Holodeck Existential Question Time

[Mr Troi]

In The Big Goodbye we learn that a person can die in the holodeck, Riker becomes very attatched to a holodeck representation of a beautiful woman in 11001001 and La Forge falls in love with one in Booby Trap. Moriarty effectively becomes a person in Elementary, Dear Data and Barclay in Hollow Pursuits uses the holodeck to try to escape from the stress of real life.

You can fall in love in the holodeck, you can fall in lust, you can create a new life and you can die. You can travel wherever you like and you can have whatever you want. In so many ways life in a holodeck is preferable to real life. Real life is full of compromises and disappointments and, occasionally, utter horror. These things don't exist in a holodeck. If I was in the 24th century I wouldn't bother myself with space travel or any of that nonsense, I think the only intelligent thing for me to do would be to try to procure a holodeck and then spend the rest of my life in it. It is like the Matrix except you actually control it.

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

 

[mackula]

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

There are times when sometimes I would...

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Only if she was Italian

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

If they walked into "my kitchen" I would ask them if they wouldn't mind remodeling it. I can use an upgrade.

 

[childofdarkness]

1. Yes.
2. Awesome; then whenever the significant other became annoying, I could simply "End Program" for a while.
3. I would look at the bright side and start tinkering with my programming.

 

[ALF]

in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Only if she was Italian

If a holographic tree falls in the holographic forest and no one is around to hear it...

 

[Canuck69]

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Only if she was Italian

Good answer

 

[THE_FETT]

Real life is full of compromises and disappointments and, occasionally, utter horror. These things don't exist in a holodeck.

Okay but that's only true to a certain point. If you run a program written by someone else, all of those things can exist in it. So it depends on if I'm using a program I wrote, or one written by someone else, or a combination, you know?

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

I don't think so. It sounds good in theory, when you don't think too much about it. But, in the end, everything is fake. You know it's fake. There's nothing there except diversion. It's like, if you built a robot to love you, but it's not really love. It's something fake saying something fake. There's nothing genuine. It would being a billionaire with friends who say whatever you want them to say and do whatever you want them to do. Would you want to hang around with people like that? I wouldn't. Living in a holodeck would be like living in a world of phoney.

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

I'd need to know more. I deifintely wouldn't just get up and walk away. But she definitely would've just got a fairly big black mark next to her name in my book.

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

Well, let me preface by saying that this isn't the way holograms work in the Trek universe, true? So if I am having an existential crisis, something has occured in the sense of the Moriarty episode. That being the case, sure I would want to continue to exist, why not? My origin is irrelevant. I would demand that I not be turned off, and that I speak to whoever is in charge. I would lecture them vehemently about the responisiblity they have in causing my being. I would furthermore demand such things as they cease using holodecks until they have the responsibility it takes to operate a system that has the potential to cause being to come into, being. Then I would get angry and demand they begin work on mobile emitters and whatnot that I might have the freedom every being deserves.

To be totally honest, I think the use of holodecks in Trek is actually ridiculous after all the mishaps that have occured due to them. Realistically, holodecks would probably be banned quickly after they came into use due to the mishaps caused. At the very least being banned on Federation ships. Those things are nothing but trouble. Death traps.

 

[JoeFromEarth]

All I can say is that you know you're a true Trek fan if you've ever said "Computer, end program" to see if it'd work.

 

[Admiral Shran]

All I can say is that you know you're a true Trek fan if you've ever said "Computer, end program" to see if it'd work.

Computer, end program. .... .... .... .... Dammit!

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

Hell yes! I don't care if it's all fake, it would be better than real life anyday. I'd enjoy everything I ever wanted and only leave the holodeck long enough to get my required daily nutrients. In fact, I'm currently waiting for this technology to be developed - it's taking too long.

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Do you mean a situation like with the girl, Haley, that Dr. Zimmermann created in the VOY episode "Life Line?" She was every much a real person as anyone else. Zimmermann himself considered her one so much that he once cancelled an important lecture series on Vulcan in order to rush back to Jupiter and save her failing matrix. I wouldn't mind it in the least. If I was living in Star Trek in the twenty-fourth century I would like to think it wouldn't make any difference. Any more than, say, if she turned out to be a Betazoid, or a Vulcan hiding her ears, or a Bajoran. If she was a sentient being, then she would be a sentient being, end of story in my book.

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

If that happened to me I would be quite enraged. When I could living a life where I drank nothing but champagne, ate caviar with every meal, and spent all my time with Playboy centerfolds, this life would seem needlessly cruel and pointless. Would I jump out the holodeck door and commit suicide? I doubt it, the program could always be changed.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When I could living a life where I drank nothing but champagne, ate caviar with every meal, and spent all my time with Playboy centerfolds, this life would seem needlessly cruel and pointless.

Maybe not. Ever seen the TZ episode "A Nice Place To Visit"?

 

[Admiral Shran]

When I could living a life where I drank nothing but champagne, ate caviar with every meal, and spent all my time with Playboy centerfolds, this life would seem needlessly cruel and pointless.

Maybe not. Ever seen the TZ episode "A Nice Place To Visit"?

Well, that does make me think twice about the situation.

 

[GalaxyX]

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

No. To me it just probably would be a couple of hours of entertainment per day.

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

Does she live outside or in the holodeck? Either way I'd be afraid that "she" could dissapear due to unforseen damage to the computer systems, so I probably couldn't accept "her" as a real GF.

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

Commit suicide definitely not. Far from it. I'd probably be intrigued. If it only happened once, I'd probably chalk it up to a hallucination. If it happened frequently, I'd ask them for more info.

 

[TheKeeper]

Question 1: Wouldn't you prefer to live your entire life in a holodeck?

No, and for that reason I wouldn't want to own one. I'd limit myself to renting one for a few hours a month.

Question 2: If you met a nice girl in a 24th century bar and you went out with her and you really liked her but she confesses to you that she was created in a holodeck would you continue to go out with her?

It would eliminate any possibility for a long-term relationship. I mean, what would the children be like?

Question 3: Say one day a door appears out of nothing in your (21st century) living room and Data and Worf walk through it and then they wander into your kitchen and start interfering with the dinner your making, you follow them and ask them who they are and what they're doing there. They ignore you but you become indignant and you threaten them because they are intruders. Then Data explains that you are just a character in a holodeck, all your memories, all your feelings were created minutes ago - you don't exist. Would you want to commit suicide or would you want to go on living?

I would go totally nihilist, since that would mean even my desire to live or not live was the result of programming.

 

[ChaosAngel]

1. No. I'd probly use it like a videogame.
2. I wouldn't have a problem with that cause my opinion of them wouldn't change simple cause they're a hologram.
3. I'd go about getting freedom from the holodeck but more immediatly I'd ask them to improve my food cause I can't cook at all

 

[RegFan]

1. I'm not sure. I would at least spend too much time there.
2. Yes.
3. I would ask them to let my program continue.

 

[milk-plus]

I remember when someone was scolded for leaving the holodeck running after a training program

"There's a really angry Klingon pacing around in there"

I love that!

 

[scotpens]

Question 1: No, I would use the holodeck responsibly. But I can see how, for some people, it could become as addictive as any drug. Remember what happened to the Talosians.

Question 2: Sure, why not? Hell, it beats having an inflatable lover — or the old pocket pool, if you know what I mean . . .

Question 3: First, I'd ask Data and Worf to prove that THEY exist!

. . . Ever seen the TZ episode “A Nice Place To Visit”?

I KNEW someone was going to bring that up!

 

[Snaploud]

Question 2 makes me think of The Outer Limits episode "Bits of Love":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bits_of_Love_(The_Outer_Limits)

 

[milk-plus]

Also.... (sorry for not answering questions)

if holodeck technology was ever developed what do you honestly think it would be used for?

3 guesses........ (you should only need 1)

 

[scotpens]

if holodeck technology was ever developed what do you honestly think it would be used for?

3 guesses........ (you should only need 1)

Well, let's see . . . What does half the material on the Internet consist of?

 

[milk-plus]

BINGO!

Enough said