Did Voyager open a can of worms with the Doctor?

[Tribble puncher]

By basically creating a sentient self aware computer program that can copy itself. Imagine if something caused the Doctor to hate "Real" lifeforms, if not the doctor, maybe another sentient hologram, whats to stop them from flooding Federation Computers and Starships with thousands of copy's of themselves? It seems like if Holographic "life" got out of control it would be basically unstoppable.

 

[LeadHead]

But he couldn't copy himself. It was a concern multiple times that if the EMH is off of Voyager then there's no Doctor aboard.

There was some technobabble about his holo-matrix being specialized and difficult to create. When his matrix was degrading in "The Swarm" they had to sacrifice the Diagnostic programs matrix to repair his. In "Message in a Bottle" Harry Kim was unable to create a holo-matrix capable of even handling the medical library.

It seems that the holo-matrix is a infrastructure of sorts that needs to be built. Potentially, this is why The EMH mark 1 was reassigned to menial tasks. Even when surpassed by the Mark 2 and so on, the programs were still quite advanced and useful.

However, like all thing involving tech and technobabble in Trek, another episode could've easily changed this course and made the EMH easily copyable.

Getting back to the original question: if any program went wild everywhere in the universe like you describe, the results would likely be disastrous.

 

[Sophie74656]

Hypothetically if he could copy himself there would be a limit to how many copies could be made. The computer can only hold and process so much data. The doctor is a very complex program that is large. At some point unless they all have mobile emitters there wouldn't be enough memory to make more copies

 

[F. King Daniel]

But he couldn't copy himself.

Except for that time he could, in "Living Witness". Which was a great episode but totally at odds with the rest of the EMH limitations.

 

[DonIago]

I suppose we could argue that that's a zipped copy and the aliens had to figure out how to uncompress him again...

 

[Herbert]

Except for that time he could, in "Living Witness". Which was a great episode but totally at odds with the rest of the EMH limitations.

In a way, it's too bad the writers and producers didn't have a continuity prime directive that they were required to follow. On the other hand, if they did then it would eliminate about 90% of the discussions on this message board

 

[Farscape One]

I think we have to remember that a large part of WHY The Doctor became so self aware and grew so much was because of the wonderful performance of Robert Picardo. The writers immediately latched onto him for episodes because he was so talented. It was immediately apparent he would be the breakout character of tge series, and he remained that way the entire run... even with Seven, who was equally as talented and was just as much a breakout character.

And if I remember correctly, he and Ethan Phillips originally read for each other's parts. How different a series might it be if that actually happened?

(This is not a knock on Ethan. I thought he was a wonderful actor and when he was given meaty material, he really showed his acting chops. He really deserves far more credit than a lot of people give him, particularly because having to be that good through all that makeup has to be extremely challenging... something I think people forget.)

 

[UnknownSample]

Holograms are very vulnerable. Pull the plug...

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Holograms are very vulnerable. Pull the plug...

Only works if you have control over the plug. If they figure out how to produce their own mobile emitters, out of luck.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

^ Then destroy the databank in the computer core that houses the holographic memory.

 

[Tenacity]

^ Special appearance by William Shatner, as Kirk he talks the hologram into deleting it's own program.

Except for that time he could, in "Living Witness". Which was a great episode but totally at odds with the rest of the EMH limitations.

No problem (imho), after at first failing to copy the Doctor's program, they subsequently figured out a way. If at first you don't succede ...

 

[Trajet]

In "Message in a Bottle" Harry Kim was unable to create a holo-matrix capable of even handling the medical library.

Harry was a low-ranking Operations officer, not a Holographic Systems Engineer, so it's hardly surprising that he was unable to create a matrix capable of handling the medical library, especially in the timeframe shown. It's a task that would likely take a skilled professional, qualified in the field (something a Starfleet Ensign most certainly is not) a few weeks of work to do such a thing.

 

[SpyOne]

I think they did open a can of worms, but not that particular can of worms.

Star Trek had been pretty careful up until thenn about manufactured life: either it was an irreproducable accident or the results weren't sentient.
Or at least pretty close: Dr. Soong seemed to be able to reliably duplicate the process that made Lore and Data and Juliana, but he kept that information to himself.

This is because the ability to manufacture sentient life will significantly alter society, and raises lots of ethical questions.
So rather than deal with those messy issues, Star Trek chose to make tgat something looming on the horizon: were getting close, and we should probably be thinking about how to handle it when it happens, but we aren't there yet.

I understand why they wanted the mobile emitter for story reasons, but that's where it all comes off the rails. They wanted the mobile emitter to be a way someone could kidnap the Doctor or hold him prisoner, and technology doesn't really work like that. If the mobile emitter is capable of holding the Doctor's program and the ship's computer is capable of holding the Doctor's program, then there is no logical reason why they can't both do that at the same time.
So if the mobile emitter isn't just a remote peripheral of the Voyager main computer, then they could actually make copies of the Doctor.

And there you have it: even if they can't make other people like the Doctor for some reason, they've got a person they can make multiple copies of. And once Voyager gets home, they could make thousands of him.
As was suggested in Measure of a Man, every ship would have one. Two, ten.
Now, if the writers thought it was time to wrestle that issue, to look at how the Federation will adapt to being able to mass produce sentient beings, then I'll buckle up for that ride.
But they didn't want to do that. They wanted the Doctor to be able to travel to other ships and worlds without Voyager, and didn't want to address what that implies. They wanted bad guys to be able to kidnap him or hold him hostage without thinking of the technical problems with that.
They wanted to hold up a big sign that said, "The Doctor can't be copied but can move his program into other computers" and hope we wouldn't notice that makes no sense. Or think about the implications.

Star Trek has dealt with its share of unstoppable technological killers threatening to wipe out millions. It is well prepared to do so again.
But it isn't ready to face pointed questions about whether sophisticated holodeck characters like Vic Fontaine are actually slaves. And I'm not sure we're ready for it to do that either.

 

[valkyrie013]

Well, look to another sci fi series, Star Wars.. Its filled with robotic "Slaves" with the droids. Are they sentient? most, probably not, but there are some that do come close. Alot of the "Hero" droids are there by there choice, no restraining bolt. There are some shows, that intentially keep computer systems "Dumb" so they can't gain "Sentients" One of the books i read, humanity created AI, but found out, it had a mind of its own, and didn't want to do menial work, so they moved it to its own planet where it can grow at will. And the AI create other computer systems that were "dumb" that humans can use.

It is a good plot tool, as seen with Data, and even the Doctor in some episodes, because slavery is still a hot topic, even in this day.

 

[Kor]

Was the Doctor's holographic family sentient like him, or just regular holodeck holograms?

Kor

 

[catshadowsi8]

I think we see how bad things can get in Equinox. Two 'bad' doctors and, in the end, only one doctor turning on the other saves the day. The same happens in Flesh and Blood and, even Revulsion. Hologram vs hologram, not 'real' vs hologram.

There are also many instances where the Doctor's ability to change from corporeal to non-corporeal foils real lifeforms. Repentance, when he disarms the prisoner, is just one. Then we have his ability to impersonate anyone, as in Renaissance Man. Throwing a bunch of them at Starfleet would be big trouble, and, based on story, trouble is definitely coming. At the end of Author, Author it is hinted that a rebellion is forming.

 

[Lance]

I always thought, "Sucks to be Moriarty, fobbed off with being stuck inside a cosmic holodeck fishbowl on Barclay's desk for the rest of eternity, when only two years later they discovered a way to have sentient holograms exist outside the holodeck."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It's a new approach to incarceration certainly - give the bad guy what he wants in a self-contained dream world that hurts no real people.

Though if he ever escaped, he'd have all these memories of things that never happened - awkward to meet someone you know well who doesn't know you at all. Would they update his holocube world regularly with new developments in the outside world (Romulus exploding, etc).

Imagine if an enemy figured out how to infiltrate Moriarty's world a la fake Barclay in "Inside Man" and solicited his help with an evil plot? Offered him freedom and revealed the ruse, only to betray him later.

 

[DonIago]

Well, DS9 kind of took the same approach in the opposite direction when O'Brien was virtually incarcerated...

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

True, but he didn't have fake memories of his friends visiting him there, or getting into a bitter argument with someone's simulated double and nursing a grudge against Bashir, for instance, for something he never really said or did and really shouldn't be punished for.