VISOR + holodeck = ?

[LMFAOschwarz]

I always wondered how Geordi could see things like everyone else in the holodeck. There has to be some difference between actual objects in the real world, and their light-and-forcefield recreations that Geordi would see.

Actually, I always thought it would be interesting to have had an episode, perhaps along the lines of a crew emergency training drill or something, to have used the holodeck to project to someone else the world the way Geordi perceived it.

 

[Tiberius]

Well, I guess if the computer can make a holographic person look the same way a real person does in the visible light portion of the spectrum, I guess it can make it look the way a real person does in the infra-red portion of the spectrum as well.

But that said, I never understood why Geordi couldn't see the way we see. I mean, if the visor can see in the infra-red part of the spectrum, why would the visible part of the spectrum be any more difficult?

 

[Lance]

Despite all the lip service paid to it in the early seasons, Geordi's VISOR got nerfed pretty bad as TNG went on.

In season one everybody was like, "Woah Geordi, that's so cool, you see things like a Predator and stuff, you can see the heat through solid walls and identify androids by the aura that surrounds them and other awesome shit like that!!!".

In later seasons they just seemed to assume the VISOR made him see just like any other full sighted person for plot reasons.

Because, you know, the clever plot twist or whatever would've totally been ruined ten minutes into an episode if Geordi could just take one look at somebody and immediately say "Hey folks, don't wanna alarm y'all or nothing, but this life-form you all think is a pretty human female in distress is actually a hologram/android/disguised space weevil".

 

[Ro_Laren]

Interesting. I never thought of that.

 

[jimbotron]

Because, you know, the clever plot twist or whatever would've totally been ruined ten minutes into an episode if Geordi could just take one look at somebody and immediately say "Hey folks, don't wanna alarm y'all or nothing, but this life-form you all think is a pretty human female in distress is actually a hologram/android/disguised space weevil".

The same can be said for Troi's empathic powers. She would have sniffed out Ardra in a heartbeat.

Geordi's VISOR did spoil something later on in the show. In The Masterpiece Society, he ruins that one lady's subterfuge because he could see there were no cracks, even microscopic, in the biodome.

 

[Mojochi]

It's pretty random throughout. In Starship Mine, he spots odd heat signatures. In The Enemy, he spots heart rate and body temp changes. He even manages to spot lying via body temp and perspiration once or twice, but there's plenty of things he should've seen given those attributes and didn't

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

It's pretty random throughout. In Starship Mine, he spots odd heat signatures. In The Enemy, he spots heart rate and body temp changes. He even manages to spot lying via body temp and perspiration once or twice, but there's plenty of things he should've seen given those attributes and didn't

That's right, it was random. I'd forgotten all about that scene in The Enemy.

He also marveled at "all the detail!" In the Sherlock Holmes program. Yet honestly, AT BEST, I see Geordi swimming in a dizzying soup of holographic energy fields....



How would he "select what I want and disregard the rest" with no frame of reference? Seems to me he'd hate that room like poison!

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

In later seasons they just seemed to assume the VISOR made him see just like any other full sighted person for plot reasons.

Case in point:

 

[2takesfrakes]

Geordi's being able to tell holodeck characters from real people might not have been that different from a woman crying during Bambi. What are you crying for? It's obviously a hand-drawn cartoon! But ... she just buys into this, because she wants to. That's it. It's the same with Geordi, perhaps. Yes, he can see the difference, but ... it, quite simply, doesn't interfere with his enjoyment of the program. Especially when the women in it are so easily had ... whatever hang-ups he might've had, were he successful with women, went out the window ...

 

[vulcan redshirt]

COuld it be that the ship's computer is able to patch into the VISOR when Geordi is in a holodeck and it directly 'shows' Geordi what he should be seeing, rather than his VISOR operating normally

 

[Lance]

In later seasons they just seemed to assume the VISOR made him see just like any other full sighted person for plot reasons.

Case in point:

Yeah, exactly.

If Geordi's VISOR worked exactly the way it was sold to us in season one, "Inhertance" would've been forty minutes shorter.

 

[LogicDeLuxe]

Yeah, exactly.

If Geordi's VISOR worked exactly the way it was sold to us in season one, "Inhertance" would've been forty minutes shorter.

Then again, she obviously has a different skin than Data. Probably, that kind of skin does not have that aura.

 

[Timo]

The "LaForge cannot see like we do" thing is something of a myth. Much of the second season is spent showing and telling us that he doesn't want to - that trying visual-spectrum-only is for him like trying the riding crop would be for us, nice for a 30-minute session with a properly clad lady but not something to get too addicted about.

The lie detector thing is nicely pre-empted by the introductory dialogue: "I've got humans down pat" excludes most of the villains of TNG, as the human wrongdoers generally were not lying but simply had misguided loyalties or ideals. Geordi would have his ass covered in the case of Ensign Ro lying, for example.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

The series proper never once implied Geordi could "see like everyone else" The series was consistent with Geordi not being able to see like everyone else and instead saw the entire electro-magnetic spectrum (and then some.) Though it was pretty inconsistent with how well he could make use of and interpret the information he received through the VISOR.

There's a couple times I could think of when the VISOR isn't consistently treated and this comes in "Disaster" when Crusher points out a wall in the cargo bay is hot. Geordi exclaims, "Where?!" even though he clearly should have been able to see it, hell he should've seen the wall was hot before Crusher touched it.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

There's a couple times I could think of when the VISOR isn't consistently treated and this comes in "Disaster" when Crusher points out a wall in the cargo bay is hot. Geordi exclaims, "Where?!" even though he clearly should have been able to see it, hell he should've seen the wall was hot before Crusher touched it.

That's right! I remember thinking that, too.

I suppose GeordiVision is probably like the 'Data using contractions' thing, where nearly every episode features a 'slip'.

And suppose Geordi has a sudden winning streak at poker? How could the others not suspect he was using his 'attributes'? And they supposedly "had a hard time creating conflict between 24th century characters"?

 

[Timo]

I suppose GeordiVision is probably like the 'Data using contractions' thing, where nearly every episode features a 'slip'.

But GeordiVision is based on established abilities that are later forgotten, whereas there never was an episode claiming that Data couldn't or wouldn't use contractions. The only things said on that subject are that Data prefers to speak formally and himself feels he has not "mastered" the use of contractions and other relaxed forms of speech.

And suppose Geordi has a sudden winning streak at poker? How could the others not suspect he was using his 'attributes'?

I think that's more or less the point of having the officers' poker game: one player can see through cards, another can read minds, and yet another can't help but count cards like Rain Man on a particularly rainy day. And yet Riker wins!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

I think Geordi said he can only see through the cards on certain decks. But, it's possible everyone is keeping their "abilities" in check when playing the game. It could also be suggested there's a level of "skill" involved in playing poker that goes beyond everyone's abilities. (Also, while counting cards is useful in Blackjack, it's not as useful in poker.)

 

[JarodRussell]

I always wondered how Geordi could see things like everyone else in the holodeck. There has to be some difference between actual objects in the real world, and their light-and-forcefield recreations that Geordi would see.

Actually, I always thought it would be interesting to have had an episode, perhaps along the lines of a crew emergency training drill or something, to have used the holodeck to project to someone else the world the way Geordi perceived it.

Goes even further. What do holographic people feel like?
And why does the EMH not glow in the dark if it's just a projection of light and forcefields?

The thing is, all the stuff would only work the way it works in the show if the holodeck created actual matter for everything, and not just light.

 

[jimbotron]

Yeah, exactly.

If Geordi's VISOR worked exactly the way it was sold to us in season one, "Inhertance" would've been forty minutes shorter.

Then again, she obviously has a different skin than Data. Probably, that kind of skin does not have that aura.

The show did indirectly try to explain that away. Whatever it was she gave off, it fooled sensors into thinking she was human. I would assume that would include visual signs as well, which would fool Geordi.

 

[Timo]

Quite so. LaForge seems to have experience on androids when categorically claiming that they glow, but later we learn that Data is pretty darn unique, and that androids other than the Soongian ones are nowhere to be seen. So LaForge is apparently just generalizing from what he can see in and around Data, and therefore jumping to very false conclusions.

Timo Saloniemi