How the Ferengi got into space is a mystery to me

[Vanyel]

Some of the Rules of Acquisition might give the Ferengie incentive to develop warp drive on their own:

9. Opportunity plus instinct equal profit. (Being able to reach other stars systems gives you the opportunity to exploit them and make a profit.)

45. Expand or die. (A new market would be opened up with warp drive.)

62. The riskier the road, the grater the profit. (The Ferengie who took the risk to open space to other Ferengie would have died richer than kings.)

75. Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum. (Perfect reason for warp drive. OTOH, this Rule may have come after warp drive.)

263. Never let doubt interfere with your lust for latinum. (There may have been doubt to develop warp drive rather than acquire it, but #'s 9, 45 & 62 could help eliviate any doubt a Ferengie may have had to develop warp drive.)

Something to think about.

 

[Gary7]

The easiest way to accept their progress is to see how far behind they are compared to the Federation. At least in terms of claimed territory. I agree with what others have said, that the Ferengi bought a lot of the technology they possess... although they also needed scientists to figure out how to make use of it and incorporate it into their own technology. After all, you don't see them flying around in ships of some other alien design--a Ferengi vessel is rather distinct. In TOS, there was a point where the Romulans ditched their Bird of Prey design and obtained the Klingon ship design, so it's not the first time you've seen externally obtained technology take place.

But yeah, their immense greed makes one wonder how they've gotten so far. With the mantra of being obsessed with profit, you'd figure that they wouldn't have made very much progress at all (few trusting business partners because they'd always undermine them). But somehow in spite of themselves, they have become formidable enough. Not unlike a number of businesses in our time.

 

[Mr. Scott]

Lately i have been watching ferengi episodes of multiple shows and wondering how a species that stupid and greedy could ever discover how to build a warp drive. Episodes that bring me to this consensus are ENT: Acquisition, TNG:Ménage à Troi, and TNG:The Price. THOse are just a few examples. The only episode that any ferengi has shown anything that would indicate a brain is in TNG:Suspicions.

Very simple actually. The wanting of more material wealth comes from work and effort, with technology being advanced so that people can do more work or get more financially.

It's a Libertarian concept. If you want to fly to the Moon, get the money together yourself and pay for it. However, almost no one will pay $100 million dollars to get themselves to the moon because there is nothing on the Moon worth $100 million dollars. Now, if you knew that there was a great profit/reward in being able to build a rocket, go to the Moon and safely return, you might do it.

The Free Market is the best system there is. People are happy when they have money, jobs and mobility. Misery comes from lack of goals and not moving forward. This is why Communism failed, very little incentive.

 

[Arpy]

I'm sure even if they bought it from the Breen that it takes brains to maintain it, improve it, etc. Ferengi have poor motives, not intellect IMHO. Though those Ferengi comedies have me wondering about the intellect of their human writers.

Legends of the Ferengi does say that they bought warp from the Breen. They paid for it with property rights to their moons and polar ice caps, and hilariously, woke up one day to find the moons gone...though they think the ice caps are still there. Ha ha, silly Breen.

 

[T'Girl]

The easiest way to accept their progress is to see how far behind they are compared to the Federation. At least in terms of claimed territory.

The Ferengi might not measure success in terms of territory obtained. WalMart with about two million employees, had sales of 408.2 billion US dollars in the year 2009, while a country like Nigeria with 150 million citizens had a Gross National Income of less than 200 billion US dollars in 2008. The five largest companies, in terms of profits;

1. Gazprom
2. Exxon Mobil
3. Industrial & Commercial Bank of China
4. BP
5. China Construction Bank

... have profits exceeding the government budgets of the majority of the small and medium nations on Earth. Why would the Ferengi want territory?

The Ferengi are a race of merchants.

 

[Anwar]

Precisely, why conquer territories when you can just planet companies in territories maintained by someone else and let them go to the trouble of developing and defending those territories? Why build up a massive military when you can just have a normal sized army of your own and employ the rest of the muscle you'll need?

 

[Magellan]

C;mon. If we can accept the Klingons as developing warp drive, and building a major interstellar empire, I can accept the Ferengi inventing anything.

 

[T'Girl]

^^^ Supposedly the Klingons didn't invent their own warp drive either. The Klingons were once upon a time a slave race, they eventually expelled their masters, but kept much of the master's knowledge, including their warp drive technology.

 

[Anwar]

Yep, they were invaded by the Hurq and when they drove them off they took the leftover Hurq tech for themselves.

 

[The Wormhole]

It is possible the Klingons may have had research into developing their own space program. After all, when Kahless left, he pointed to a star in the sky and said he would some day return to that particular star. The Klingons would then have religious motivation to find a means of reaching Boreth.

But I agree, they weren't successful at developing a warp drive and didn't have warp capabilities until the Hur'q affair.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think regardless of how any starfaring race originally attained warp drive, without scientists and engineers to utilize, maintain, and improve upon it, they won't go very far for very long.

 

[The Wormhole]

In which case, the religious motivation to find Boreth probably inspired several Klingons be become scientists.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Warp scientists, perhaps. But I'm sure the Klingons had scientists and engineers before that, even if they weren't very advanced on the subject.

 

[The Wormhole]

True. Actually, didn't Enterprise cover that by saying Klingon society was divided into castes? There was the warrior caste, the scientist caste, the politician caste, and so on.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yep. The warrior caste is the one we most frequently encounter in Trek, though. The warrior caste may be the dominant and most respected one in Klingon society, but it probably sits on a throne built by the other castes, IMO.

 

[Anwar]

We saw a Klingon Lawyer and a Klingon Chef in DS9 as well.

 

[Zeppster]

The TNG type Ferengi? Or the DS9 type Ferengi? The DS9 type Ferengi's had much more depth and were one of the better aliens in all of Trek. The TNG Ferengi were a characterization of what the left sees as capitalists of current day. And really bad ones at that. But without getting too much into my libertarian views. Those type of Ferengi could only get into space the way most politicians win political races and pass most laws. Through cheating, lying,, stealing and back stabbing.

 

[Brolan]

This is all too easy folks. Ferengi visited by race of aliens, trading starts with aliens, Ferengi see profit in off-world trade, Fenengi buy or create warp drives to be able to trade.