Do you think the 24th century earth has junkies and addicts?

Incredibly doubtful.

 

This goes to my long held belief that holo sex would surely be a favourite pastime of people. I'm not ashamed to admit, well I am a little bit ashamed, that it would be one of the first things i would be erm interested in. I could easily see myself as a 'holo addict' like Barclay. There are all kinds of interesting ethical discussions re. having holo sex with people you may know or work with. It's the conversation along the lines of 'Hi Doug, had sex with your wife of the holodeck last night, she was hot!' Awkward but you know a question like that troubles me and exercises my mind.

 

"Hi Bob, I staked a holographic representation of you to the ground in the holodeck, and very slowly ran "you" over several times with a large harvesting machine ... all in good fun of course."

To me, ths would just serve to emphasize that I had no one in my life (family, close friends) that I truely trusted enough to confide with

 

In Insurrection , when Riker (or Troi) mentioned that the Sona were selling "The White" as a narcotic, I took that to mean they were selling it the public as a drug, and not that they were selling it to the Founders/Jem Hadar.

It would give the drug user energy, aggressive feelings, no need for sleep.

Basically masturbation.

Just as masturbation is something which is done, but most people don't talk about, I think that "holo-sex" would be the same. It could be seen as you not being able to have sex with a real person, and there might be a social stigma attached to it.

Or as a alternate, I (and most people) don't possess the mental disability that requires this type of treatment, and the fundamental understanding isn't necessary.

That said, the treatment should be there for those who do require it.

 

Finnland is currently testing a guaranteed minimum income on 2.000 randomly selected people for 2 years. It will be interesting to see what the result of this experiment is. They are only paying peanuts however. €560 a month, so while one can live of that amount, nice things one is not buying. However in theory families, or other groups could pool together their money.

True. I would point out however, that self-made millionaires (they did not simply inherit) are not exactly an average person. There is a reason why they are successful.

 

Granted. But a substantial portion (1/3 I think) are not self made and yet work anyway... I don't want this to get political, but look at the American President and his family. None are self made -- all began life without any need to work -- and yet all are working and some are serving. They could rest on their laurels for generations to come, but they don't.

 

A check of a half dozen sources on google says about eight percent of millionaires today inherited their wealth. Most millionaires in America come from the middle class.

But if you go back one generation, the President's father was a self made man, born into the lower middle class. he was worth about a quarter of a billion dollars through intelligence and hard work.

The President increased his portion of the family wealth to over three billion.

 

I think you all are nutty to think something that's been around for so long will go away once people have more freetime and currency is not an issue. or if you think self-made well off people don't do drugs.

i think the quality of drugs would go up though. by then i doubt we'll be using stuff so crude as opiates or cocaine and all the garbage in it. perhaps implants that stimulate dopamine at will or something. greed, murder, alcoholism, gambling, all still exists. a few hundred more years of drug reform and they might not be viewed any worse than alcohol, the worst drug. imho. i just can't remember them ever stating much about recreational drugs.

holodeck addiction would be HYOOOGE too. every technology we develop feeds the pornography industry. I wonder how... civilians would go about getting a holodeck?

 

actually you guys probably are right that in kayfaybe star trek, roddenberry probly said there'd be no drugs anymore. i meant more if the shows were real... if we got to their tech level and status in the galaxy

 

look at the juggernaut that is the pornographic industry. you're far from alone.

would probly be stringent privacy laws though about using people or their likenesses, unless say, a pornographic actress signs a waiver.

 

it's an interesting thought experiment, although I'm afraid the answer would be "we don't - can't - know" because the impact of some of the technological advances on society depicted in Trek is basically impossible to predict

btw props for referencing kayfabe in a Star Trek forum

 

hehe i'm familair with it through wrestling but im not sure if it originated elsewhere. it's perfect for so much stuff. I like "jobbing" "jobber" alot too now that i've explained to good friends the context I use it. like the jobber borg cubes from voyager that were weak just for.. plot i guess.

 

Credits.

 

i thought they've evolved beyond the need for currency. i mean that never struck me as being plausible, but it was mentioned a few times.

 

This. I think the Barclay episode wasn't thinking it through, for the sake of the gag. It would have cost too much to hire lookalikes that he could have programmed in to represent his coworkers?

There's no reason NOT to have holosex with all sorts of different people in all sorts of scenarios. You do it already in your head. There's something really luddite about the notion that oh people will never talk again if they can go into the holodeck. Something typically sci-fi doom and gloom. Are there a few people who were already going to have addiction issues who spend a crippling amount of time on internet porn? Yes. Is that 90% of the population? No. They probably said the same thing about the TV and teaching people to read way back when.

 

To be fair, actual sex in the holodeck would be on a completely different level (so to speak) than Internet porn.

As for junkies and addicts: As long as drugs exist, there will be those who abuse them. So unless all drugs disappear (which we know isn't the case), then yes, there will be addicts.

 

Given the fact that traitors and terrorists could expect a jail sentence filled with counselling sessions(Eddington) I imagine the Federation has both the medical technology and grasp of psychology necessary to-nip in the bud any sort of addiction, or deal with the issue when it happens.

 

Saying that they have "evolved" beyond money, is like saying there are no interpersonal agressions, or there is no military. They say one thing, and then show the opposite on multiple occasions.

Picard has said clearly there's no money, and then (different episode) said that he has purchased something on a Federation planet.

I can't remember a incident when a "criminal" has been incarcerated with counseling and it's said to have worked. Harry Mudd is said out right to have been incarcerated with counseling and it very obviously didn't work.

There was no mention of Ensign Ro receiving counseling and in any case my impression is that incarceration didn't nothing to change the woman that was convicted of a offense.

Did Tom Paris receive counseling?