Doubts about Cetacean Ops
- Thread starter Misuka
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Given that we've seen ocean worlds (like in "30 Days"), there's probably a couple of Federation member species who live underwater - maybe even the Aquatic Xindi.
I suppose it'd mostly make sense for them to have their own ships filled with water, but it seems in keeping with Starfleet's ethos to try and have representatives of different member worlds aboard starships, so I can believe the Galaxy class would have a big water tank for aquatic officers. It does pose an obvious safety risk if the tank gets shattered during a ship battle or the ship has to be abandoned, but maybe they have equivalents of diving suits that could allow them to survive outside the tank for some time.
I suppose it'd mostly make sense for them to have their own ships filled with water, but it seems in keeping with Starfleet's ethos to try and have representatives of different member worlds aboard starships, so I can believe the Galaxy class would have a big water tank for aquatic officers. It does pose an obvious safety risk if the tank gets shattered during a ship battle or the ship has to be abandoned, but maybe they have equivalents of diving suits that could allow them to survive outside the tank for some time.
Who says they aren't? The only time we saw the Enterprise D evacuates was in the first season Bynar episode, where the ship was in a starbase and personnel were seen being beamed off, meaning the cetaceans could very well have been beamed off into an aquatic area on the starbase. There's also when the ship crashed on Veridian III, but presumably cetacean ops is in the saucer section anyway at which point, they were likely beamed up by the rescue ships. We've never seen an evacuation of another ship known to have a cetacean ops.
The idea is that cetaceans are natural navigators in three dimensions, better than us surface-dwelling humans, so they're relied on as navigational consultants. Per the TNG Technical Manual, pp. 44-45:
Remember, the idea behind the Galaxy class was that it was a research vessel with a crew consisting largely of civilian scientists, though TNG's writers lost sight of this over time. Most of the people on board weren't there to help the ship function; rather, the ship was there to take them to places where they could do research.
Have to confess I find the whole idea kind of silly. I know, Trek is no stranger to silliness, but navigating dolphins is just a bit too cartoony or SeaQuesty for me. For years I thought the on screen reference was “station ops” and it’s still that in my headcanon.
at least some species of whales have been determined to be sentient in Star Trek since the 80s. Doesn't bother me.
There's no reason they have to only be Terran whales.
Would be cool seeing the aquatic Xindi again, too.
I think that they should explain better the concept of cetaceans being sentient. In my opinion, in the current status quo, species like the Aquatic Xindi make more sense for the navigation operations than cetaceans.
I'm guilty.Gasp! You doubt Cetacean Ops?!?
It's really dumb, and now it's been retconned back into the TOS era... but Trek is pretty dumb in general so why not?
one of the problems of determining intelligence in other species is that we don't really have anything to go by but our own intelligence, such as it is. Dolphin Research Center has done some amazing work understanding bottlenose dolphins, for instance. That they are self aware, can engage in multiple step group behavior, and communicate seems pretty apparent. But they don't think exactly LIKE us. one of the things they noticed about them is that bottlenose dolphins like to play games. They'll interact with you if you're willing to play a game they like, or run a boat for them to chase or whatever, but if they're bored with you, they're gone. So.. if cetacean ops was FUN who knows. 
No evidence that the tanks don't have their own lifeboats. Indeed some books (the Enterprise D blueprints specifically) show cetacean lifeboats.
We've seen them on California Class, Lamarr class, heard them mentioned on Galaxy Class in the Klingon War universe of Yesterday's Enterprise, seen signs for them on the Galaxy,
We know in "Starship mine" that the ship was evacuated of (living) organic matter for the baryon sweep, clearly that would include any cetaceans.
We've seen them on California Class, Lamarr class, heard them mentioned on Galaxy Class in the Klingon War universe of Yesterday's Enterprise, seen signs for them on the Galaxy,
And Constitution, at least in La'an's mindscape
We know in "Starship mine" that the ship was evacuated of (living) organic matter for the baryon sweep, clearly that would include any cetaceans.
I knew somebody was going to say something like this. There is nothing silly or cartoony about the idea of cetacean sentience. Scientists and SF authors have recognized it for generations, to the point that many scientists now argue that dolphins should be legally recognized as people and granted the same rights as humans.
Scientists say dolphins should be treated as non-human persons
(PhysOrg.com)—Scientists studying dolphin behavior have suggested they could be the most intelligent creatures on Earth after humans, saying the size of their brains in relation to body size is larger than that of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, and their behaviors suggest complex...
Basically, the above article says that by every neurological and behavioral standard of intelligence we know, dolphins rate nearly equal to humans. Indeed, the article leaves out some things, like the fact that they can understand spoken English (while we still can't understand their language), the fact that they give themselves names, and the fact that in some cognitive areas, their brains seem to be even more developed than ours. According to the paper A Comparison of Primate and Dolphin Intelligence as a Metaphor for the Validity of Comparative Studies of Intelligence, “In certain areas of the brain concerned with ’emotional control, objectivity, reality orientation, humor, logically consistent abstract thought and higher creativity’ dolphins have [a] higher ratio of neural density” than humans. So even if dolphins aren’t quite as smart as we are (and that’s far from certain), they’re probably a lot saner.
SeaQuest, after all, was a show that, in its first season before it was dumbed down, strove to be a plausible hard science fiction series whose stories were extrapolated from real science (discounting the occasional one about psychics, ghosts, or aliens -- nobody's perfect). They included Darwin because science says that dolphins are probably comparable to humans in intelligence. Rick Sternbach (who's painted a number of SF novel covers featuring tool-using dolphins) and Michael Okuda undoubtedly established Cetacean Ops in the TNG Tech Manual for the same reason.
Somebody please refresh my memory: which awesome book from last year? I can't, off the top of my head, think of a GC book that mentions Cetacean Ops, and neither can I, off the top of my head, think of a GC book that wasn't "awesome."
Lost to Eternity
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