Holodeck question

[shutupman]

If the safeties are turned off, can a hologram get pregnant?

 

[Unicron]

I don't see how that could happen unless that were somehow added to the program, and that has nothing to do with the safety subroutines. They're in place to make sure that simulated weapons aren't perfect enough to harm or kill someone. At that point, they'd essentially be replicated weapons.

 

[bryce]

I think it's a joke on the meaning of "safety"...lol.

But it would be interesting if a very, very realistic holodeck program decided - or was programed so - that a realistic response to sex with one of the holo-characters was to create a holographic pregnancy...and later a baby holo-character. It might even be creative enough to tap into a file of the parent crewmember's DNA and personality profile to create the "child".

Certainly that's no weirder than making Moriarty a thinking being...(the computer could interpret "realistic" that way....)

And basing holographic simulations on DNA and personality records has been done before!

 

[Timo]

...It might not be completely beyond 2370s technology to create an actual baby out of holodeck material, either. In VOY, the EMH managed to create a set of completely holographic lungs, showing that holotech can handle at least some fairly simple biochemical processes. It might be just a question of computing resources to create a purely holographic womb, too.

Also, TNG-level biotech could probably easily cook up a baby out of "separately delivered" sperm and ova. The big question is likely to be, could it synthesize ova out of thin air for those male users who want holo-babies. The opposite would probably be simple: existing ova could be fertilized by taking their own genetic material, giving it a holographic spin, and inserting it back.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tomalak]

The opposite would probably be simple: existing ova could be fertilized by taking their own genetic material, giving it a holographic spin, and inserting it back.

Timo Saloniemi

Wouldn't that be a clone?

 

[Anduril]

So if you take that to its conclusion, then you could create a holographic person with holographic organs, held together by forcefields, whom is run on a computer.

Did Starfleet just become God?

 

[bryce]

So if you take that to its conclusion, then you could create a holographic person with holographic organs, held together by forcefields, whom is run on a computer.

Did Starfleet just become God?

They *ALREADY* can create thinking beings. Data, Lore, Moriarity, The EMH, the Exocomps... possibly even the Enterprise computer...

That's life on a synthetic and silicon & metal substrate - biological life is just life on an organic substrate. (And even Data apparently had some biological components..."biofunctions"...) It's all just a matter of manipulating...er...matter. There's nothing magic about organic chemistry and organic matter...no magic "elan vital"(sp?) that technology *shouldn't* be able to reproduce given enough technology. (Although in the Star Trek universe, there *did* seem to be something of the sort...but even then, it was just a matter of energy - and eventually even an uber-advanced tech like the Q could master it.)

Even an extremely complex holographic construction would be confined to the holodeck, or ship/facility with holo-emitters - or an advanced mobile holo-emitter (not sure if the future holo-emitter they got from the future could handle such a thing, but probably since its highly advanced tech). Unless they could fashion some sort of replicated body for it. (The holodeck uses replicated material too - but only for simple constructions, and I imagine food, drink and some clothing - Top Paris' "Relax, it's holographic wine" comment aside.)

 

[Timo]

Wouldn't that be a clone?

Yes or no, depending on the spin they put to it. In "The Child", the alien entity took Deanna Troi's genetic material but managed to create a male out of it, apparently by fiddling with the material (unless Betazoids don't have this XX/XY thing). OTOH, Dr. Crusher has performed major feats of genetic engineering on her patients, with the help of little more than a hypospray. It shouldn't be that hard to take the DNA of a donor, manipulate it, and re-present it to the donor as foreign material...

Timo Saloniemi