Holodeck Technology - Does it really make sense?

[Luther Sloan]

The Holodeck has been used in numerous episodes of Star Trek over the years. It shows us that you can live out your most intimate fantasies, relax, stay in shape, hone your skills, and more. You can even die in the Holodeck if the safeties are off, too.

However, does Holodeck Technology really make sense, though?
I mean, we all know that the Holodeck uses photons and force fields to create the environment, clothes, and people you interact with. But how can you really feel the textures and temperature of other objects (especially people) when you are in the Holodeck?

I mean, is the Holodeck a lot like the transporter? Does it create matter within the Holodeck (made out of photons and forcefields)?

Just how in the world can such a device seem so bloody real to it's occupants?

Well, please let us know your thoughts.

I am sure, other Trek fans would like to know what you would have to say.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

~J.

 

[Anticitizen]

It's certainly one of the less believable technologies in Trek, taken to even sillier extremes in Voyager, what with 'photonic' lifeforms running around all over the place.

Seems like it'd be a massive power burden to me. You'd think that an easier solution would be a sort of VR that the participants to jack into, like The Matrix, perhaps by way of wearing a silly hat, or something.

 

[T'Girl]

I think the replicator has a role to play on the holodeck.

If your on the holodeck and you walk into a room where there is a feast laid out on a table, the computer controlling the simulation can't anticipate whether or not if you're going to eat anything off of that table. So every bite of food and sip of drink has to be actual replicated food and drink, the holodeck can't replace the projection of apple with a real one after you've already picked it up. That would destroy the illusion for you.

And the holodeck is only so big, so when you leave the banquet room, it ceases to exist as soon as you turn the corner. But if you continuely enter and exit that same room as part of your holo adventure, the holodeck has to constantly create and "recycle" all that food.

 

[sevenstars]

Everything about the holodeck was absurdly unbelievable, even if occasionally entertaining. And the casualness and inconsistency with which they treated the whole consciousness issue-- it all ended up being rather disorienting and disturbing.

And not in a good way.

 

[Timo]

I have never had a problem with the holodeck. Its matter-creating and matter-rearranging properties are a natural outgrowth of the transporter - if I can believe in the transporter (which is difficult at times), I can easily believe in the holodeck. Its intelligence in turn is a natural outgrowth of the capabilities of Trek computers, and indeed it's often more difficult to believe that other TNG era devices and tools wouldn't be sentient for increased utility. Most significantly, the holodeck is something these people would certainly have if they have transporters and replicators; the appeal of such a system would be too great to ignore.

Of course, if it becomes too difficult to accept that our heroes would find certain holodeck features realistic and convincing, we can always speculate that they do not. They just pretend, and suspend disbelief.

Alternately, the holodeck may take into account that some of its illusions are imperfect, and compensate by introducing suitable chemical agents into the air to dull the senses of the users...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[sbk1234]

Everything about the holodeck was absurdly unbelievable, even if occasionally entertaining. And the casualness and inconsistency with which they treated the whole consciousness issue-- it all ended up being rather disorienting and disturbing.

And not in a good way.

I find I always must suspend my disbelief when watching a holodeck episode. And I really have to work at it.
Holodeck? Just say "NO!"

 

[The Wormhole]

No, the holodeck doesn't really make sense. But then, neither do trasnporters, food replicators, warp drive or universal translators that can instantly translate a language upon the first time hering it.

Are things that make really why we watch Star Trek, though?

 

[sevenstars]

Are things that make sense really why we watch Star Trek, though?

No, definitely not. And you're right: compared to the universal translator, the holodeck is as believable as a chainsaw.

 

[Myasishchev]

Are things that make sense really why we watch Star Trek, though?

No, definitely not. And you're right: compared to the universal translator, the holodeck is as believable as a chainsaw.

I should start a most unbelievable technology poll.

And follow it up with a technology with the most unbelievable lack social effects poll.

 

[Mark Antony]

How do we know that we're not in a holodeck right now?

 

[Luther Sloan]

Yeah, the way that the Holodeck is described to us on the show really doesn't make much sense to me. I mean, how can living energy fool me into thinking it is a real person (that I can touch like the real thing)?

The only way this technology works is if it replicates actual matter in some way.

However, we know that the Holodeck objects are energy based, though. And can only exist within the Holodeck as solid matter.

Which makes me wonder... maybe there is more to the mastery of energy to matter conversion than we would like to believe in the 24th Century.

 

[Sector 7]

As often as we see the holodeck break down, I am not sure I would trust it.

 

[clever_username]

i've always wondered how the floor in one works. does it create a treadmill or something? you'd think that someone in there would eventually run into a wall.

and after the whole barclay/holographic troi thing, do you think they put restrictions on what you could do with a holo representation of another crew member? i've always wondered how many times seven was nailed on the holodeck. or t'pol (like archived images)

 

[The Wormhole]

i've always wondered how the floor in one works. does it create a treadmill or something? you'd think that someone in there would eventually run into a wall.

At first it was implied that the wall of a holodeck is something that you could run into. Like in Encounter at Farpoint when Data threw a rock at the holodeck wall causing the image to shimmer. However, this has since been abandoned, and you can see people standing greaters distances apart within the holodeck than the actual size of it.

and after the whole barclay/holographic troi thing, do you think they put restrictions on what you could do with a holo representation of another crew member? i've always wondered how many times seven was nailed on the holodeck. or t'pol (like archived images)

Geordi said in Hollow Pursuits there were no rules against creating holographic representations of real people. And indeed, on DS9 when Quark was trying to make a holographic Kira, she got pissed off over it, but never bothered to make an official complaint to Sisko or Odo or whoever, probably because such rules don't exist.

I think it all comes down to 90% of Starfleet officers preferring to use the holodeck to recreate Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes or some other form of classical literature rather than bone an attractive crewmate.

 

[Timo]

At first it was implied that the wall of a holodeck is something that you could run into. Like in Encounter at Farpoint when Data threw a rock at the holodeck wall causing the image to shimmer. However, this has since been abandoned, and you can see people standing greaters distances apart within the holodeck than the actual size of it.

However, since the holodeck exists purely in order to Serve Man (sometimes well done), it only appears natural that the wall would become visible when Data performs a trick intended to make the wall visible. Had he thrown the rock with some other intent, its simulated flightpath would probably have continued unhindered to the distance according to the laws of ballistics...

I think it all comes down to 90% of Starfleet officers preferring to use the holodeck to recreate Shakespeare or Sherlock Holmes or some other form of classical literature rather than bone an attractive crewmate.

I rather like to think that the decisive factor is that it's impossible to lock the doors of a holodeck (Starfleet or Ferengi, makes no difference). This may be The Law, or then just a social more - but the moral consequences would be obvious. One would do exactly as much as one dared show in public, and no more. And one's mileage would vary on the issue of daring.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Navaros]

Nope, the holodeck makes no sense whatsoever and cannot be rationally justified as a believable idea in any way.

I'm surprised no one in this thread has mentioned the minuscule prison-cell-like space that an entire 'holodeck' is supposed to allegedly occupy. That is IMO the most absurd thing of all.

 

[Timo]

I just plain can't understand that argument, or rather, that sentiment. Is everybody so completely ignorant of the current achievements in virtual reality?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Luther Sloan]

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/72166

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQw1tsgrJOs

My thinking is that it is like a treadmill. However, it is a Holodeck treadmill where the Holo-ground (which is energy based matter) moves and changes as you do. Let's say for example that you are climbing a mountain in the Holodeck with the safeties on. Well, as you start to climb up the mountain, the Holodeck doesn't let you get more than a few feet off the ground because the rock face keeps pulling down as you climb up it. This would further suggest that the Holodeck uses waves or pulses of anti gravity to trick you into thinking that you are in fact climbing straight up the rock instead of feeling like the rock is moving only when you you do.

Now, for enjoying programs such as Vulcan Love Slave #69 and what not: My thought is that the Holodeck taps into the pleasure centers of your brain with a beam that fools you into feeling something that is not actually there. Forcefields could further add to the effect of this mental manipulation, as well.

Oh, and here is a source that is pretty close to my theory, too (if your interested)...

http://www.lcarscom.net/holodeck.htm



Side Note:

Still, the Holodeck is a bit of a stretch as far as believability is concerned. But then again the transporter is pretty crazy piece of technology if you really think about it, too. Matter being converted into energy and then back into matter again (perfectly). Yeah, like that's ever going to happen at any point in the future.

 

[The Wormhole]

I rather like to think that the decisive factor is that it's impossible to lock the doors of a holodeck (Starfleet or Ferengi, makes no difference). This may be The Law, or then just a social more - but the moral consequences would be obvious. One would do exactly as much as one dared show in public, and no more. And one's mileage would vary on the issue of daring.

There seemed to be more privacy for Quark's holosuites than onboard a Starfleet starship since it was often implied that the holosuites were a holographic brothel. Or maybe Quark's customers simply didn't care what others thought of what they were doing in there.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

I've always thought that the holodeck stretched belief and was far closer to "magic" than typical Trek tech.

I'd be willing to suspend my disbelief if the holodeck was used as a clever plot device. But personally I've only found one holodeck story (the Data/Sherlock Holmes one) to be really satisfying. The vast majority of holodeck stories seemed inane and ridiculous opportunities for the writers to put the actors into funny costumes and make them prance around.

And don't get me started on hologram characters like Vic Fontaine and The Doctor.