In the episode Dr Bashir I presume when Dr. Zimmerman and Sisko are conversing the following happens... ZIMMERMAN: You're familiar, of course, with the Emergency Medical Holographic Programme? SISKO: I've heard of it. It's a hologram designed to provide assistance during emergencies in Sickbay. How could Sisko not know of the EMH Program was it was at least 2 years old by the time of that episode. And had to have been on numerous Starships and Space Stations
But not on DS9 nor the Defiant. DS9 for very obvious reasons and the Defiant was commissioned with a very basic infirmary. I think it no holographic interfaces at all, except that one time the holo comms on the bridge. So, yes. He knows of it, but never had personal experience. Even on ships like the Enterprise, the EMH might never come in use. Crusher muttered ab out how she never thought she’d use it before misusing the EMH as a Borg diversion.
I'm confused by this thread. The title is "Sisko didn't know what an EMH was" but the actual episode dialogue you quoted shows that he did know. If you're asking why he didn't have any personal experience with an EMH, than that's not so hard to believe, is it? It's quite literally only for emergencies. I mean, I've been around fire extinguishers my whole life, but I've never set one off or even seen one used in real life.
I agree with the earlier responses. Let's not forget that Voyager's EMH (the EMH to us, but not to Starfleet) was in a highly atypical position. As remarked above, the hologram is only meant for emergency situations (that's what the 'E' in 'EMH' stands for, after all) and only short term assistance at that, not as an everyday assistant. It's also quite possible they only were rolled out on the newest generation of starships, given that these EMH's were supposed to be fully integrated into the ship's system. Therefore, installing them on older ships may have required a major overhaul, and even have been next to impossible on a Cardassian space station such as DS9. (Of course, that's before the 29th mobile emitter, capable of downloading and uploading his program in seconds, even to other computer systems threw all of these rules out of the window for Voyager.) So I'm not surprised Sisko only heard about them, but not much more. It's not his primary area of interest, after all.
What are you talking about? Of course he knew what an EMH was. He says so in his response to Zimmerman. What the fudge is the purpose of this thread???
The EMH was for short-term emergency use. On most ships/stations it was likely only used on rare occasions when they were dealing with a lot of injuries, the same way they'd use tricorders and dermal regenerators, it's a tool in the medical staffs arsenal, it's not like he'd be switched on for a consultation or trim a hangnail, so most non-medical staff wouldn't really need to know anything about them--they're just a collection of photons and forcefields after all.
Let's not forget that there had to be some dialogue to explain what the EMH was for those who were not watching Voyager as well. (No one is required to watch all the series).
Wait! Now wait just a minute. Are you saying that sometimes what we see on an episode is a result of an explanation by the production team to inform viewers that might be unaware of certain things and doesn't need to have some kind of in universe explanation??? The devil you say!!
Whoa! Did you notice you yourself just gave an explanation to a phenomenon when none was needed in front of an audience that consists of people familiar this sort of thing, by virtue of having been subjected to it for many, many times in connection with the television show and phenomenon called Star Trek? We are not utter cabbageheads, you know! Timo Saloniemi
Yeah, but that's what we do at trekbbs. We invent massive constructs to explain what needs not be explained.
Sorry, I meant to say that the characters, like the audience, obviously know all things at all times, regardless of distance from the events or the special knowledge that is required to master it. Not only should Molly be able to remove and replace Spock's brain, Star Trek fans should be able to assist her.
ZIMMERMAN: It does much more than provide assistance. BASHIR: A holographic doctor can literally replace a starship's medical officer during an emergency. ZIMMERMAN: I'm surprised you don't have one on the station. SISKO: The station facilities are Cardassian in origin. Most of our equipment is incompatible with Federation technology.
Also, think of the poor Bajorans who would lose their jobs as Dr. Bashir's beautiful assistants in his acts of medical magic. I'm convinced there was a quota at work there to integrate the locals to the inner workings of the outpost, and the failure to operate standard technology would have been the perfect excuse to bring in the manpower instead. I don't think we ever got a line to suggest Bashir would have been short on competent staff, even during crises? Timo Saloniemi
There's some retcons you can do now, in light of Discovery that explain slow acceptance and mistrust of AI to make decisions. The whole thing was highly classified, but a few long lived species remember exactly why there are anti-AI policies in place, including a certain person who was influential within the Federation up through 2387. It would explain the general mistrust and slow adoption of AI until the 2370s if Spock and others, not to mention section 31, were going around quietly influencing against the adoption of AI. And it could be Data's reputation that got them to ease up.
I gather there would be prevailing galactic wisdom against AI and also against genetic self-improvement - as otherwise the galaxy would already be ruled by AI and/or by biological beings that had left the concept of "species" far behind. Upstarts like Earthlings could decide whether to adopt that wisdom or not, but at their peril. And since Earthlings had their own experiences with the Augments, they might decide there was something to this listening-to-elders business. Which would also help explain the eager adoption of the Prime Directive from the Vulcans. Klingons... Might still be pro-genetics and pro-self-improvement. Which just helps establish them as barbarians... Timo Saloniemi
This thread is amazing. Sisko didn't know what an EMH was according to some quoted dialogue in which he clearly states he does know what an EMH is... the mind boggles.
The Bajoran medics would likely have learned their trade in the resistance or unable/unwilling to access Cardassian medical care, so they'd need to know how to do a lot with trauma injuries whilst having very little at hand to treat them.
At most we could perhaps speculate that his staff, though numerous, might lack the ability to deal with obscures diseases and other medical conditions, rather than the "simpler" regime of trauma medicine/surgery, which they could easily be better at -- if only due to practice -- than Bashir himself.