While I do think its a good episode, its not exactly a mindblowing episode to me in terms of originality at all either.
Parallels a amazing episode/concept
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While I do think its a good episode, its not exactly a mindblowing episode to me in terms of originality at all either.
Thats a hilarious and awesome thought!
Although, Starfleet might run into some serious logistics problems when in comes time to refuel/resupply 285,000 ships.
Our own @Nerys Ghemor does. Her fanfic Sigils and Unions: Catacombs of Oralius takes place in the Parallels universe where a Cardassian is seen serving on the Enterprise (it's the last universe we see before returning 'home' - it's also the one where Wesley Crusher is the Ent-D's tactical officer).
In that universe, it was Bajor who occupied Cardassia, not the other way around as in the regular universe.
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I like the episode. And I think having close but no cigar universes kinda makes sense. After all, they can't all be super-different (e. g. the dinosaurs never die out, etc.). In some of them, the differences are truly granular, and all you notice is one tiny thing, or you don't even notice, but something feels weird, and "off".
Heck, if alternate quantum timelines really exist (as they very well might), then the divergences wouldn't actually be the result of different choices people make like in fiction, but different outcomes of quantum processes/events, like whether a particle decays or not. But people's decisions and actions, and events like coin flips or dice rolls, are macroscopic events that follow classical physics and wouldn't likely be effected by changes on the quantum level, except in unusual cases. So it's possible that most parallel timelines would be essentially indistinguishable from our own except on the level of a few subatomic particles here and there.
Then again, since much of modern technology is dependent on quantum processes in things like transistors and diodes, it's possible that the chances of a quantum timeline split having consequences significant on a human scale may be greater now than they were 100 years ago. And they may become even greater once we start using quantum computers.
One of the very best I think.
A great Worf episode, a great alternate universe episode, and overall just really fun, exciting, and cleverly written. Parallels is one of my favorite episodes of season 7, and that's saying a lot because I think season 7 as a whole is terrific.
While the idea of a universe where Worf is not recognized or the Feds are at war with the Klingons is not without appeal, it must be remembered that Worf is the "constant" here, his presence aboard the Enterprise is what makes those universes he travels to accessible to him.
Kind of like "Mirror, Mirror", folks were always saying how improbable the MU is but that improbable universe is the one where the same landing party was beaming down to the same planet in the middle of the same ion storm so that was the only place the switch could occur to.
I had heard that it was bandied about to have the "The Borg are everywhere" Enterprise actually be from the MU instead. Would have scotched DS9's MU episodes pretty seriously. (Ah, not necessarily, there are probably multitudinous Mirror Universes as well, including ones in which the Terran Empire never fell.)
Kind of like "Mirror, Mirror", folks were always saying how improbable the MU is but that improbable universe is the one where the same landing party was beaming down to the same planet in the middle of the same ion storm so that was the only place the switch could occur to.
I had heard that it was bandied about to have the "The Borg are everywhere" Enterprise actually be from the MU instead. Would have scotched DS9's MU episodes pretty seriously. (Ah, not necessarily, there are probably multitudinous Mirror Universes as well, including ones in which the Terran Empire never fell.)
Well, we don't really know for a fact that people's decisions are not affected by events on a quantum level, or whether the internal processes that lead to someone making a decision are bound by physical processes or not. It's certain logical to believe they are (since everything else is), but it's not been definitely proven at this stage.
Has anyone got a can opener? I've got this can of worms here and...
'Dark Mirror' by Diane Duane.
Of course they're bound by physical processes; it's simply a question of whether those processes are on the level of classical or quantum physics. And to all indications, the mechanics of neural activity involve large enough ensembles of particles that quantum changes in individual particles will have decohered, so that so-called "classical" physics will govern them. Yes, there are some hypotheses about quantum consciousness, but they're fringe ideas that have no real evidentiary support to the best of our current understanding.
But if we're talking about why people make certain decisions as opposed to very similar but alternate decisions, it's deterministic to say that you only ever make decisions because your brain chemistry demanded that you do so. It's probably correct to say it, but it is not proven to be correct, because what we might do 'in an alternate timeline' is sort of a difficult theory to test. So, bumping at the limits (for now) of scientific testing, we don't know whether you might make a different decision in a different quantum reality (even if you decision is not the quantum split that generates that reality), so it's facile to definitively state that you would not, because we don't know enough about the processes that drive decision making (or, indeed, if Data had a soul or not).
Finally saw this one again, and found it a lot better than I remembered. Still not exactly sure why this had to be a "Worf story", but I guess they figured it would be more fun to watch someone like HIM figure everything out for once instead of a Riker or Data.
And I totally forgot about some of the visual changes, like Data having blue eyes, or Wesley showing up at the end. And while I never cared for Worf in his original red uniform, he looks pretty damn cool in a red uniform here.
And I totally forgot about some of the visual changes, like Data having blue eyes, or Wesley showing up at the end. And while I never cared for Worf in his original red uniform, he looks pretty damn cool in a red uniform here.
But that's not what I'm saying. In fact, it's the exact opposite of what I'm saying. My point is that, if two timelines diverge because of a quantum-level change in a subatomic particle in your brain, that probably won't affect your decisions, because your decision-making processes take place on a higher level of neural organization and are influenced by a wide variety of macroscopic, classical factors rather than being a deterministic result of quantum states in the brain.
For instance, a lot of the fictional discourse about alternate histories says that if you turn right at an intersection in one timeline, you may turn left in another. But that ignores the fact that you'd usually have a specific reason to turn right at the intersection because you're going somewhere in that direction, rather than it just being a flip of a coin. A change in the quantum states of your brain as you waited at the intersection wouldn't alter your reasons for turning right, so you're probably going to turn right in every single quantum timeline. Even if you are just driving around aimlessly, your "random" choice to turn right instead of left could be influenced by numerous external factors you're not aware of, like traffic patterns or a subliminal cue in the lyrics on your CD player or the fact that the sky looks more inviting to the right, or by the flow of hormones in your brain and body which are as much a macroscopic process as the flow of traffic. It would require a very strange and improbable set of circumstances for a quantum-level change to alter such macroscopic processes to the extent that you end up turning left instead, so even if alternate timelines diverge all the time, you'd still turn right in the vast majority of them (though we can't absolutely rule out the occasional rare exception, of course).
What??????? Where in the hell are you getting "definitively" from? Here is what I actually said (emphasis added and spelling corrected):
I don't know how you could read those words and imagine that I was asserting anything as "definitive." I'm speaking in terms of probabilities and reasonable conclusions, but I'm not ruling anything out absolutely, because any honest, rational observer must acknowledge areas of uncertainty. All I'm trying to do is to warn against the tendency to assume that the fictional take on alternate timelines -- the idea that they result from different choices -- is "definitively" correct.
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