Modularity in starship interiors is of course the most natural assumption in the world - after all, we know for a fact that those are modular. We can see the seams! (And the separate modules, although only in photographs that also reveal large amounts of timber and plywood.)
That the whole superstructure of NCC-1701 would be a module is true for a certain NCC-1701-A in a certain timeline in a certain timelapse sequence. It being a module for Pike's current ship is possible, but not particularly helpful in explaining anything, because all the changes before DSC can be explained by the interiors being modular, and the current size change can't be explained by the whole thing being that.
But if the interior is made of separable wedges, for all we know the entire saucer is. So just yank out a couple in front of the bridge area, and also remove the innermost ring of the remaining wedges, to install whatever you wish; Like MMoM says, this could be a ship of Theseus as much as it is one of Pike or Kirk. The interesting bit then perhaps becomes, why is it the only one so far? And that's then dramatically interesting territory, rather than treknological apologism - is this a historically important ship worth preserving past its due date, perhaps, even though TOS never suggested such? A Starfleet experiment at extreme modularity, never repeated? A ship that goes down, way down, twice a year, and always bounces back, shrugging off multi-hundred-percent casualty figures and daring a True Hero (or a Young Expendable Fool) to accept the jinxed center seat?
To allow it to become more self-aware? There're obviously degrees to that as seen ITRW.
Supposedly, though, the Sphere would tell it how to grow more powerful, and more capable of achieving its aims ("This is how you modify a kitchen utensil into a nanoprobe injector", "This is how the Electronic Advisor to King I'Dyath of Alpha Beta succeeded in becoming the Overmind of Beta Quadrant for five million years, and this is why it fell"). Whether it would also teach it new aims is debatable, because supposedly the currently stated aim of total sterilization is also what it ultimately achieves after gaining 100% Sphere data. But perhaps that assumption is faulty, and giving it the rest of the data would turn it all Gandhi, while the current tally of 54% is what makes it so successfully and pathologically omnicidal?
Timo Saloniemi
That the whole superstructure of NCC-1701 would be a module is true for a certain NCC-1701-A in a certain timeline in a certain timelapse sequence. It being a module for Pike's current ship is possible, but not particularly helpful in explaining anything, because all the changes before DSC can be explained by the interiors being modular, and the current size change can't be explained by the whole thing being that.
But if the interior is made of separable wedges, for all we know the entire saucer is. So just yank out a couple in front of the bridge area, and also remove the innermost ring of the remaining wedges, to install whatever you wish; Like MMoM says, this could be a ship of Theseus as much as it is one of Pike or Kirk. The interesting bit then perhaps becomes, why is it the only one so far? And that's then dramatically interesting territory, rather than treknological apologism - is this a historically important ship worth preserving past its due date, perhaps, even though TOS never suggested such? A Starfleet experiment at extreme modularity, never repeated? A ship that goes down, way down, twice a year, and always bounces back, shrugging off multi-hundred-percent casualty figures and daring a True Hero (or a Young Expendable Fool) to accept the jinxed center seat?
To allow it to become more self-aware? There're obviously degrees to that as seen ITRW.
Supposedly, though, the Sphere would tell it how to grow more powerful, and more capable of achieving its aims ("This is how you modify a kitchen utensil into a nanoprobe injector", "This is how the Electronic Advisor to King I'Dyath of Alpha Beta succeeded in becoming the Overmind of Beta Quadrant for five million years, and this is why it fell"). Whether it would also teach it new aims is debatable, because supposedly the currently stated aim of total sterilization is also what it ultimately achieves after gaining 100% Sphere data. But perhaps that assumption is faulty, and giving it the rest of the data would turn it all Gandhi, while the current tally of 54% is what makes it so successfully and pathologically omnicidal?
Timo Saloniemi
