Worf's New Neuro System

[GalaxyX]

Trekker4747 is right, if simply for this:

So the idea that Worf's spinal injury was beyond modern medical technology for the 24c is a bit hard to believe given everything we see that is possible with medicine in that time. Hell, you could simply argue all that needed to be done was run Worf through the transporter with a previous transport pattern used to rebuild the damaged part of the spinal cord.

Exactly! Thank you for mentioning it, I was going to but forgot this. The "experimental" medical procedure used on Worf was simply using the transporter to reconstruct his damaged spinal cord along with the fractured vertebrae, and so on.

It wasn't even necessary. They reconstructed Pulaski from a very old woman back to her regular age! They reconstructed Picard, Guinan, and Ro back to adult form from kid form. Any time there's an injury, no matter how catastrophic, all it should take is to go thru the transported, and use backed up patterns to rebuild you again whole.

The episode was simply willfull forgetfulness IMHO. The magical Trek tech got in the way of the story they wanted to tell, so it was conveniently ignored to create the tension in the episode.

 

[Ln X]

Trekker4747 is right, if simply for this:

So the idea that Worf's spinal injury was beyond modern medical technology for the 24c is a bit hard to believe given everything we see that is possible with medicine in that time. Hell, you could simply argue all that needed to be done was run Worf through the transporter with a previous transport pattern used to rebuild the damaged part of the spinal cord.

Exactly! Thank you for mentioning it, I was going to but forgot this. The "experimental" medical procedure used on Worf was simply using the transporter to reconstruct his damaged spinal cord along with the fractured vertebrae, and so on.

It wasn't even necessary. They reconstructed Pulaski from a very old woman back to her regular age! They reconstructed Picard, Guinan, and Ro back to adult form from kid form. Any time there's an injury, no matter how catastrophic, all it should take is to go thru the transported, and use backed up patterns to rebuild you again whole.

The episode was simply willfull forgetfulness IMHO. The magical Trek tech got in the way of the story they wanted to tell, so it was conveniently ignored to create the tension in the episode.

I think using the transporter is quite risky, otherwise the transporter would be used for everything; from repairing injuries using the trace, to making a person young again. Consider this; if used a trace on a person, then there memories would be the ones stored on the trace. Now if the trace procedure to happen say a week, a month or a year, think of all the memories the person would lose. That's why it ain't used.

 

[Trekker4747]

The only time a transporter trace was used to correct the week's plot that resulted in memory loss was when it was used to bring Picard back from "pure energy" in an early episode. The transporter trace, well filtered through a hair follicle, allowed Pulaski to retain her memories and the transporter used to turn Picard et.al. back into adults allowed them to retain their memories.

Besides, you should be allowed to "selectively" choose what you want to and want to not replace with the transporter. Run Worf through the transporter, compared with the trace and tell it to only replace the spinal cord and leave the brain alone. Hell, at the very "worst" if this isn't possible he'd lose a couple days of memory.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

^^
Even the writers of "Unnatural Selection" said they cheated with the transporter in that episode.

Otherwise the Borg aren't so scary (assimilated? Just run them through the transporter!) along with every single ailment. What good is Dr. Crusher? O'Brian hurt himself on the holodeck again? Run him through the transporter. Every day, just upload your latest healthy information as you report to duty.

It becomes quite the cheat.

 

[Timo]

Or Trek TOS for its references to “tapes,” “transistor units” and “printed circuits.”

Where are these references to be found?

I guess "tapes" pops up once or twice - and that may be unrealistic even when considering that I still "tape" television programs with a machine that doesn't feature a centimeter of tape anywhere. But instead of transistors, TOS had transtators. And while we saw printed circuits, I don't think we ever heard of them.

OTOH, McCoy did seem to think that medical imaging involved waiting for "plates" from the lab. But quite possibly some future medical imaging technique will again come to feature such things.

And the invalid Captain Pike being limited to saying “yes” or “no” with a flashing light.

That's not particularly unrealistic. If his brain no longer can process language, it would be just plain cruel to hook him up to a voice box that gives out five hundred variations of "yes" and five hundred and nineteen variations of "no" and nothing else.

And that's one area where TOS is more realistic to the audiences of today than it was to the audiences of its inception day. Today, we know very well that the brain can lose the ability to process language, yet remain fully functional otherwise. Back in the 1960s, an aphasic brain would have been declared completely lost, and Pike a moron.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, using old terms is hardly indicative of anything.

I still "tape" shows with my DVR, my phone still "rings" although it's an electronic tone state sounds nothing like a ring, I still "dial" on my phone even though I'm pressing buttons.

The list could go on, hell I still call portable media in the form of a USB drive as being something "on disk."

 

[T'Girl]

Re: I guess "tapes" pops up once or twice - a Worf's New Neuro System

Or Trek TOS for its references to “tapes,” “transistor units” and “printed circuits.”

Where are these references to be found?

In Space Seed, Scotty found transistors aboard the Botany Bay
and then spoke derisively of their bulky solidness.

 

[scotpens]

Re: I guess "tapes" pops up once or twice - a Worf's New Neuro System

Or Trek TOS for its references to “tapes,” “transistor units” and “printed circuits.”

Where are these references to be found?

In Space Seed, Scotty found transistors aboard the Botany Bay
and then spoke derisively of their bulky solidness.

Of course, the Botany Bay was supposed to have left Earth in the 1990s — but in the RL 1990s, we no longer spoke of “transistors,” but of chips and microprocessors.

In “This Side of Paradise,” when Kirk is goading Spock to make him shake off the spores, he says, “You don't have the brains to understand. All you have is printed circuits.”

 

[T'Girl]

Re: I guess "tapes" pops up once or twice - a Worf's New Neuro System

In Space Seed, Scotty found transistors aboard the Botany Bay
and then spoke derisively of their bulky solidness.

Of course, the Botany Bay was supposed to have left Earth in the 1990s — but in the RL 1990s, we no longer spoke of “transistors,” but of chips and microprocessors.

Transistors are semiconductor devices. Today individual transistors are rarely seen, but more commonly they are found embedded in microprocessors.

Encino Vampire, the Intel 10-Core Xeon Westmere-EX, a top of the line microprocessor, contains two point six billion transistors.

Transistors are only now reaching the fundamental physical limits of miniaturization. But until we actually begin to mass product commercial nanotechnology, transistors will continue to be used.

“You don't have the brains to understand. All you have is printed circuits.”

Today, microprocessors are imbedded in printed circuits ... have you ever torn your computer apart?
------
Scotty: "My God Captain, they're still using integrated circuits (primitive bastards)."

Even as a child I was intrigued by Scotty description of he Botany Bays electronics as being "bulky" and "solid." Suggesting to me that the Enterprise's "electronics" are both petite and fluid.

 

[Photon]

Re: I guess "tapes" pops up once or twice - a Worf's New Neuro System

In Space Seed, Scotty found transistors aboard the Botany Bay
and then spoke derisively of their bulky solidness.

Of course, the Botany Bay was supposed to have left Earth in the 1990s — but in the RL 1990s, we no longer spoke of “transistors,” but of chips and microprocessors.

Transistors are semiconductor devices. Today individual transistors are rarely seen, but more commonly they are found embedded in microprocessors.

Encino Vampire, the Intel 10-Core Xeon Westmere-EX, a top of the line microprocessor, contains two point six billion transistors.

Transistors are only now reaching the fundamental physical limits of miniaturization. But until we actually begin to mass product commercial nanotechnology, transistors will continue to be used.

“You don't have the brains to understand. All you have is printed circuits.”

Today, mircoprocessors are imbedded in printed circuits ... haven't you ever torn your computer apart?
------
Scotty: "My God Captain, they're still using integrated circuits (primitive bastards)."

Even as a child I was intrigued by Scotty description of he Botany Bays electronics as being "bulky" and "solid." Suggesting to me that the Enterprise's "electronics" are both petite and fluid.

One thing that was prolly cost-prohibitive during was TOS was using LED tech instead of flashing bulbs and toggle switches. LED tech was being used but still in its infancy in the mid-late 60's. Of course, the massive computers of the Ent were um 60ish... They got some things right and some wrong, still, I'm good

 

[Trekker4747]

Oddly placed present-day technology in TNG?

Two things come to mind, the computers, monitors and I think even a phone on the Darwin Research station in "Unnatural Selection" and the LED countdown timer for the self-destruct in "10110001." (Odd because normally the countdown and other displays in TNG used solid digital numbers. These numbers were clearly formed with LEDs.)

 

[Timo]

One might argue that LEDs would be used as a robust, damage-tolerant way of displaying this crucial information at a dire hour. Granted that the "11001001" numbers appeared in the middle of a seeming Okudagram-type display, as if generated by that display's graphics system - but they may instead have been the result of a robust system embedded inside the Okudascreen and shining through it (just like apparently happened in studio reality!)...

One wonders about the display systems of TOS. Why the "three-dee" monitors, with a boxy structure behind the screen? There was an absolutely flat television set in Flint's den in "Requiem for Methuselah", very reminiscent of today's more elegant designs - but OTOH there appeared to be a memory unit embedded in the "monitor" of Starling's future-inspired computer in "Future's End", possibly indicating a trend where monitors and important other components continue to be packed together, Mac style, and where these other components never get miniaturized or flattened much. Or perhaps the big bulge behind the image is just a solid and comfortable mounting system, better than thin and flimsy rods or tubes even though functionally quite empty?

Timo Saloniemi