Akin to the theoretical "Project Looking Glass". I would think looking into the future might be problematic, depending on any myriad choices that can generate different potential timelines. It would make anyone believing in pre-destination go batshit crazy. Unless time truly is linear. Active participation in time travel is just a recipe for disaster, especially if one has nefarious intent.

I hope I never live long enough to see any of that.

 

[Frontis]

Abuse...well probably making a holo going to work instead of me

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

The movie Paycheck in a loose, very loose way dealt with a machine that could look into the future and its makers were stupid, if they knew what the machine had predicted why not just destroy it after the prediction was made instead of keeping it around? But then we wouldn't have had a movie would we?

I did like that PC screen they had that projected half 3D out the front of the screen I mean well we all know what some would use that for and it's boobies haha

 

[F. King Daniel]

Replicators would change the world (and in The Orville, it's that not warp speed that leads humanity to prosperity), and of course it would be abused.

Holodecks... some people would never leave holodecks. It would certainly change the way we view sex, if we can do anything we want with/to holopeople without consequences.

Of course, IRL everything would be prohibitively expensive so only Elon and his billionaire ilk could enjoy.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I agree, replication technology would be the big game changer. That is the thing that would usher in post scarcity or at least be one of the very big things that bring that into reality. It wouldn't be fast and it wouldn't be easy but it would eventually be mainstream.

 

[Laughing Dragon]

Holo Decks definitely.

 

[StarMan]

I would abuse the bejeezus out of the Holodeck. Really, imagine if we all had an actual Holodeck, each with a Galaxy Class computer core equipped to make every dream and fantasy come alive with a word.

It would seem rudimentary to network Holodecks so real folk could mingle in a shared space. Others would be represented by real-time avatars on your Holodeck, with all interactions fed back to them, and vice versa.

Plus, the Holodeck can also function as a replicator.

And I am leaving ... why?

 

[Unicron]

Because faulty programming might turn it into a HALodeck?

 

[B.J.]

Because faulty programming might turn it into a HALodeck?

Oh, we've seen that with Badgey!

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

And then there is always the time travel thing. If we need to have that kind of tech, I'd prefer it to be a "read-only" set-up, so that it can be used to look back into the past to see what happened, thereby ensuring an accurate historical account for research purposes.

That would be a fascinating story - how time viewing comes first, then time travel.

 

[Imaus]

Replicators still need energy - most likely massive amounts of energy, playing around with storing, transporting, and assembling matter - and feedstock. Trek has widespread power tech - antimatter, and fusion - that we don't, and won't for a good long while.

Trek has planets and systems they can strip down a hundred times over. We don't. We get replicators today, the grid will blackout after the first few minutes, they need a supply system to keep them fed/expand their capabilities, and people will replicate guns, antimatter, bombs, all sorts of nasty stuff first than just food or knick knacks, or flood the market with gold, silver, uranium, plutonium - if, of course, the machine is coded and set up to disperse such things. If we just get a food or medicinal coded replicator, then that'll help matters but it'll probably be whisked away to a lab to study for generations or be used, at best, as a sort of panacea maker, until it runs out of feedstock or energy and then becomes a wreck.

Scifi has dealt with this concept a lot - under the Santa Claus Machine plot. It's not pretty and it won't be pretty today. But that is the whole point of trek - they're more advanced, they've gone through more trials as a civilization and planet, they have more knowledge to deal with, wield, and appreciate such things.

 

[137th Gebirg]

That would be a fascinating story - how time viewing comes first, then time travel.

Agreed. Advanced tech needs to come in steps. It only makes logical sense that, in order to first understand how time functions, we should simply observe first to understand its dynamics, which would be a whole new area of physics to begin with. Then, only when we've mastered the ability to clearly see the past and multiple possible futures, could we even hope to jump into actual traveling.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Agreed. Advanced tech needs to come in steps. It only makes logical sense that, in order to first understand how time functions, we should simply observe first to understand its dynamics, which would be a whole new area of physics to begin with. Then, only when we've mastered the ability to clearly see the past and multiple possible futures, could we even hope to jump into actual traveling.

Imagine watching the past like you're watching TV through a Live Peep Cam feed that the subjects aren't aware of.

One where you can steer & record all their actions.

Talk about "Privacy Violations".

It'll also make most crime easily solvable.

Just rewind your Temporal Viewer to the moment the incident happened, you have all the evidence you need to prosecute.

That would greatly change the Criminal Justice System along with using Time Travel to prevent Crime from happening along with prosecuting those who would've succeeded, into those who failed at their attempt in crime.

For those who love a "Crime Free Society" where Law & Order ALWAYS WINS and Crime is truly prevented via Time Travel after the fact to fix the incident.

It would be "Paradise".

For those who like to commit crime, it would be "HELL brought forth into REALITY".

They would almost always be caught, crime would be INCREDIBLY hard to commit and get away with.

You would need multiple layers of smarts, technical know how, and the ability to make a crime happen without being observed or discovered.

That would be NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE.