Trek's most ridiculous contentions...

[Danoz]

Let's debate canon!
I'm not talking about whether novels or TAS should be included blah blah. I'm talking contentions in Star Trek that make major claims about physics or the origin of humanity/the universe. Remember, this thread is not about nuances of history-- but major claims. Here's what I've come up with as some of them more ridiculous in "trek science". Could these be reconciled?

1. Native Americans are actually part space alien (Voyager)

2. Dinosaurs evolved into humanoids and moved to the delta quandrant forming a reclusive monarchy (Voyager)

3. The Temporal Cold War... (Enterprise)

4. Ancient humanoids injected primordial material onto several alpha quadrant planets, and inserted a holoprogram into their DNA (The Next Generation)

5. Flinging yourself around the sun takes you back in time (The Voyage Home)

6. Time, space, and thought, are essentially the same thing (The Next Generation)

7. Traveling to the outer edges of the universe will land you in some kind of Platonic thoughtscape (The Next Generation).

8. There is a "mirror universe", where somehow everything is exactly the same-- though reversed on a moral/ethical level. Though events are completely different, people somehow managed to procreate the same way over time, largely creating the same parallel offspring throughout (DS9, ENT, TOS).

9. Traveling faster than warp 10 enables you to "occupy all space at once", turning you eventually into a hyper-evolved salamander (Voyager).

These are what I could come up with. Remember that they have to be HUGE suggestions about the form/function of the entire universe, or humanity in general. I see a lot of contradiction in these. For instance, humans are apparently (according to trek canon) the result of two major genetic seeds of an alien source-- though Dinosaurs seemed to evolve on their own? The idea that thought is somehow a huge part of the universe is certainly interesting, but more philosophical than scientific (reminds me of the Phaedo). Time travel is a huge mess in Star Trek and it happens all the time, bringing into the question the validity of anything. the Q seem to exist in some kind of separate linear continuum apart from our progression of time-- while the wormhole aliens in DS9 seem to exist in a dimension completely devoid of time.

RECONCILE!!

 

[Michael]

8. Traveling faster than warp 10 enables you to "occupy all space at once", turning you eventually into a hyper-evolved salamander (Voyager).

I can't even read that one with a straight face.

 

[JiNX-01]

That your brain can be replaced by a headband and you can be remote-controlled with a joystick. (Guess)

That you can trade personalities with someone so you can be the captain. (Guess)

That you can tell people to "get a life" and they'll actually give up Star Trek.

 

[Triskelion]

I'll try it:

~ A universal translator is conceivably able to process idioms with no prior referents from the culture, as well as know when people are trying to use the idiom in the mother tongue. (I'd sooner believe Tamarian language could utilize grammatical structures in the construction of a static metaphorical language).

~ An android complex enough to warrant individuality and military command cannot make contractions, apparently one of the great boons of being human. Ain't it.

~ That warp drive is somehow different from a coxial drive that can "bend space".

~ Alien humanoids utilize the same social nonverbal communications and indirect speech for courtesy in formal situations.

~ That economic systems are an obscure historical phenomenon.

~ That all ships in the galaxy travel zero degrees on the ecliptic.

~ That any alien species would be reproductively compatible when species of the same planets aren't even!

~ That all cultures are global and homogenous. (This one drives me crazy).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The "no money in the Federation" bullshit.

A lot of the other ones can be explained away (such as the Mirror Universe; since there are an infinite number of universes, the chances that the MU ended up the way it did, are infinitely good), but not this one.

 

[Danoz]

The "no money in the Federation" bullshit.

A lot of the other ones can be explained away (such as the Mirror Universe; since there are an infinite number of universes, the chances that the MU ended up the way it did, are infinitely good), but not this one.

I can buy it. The Federation trades all the time. I would even imagine they have latinum reserves for trading purposes. Sisko had personal latinum, as did Riker. However, on Earth and other federation outposts where all basic utility is automatically granted, life is essentially a Marxist utopia brought on by invention and world government (unlikely, but possible given infinite resources/automation). That didn't prevent Vash, an human female, from pursuing material wealth like the best of them.

What I can't stand is the arrogance that the federation people display when discussing the intergalactic economy and capitalistic economic systems. I'd like to know how humans overcame the distinctive "free-rider" problem, too.

Option A: Join Starfleet and be cannon-fodder for the Dominion.
Option B: Have your every need provided for on Earth as a bad painter.

Today, most people would choose option B. So, something about humans has to have fundamentally been altered in the way of personal motivation and sacrifice. Trek humans are a little too altruistic for my believability sometimes.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

People like to trot out the replicator as 'evidence' that the Federation doesn't have money. I don't buy it. Replicators are not magical cure-alls for all of society's ills. Some people (such as Picard's brother and his family) refuse to even own one, yet they get by somehow...

And we've already heard about "credits". That's what the UFP uses. They may not qualify as 'money' in the strictest sense, but obviously it's some form of exchange. Not everybody accepts Federation credits, of course; that's what latinum is for.

 

[Deckerd]

It's all ridiculous. You either have to accept the whole package or reject the whole package. Nitpicking just points out how ridiculous everything else is.

It's fun and it's entertaining and occasionally hilarious (option 9).

 

[Bak_and_Blue]

An alien culture evolved independently but has the same flag as the United States and the same Bill of Rights (Eee pub leest tay) The Omega Glory


An alien culture evolved independently but has a Roman culture that did not fall but proceeded into their 20th century. Bread and Circuses

 

[John Picard]

8. Traveling faster than warp 10 enables you to "occupy all space at once", turning you eventually into a hyper-evolved salamander (Voyager).

Dude, that happened to a friend of mine once. It was very unnerving and suffice to say, we're all glad the change was reversible!

 

[Sean Aaron]

People like to trot out the replicator as 'evidence' that the Federation doesn't have money. I don't buy it. Replicators are not magical cure-alls for all of society's ills. Some people (such as Picard's brother and his family) refuse to even own one, yet they get by somehow...

I don't see why not. In a society without scarcity of resources I would expect that people could have a house without having to pay for it. As long as everyone "did their share" why shouldn't they have the basic needs met? And whilst some people may not choose to own a replicator, it doesn't mean that they don't use them -- replimats, etc. probably exist everywhere.

Honestly I see the lack of money as no issue at all. I don't get why some people are mortally offended by the concept that you shouldn't have to have money to get food, clothing and a roof over your head...capitalism isn't the only viable economic model in the universe; it's just what we've settled on at the moment and frankly I think it leaves a lot to be desired.

 

[LitmusDragon]

Dude, that happened to a friend of mine once. It was very unnerving and suffice to say, we're all glad the change was reversible!

He got better?

(Monty Python reference)

 

[Danoz]

Dude, that happened to a friend of mine once. It was very unnerving and suffice to say, we're all glad the change was reversible!

He got better?

(Monty Python reference)

Good form, good form.

 

[JM1776]

That many of history's great minds—Brahms, DaVinci, etc.—were aliases of a lone immortal. [Actually, I find that one more offensive than absurd.]

 

[UssGlenn]

An alien culture evolved independently but has the same flag as the United States and the same Bill of Rights (Eee pub leest tay) The Omega Glory

An alien culture evolved independently but has a Roman culture that did not fall but proceeded into their 20th century. Bread and Circuses

I blame both of these on Ailens conducting social experements by kidnaping humans, and setting them up on a new planet. Of course, in the Omega Glory the ailens need to travel back in time to give the experiment a head start so it matures before the original planet (Earth) reaches the same point.

 

[Trekwatcher]

An alien culture evolved independently but has the same flag as the United States and the same Bill of Rights (Eee pub leest tay) The Omega Glory


An alien culture evolved independently but has a Roman culture that did not fall but proceeded into their 20th century. Bread and Circuses

Obviously, you are not a person who believes in Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development...

 

[Bak_and_Blue]

An alien culture evolved independently but has the same flag as the United States and the same Bill of Rights (Eee pub leest tay) The Omega Glory


An alien culture evolved independently but has a Roman culture that did not fall but proceeded into their 20th century. Bread and Circuses

Obviously, you are not a person who believes in Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development...

Riiiiiight

 

[payndz201]

In TOS, wasn't there at least one planet (the one from 'Miri', and I seem to remember another one as well) that was physically absolutely identical to Earth... within a few hundred light years of it?

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Just suppose that we sent out an intersteller space ship and it found identical Earths, Roman civilisations, every alien race looked pretty much identical to humans etc., would that have a profound effect on science or would we refuse to believe it?

 

[Anwar]

In TOS there was one story about the Preservers who were aliens that took humans from Earth and transplanted them across the Galaxy. The fanon theory is that they also terraformed other worlds to be like Earth and they were responsible for the parallel worlds seen in TOS (Miri, The Roman planet, Omega Glory).

In TNG we found out the Preservers were also the first humanoids who evolved in the galaxy and they found they were alone, so to make sure they left a legacy they seeded their DNA all over the galaxy so new life would rise in forms derivative of their own. Ron Moore said that the aliens in "The Chase" were the Preservers.

This is also why we can interbreed with the other humanoid aliens, we have more than superficial similarities.

Yeah, it may be far-fetched but if they can do the same thing in Doctor Who I don't see why it can't work in Trek.