Missed tech possibilities....

This discussion is spun off a discussion in the Movie Forum regarding TMP uniforms.

The idea, here, is to touch on ideas--predominantly science and technology--that could or should have been seen in Star Trek but weren't.

In the 1960s TOS seemed quite advanced and futuristic in many ways. It must be said, though, that even by the standards of the time some of the visualizations of the sci/tech in TOS looked dated. But suffice to say much of it then looked sufficiently convincing of a far future as envisioned from a mid 1960's perspective.

But flash forward just a few years and sci/tech was starting to be depicted even more advanced (in some ways) than what was seen on TOS.

I've just recently finished watching the old series SEARCH from 1972. For those unfamiliar with this old show it centered on the exploits of three rotating agents (known as Probes) who worked for an agency known as World Securities.

Probe field agents each had an audio implant that allowed them to remain in constant contact with Probe Control. They also had a dental implant that allowed them to signal "yes" or "no" responses to Probe Control whenever it wasn't possible for the agents to communicate by voice (such as when other people were present).

The agents also had a miniaturized scanner about the circumferance of an AA size battery and no more than a quarter inch thick that attached either to a ring, a tie pin or decorative neck chain. This scanner allowed Probe Control to track the agent globally as well as monitor his/her vital signs. Probe Control could use the scanner to aid the agent through all manner of wavelengths (and to some extent by necessity of the plot). They were generally consistent with its use and limitations. The scanner could also read bio signs of the agent and of others in the agent's vicinity.

Meanwhile Probe Control operated in a way somewhat analogous to a starship bridge in contact with landing party/away team members. We saw something like this briefly in early TNG and then the practice was abandoned. Probe Control gave the agents immediate access to all sorts of information to facilitate execution of their assignments. And being able toconstantly monitor the agent allowed them to dispatch aid whenever needed or requested.

My essential point, though, is that as far-fetched as the tech seamed in 1972 it really seems quite plausible today. And it always struck me as more advanced than what was seen in TMP and later Treks. The audio implant would make perfect sense for a far future concept like Star Trek and the wearable miniaturized scanner makes the tricorder look awfully clunky and cumbersome given the SEARCH scanner and implant leave one's hands free. A communicator implant would also eliminate the old gimmick of losing one's communicator thus losing contact with the ship.

In some respects SEARCH was a spin on the old The Man From U.N.C.L.E. idea, but the tech depicted struck me as a smart evolution of what was seen on TOS.

In retrospect some of what we saw in TMP, the subsequent films and then TNG onward doesn't impress as sufficiently evolved given some of the sci/tech ideas being seen in other SF over the years.


Anyone else with something they think could or should have been seen in Trek but wasn't?

 

Multiple computer cores (the Ent-D had 3, we have chips with 72 in production NOW), separated systems, redundant data storage, backups, and anti-virus? More robots (nano and otherwise) that weren't hostile or even self-aware, but were just tools? Logical extensions of shown technologies, like using the transporters to scramble things on enemy ships even if you can't get a solid pattern lock (because who cares if they arrive intact anywhere else, so long as they are denied to the enemy)?

 

Transhumanism; commonplace augmentation of the human body and brain through implanted technological devices and/or genetic engineering.

Kor

 

Instead of projecting holographic ships as decoys, have holographic persons appear on the enemy ship's bridge and have them shoot each other, as the phaser beams pass through the hologram..

 

Telepresence is something only glimpsed in Trek. The earliest example I can think of is Landru's projection or the Thasians in TOS, but I also recall it glimpsed in TNG and DS9. But given the level of tech in Trek it could have been more prevalent and commonplace.

 

In GR's novelization of TMP comand personnel like Kirk did have some form of communications implant which is how he first learns of the Klingon ships destroyed by Vger, but this is never referenced in any way in the film. The units that looked like some kind of belt buckle on the TMP uniforms were supposed to be some form of remote bio-scanner, but it's never adressed in the film. So the underpinnings of the tech depicted in SEARCH were there for Trek in TMP, but they were never utilized and explored onscreen.

 

Trek is going to need to let the genetic engineering taboo fall to the wayside. I'm hoping that the new Trek universe looks nothing like the old Trek universe. It is time for Star Trek to embrace the 21st century and where we might possibly go.

 

Until genetic engineering start to become common in modern society, allow it's taboo to "fall to the wayside" on the show won't be any kind of priority.


†

 

I always wanted to see Holographic security teams. Some ships like the Prometheus had emitters throughout the ship. Instead of a projected crewman being a doctor, why not something more aggressive- like an armored spider?
Voyager's 'Renaissance Man' episode just touched on the possibilities of how versatile a Hologram can be.

 

This. It might make for best selling and thought provoking books and have done for sometime, but I think that it's naive to think that societal, bio-ethical. and moral constraints weighting against any broad based acceptance of such kind of man made evolution is coming down the pike anytime soon. Naturally, I know there will be a sizable number of folks that will call that contention equally naive. Well, I suppose such battles are already underway, perhaps under the radar. I would just say that for everyone's benefit, let's hope they come to be clearly out in the open.

Don't say it's so!!!!! Red shirts everywhere, we hardly knew ye!!!!!

 

Toilets.

 

This kind of touches on my thoughts. Not that there's anything wrong with Picard having an artificial heart,* but I would think by the time of Trek's 24th century, a replacement organ could be engineered or cloned from a person's own cells.

I think the possibility was there, Pulaski told Geordi his own optic nerves could be regenerated, but he chose not to because the VISOR's tech. gave him an advantage when they needed it sometime. Also that doctor who was into unethical practices cloned a spinal cord for Worf.

*The way it is shown what happened to Picard's heart as a young man, he had to have a replacement organ immediately, so an artificial one would have been the only option. I do remember 2 episodes, Samaritan Snare and Tapestry where he almost died because it malfunctioned (in Tapestry it was damaged from being shot with a phaser, right?)

 

There was the episode with LaForge using telepresence (the one where his mother is reported lost), a drone is sent on a mission, and LaForge experiences the drone's surroundings from the safety of the ship.

I remember (iirc) in one episode a probe agent had his implant cut out of him, somewhat crudely too. Having a advisory take your communicator off your belt is one thing, having the side of your head regularly ripped open is another.


†

 

For me it's not about missed possibilities, because Trek had so much tech, but rather rare use, inconsistant use, and falt-out missed oppritunities of usage of existing tech.

In TNG we saw force fields with different strength levels could be enacted around specified objects or person(s), yet what happens every time somebody beams aboard or is on the run through the decks and cooridors?
Worf: "Intruder alert! Deck ten, section thirteen!"

And then they proceed to give chase and/or send sucurity personnel. How about enacting those useful force fields? How about a ship security program that targets intruders who beam aboard and isolated them so they canm't shoot key ship personnel or say kidnap the captain? The only time I remember them actually being put to [good] use was to hunt down Wesley. Pesky little bugger.


Or hand-held phasers (of any type of design). We alreayd know from TOS there is a wide beam setting to stun or even kill multiple attackers, yet over and over and over and over again they're using a singular beam with a point and fire tactic. Would have come in handy in that episode of D.S.9. where Starfleet personnel are stranded with no help having multiple Jem'Hadar rushing and attacking.


As pointed before by other users: use of the gravity system to hinder intruders. Okay, so some alien duchebag is loose on deck ten, section thirteen, well, enact force fields at each end and disable the gravity. Let him float around. If he gives you any trouble, pump the air completely out of that section.


Transporters. If you want to beam down to some planet, no problem. If you need an medical emergency site-to-site trannsport, even within the ship, no problem. Any other emergency -- screw it! More than once we've seen somebodey running someplace in TNG to stop impending doom, with only minutes to spare. Hey, I have a crazy idea-- fucking transport.


Carrying heavy shit. Seriously, why were they always doing this? It takes far longer and consumes more time. In ST II: TWoK we breifly saw officers using hover carts (and James Horner carrying a glowing blue ... vibrator?). Even if misconstrued, you'd think by TNG time they'd be doing this.

 

Voyager certainly used force fields as you suggest, to contain and isolate bad actors or unknowns, on any number of occasions, although as with pretty much any Starfleet security as actually carried out, their use was not infrequently ineffective.
I can't give them to much in the way of props for the phaser usage you rightfully point was strangely forgotten.. Tuvok used it in Cathexis, but I think that was about it. If it was never used in either TNG or DS9, that's something, though interestingly it took a Vulcan to think of putting that mode into action.

 

Too cruel, too cruel!!!!

 

Stabbed during a bar fight with Nausicaans.