TNG didn't really establish holodeck technology as 'new'. It merely established TNG's version of the tech as an impressive leap forward and more flexible and convincing than ever before. The implication was always that prior gen holotech existed even if we didn't know for how long or exactly what it was or wasn't capale of doing.
Right (I know it existed in TAS or some lesser version of it), but even if it existed pre-TNG, just slightly less sophisticated - it still comes across as anachronistic that the depiction of it in the 24th century is a "leap forward". Nothing about it seems all that radical...
Unless it's behind the scenes stuff like more processing power or more people can fit in it or not everything tastes like chicken anymore. The crew doesn't treat it like "Oh wow - the graphics are so much better!" It's treated like a radically impressive shift in the technology.
I get this is more a victim of the writing/budget because they probably could not do anything like it in the 60s, but just always seemed odd to me that it took that long to get to that point on the holodeck tech tree (other than technobabble about it being more realistic in some way).
If we don't self implode as a species or hit some dearth of engineering ingenuity - I think we'll likely have the TNG version of the holodeck in THIS century. But then again I'm a desperate optimist when it comes to technology.
Even with other ways, why would they just throw out warp?
Same reason they replaced duotronic with isolinear: it's obsolete. Trek has repeatedly shown examples of other forms of FTL that are far superior but plot convenience causes them to fail for some reason or the other. Never "upgrading it" just seems like "holding on to that last strand of hair" energy by keeping warp. Let it go. :P
It's not that I'm calling it a plot hole or anything. In fact, I get the "familiarity" argument that it's just a deep part of Trek Tech. I just meant within the confines of the story, especially as it is leaping centuries into the future in modern shows, seems weird that with the many, many alternatives - FTL peaks at the warp drive for the UFP. Hell, they can just technobabble a newer TYPE of warp that allows instantaneous travel. Some new understanding of subspace or whatever jargon. That way, they can keep the word "warp", the same streaming star effect, and retire the tiny FTL training wheels we've apparently had since the ENT-era.
I think if anything - it opens the potential for a varied array of new stories if travel across the entirety of the galaxy takes days or hours rather than taking decades.
Are all holograms sentient lifeforms? Or is it just something they can become sometimes?
You're right, not all. But the fact that even a single one can gain sentience should be a lot more alarming than it is presented. Especially as the holodeck isn't
just used to observe an empty landscape like Ransom's "program" or train cadets on how scan an anomaly.
It's often used to have adult relations with the holograms or to harm them or to outright kill them. (And the occasional Baseball game or reenacting Charles Dickens stories.)
If I played a very sophisticated video game with the most advanced AI on console or PC and I find out that the character I control somehow gained sentience in an unexpected way and I am harming him by constantly killing him when he dies in boss battles or I don't press the jump button at the right time at a gap on the bridge - I'd immediately stop playing the game and would probably never touch another advanced AI game again (except for maybe pong on Atari. :P)
It's just weird to me that this is not treated with any type of moral or philosophical panic at the nature of reality or the potential types of existence in Star Trek. Quite the contrary, they just hop back into the holodeck to enjoy Vulcan Love Slave or kill soldiers in a recreation of WWII. (I'm not even going to address people playing programs of wars that caused intense trauma to those that fought and survived them it for fun. What can be more relaxing than to sit in a trench at the Battle of the Somme?)
The way the holodeck is used in Trek (outside of training officers, playing sports, or staring out at vistas) is WEIRD to me. They want to have it both ways - holograms have the
potential to be sentient but go ahead and "play" with them anyway you want.
When the Q Continuum put humanity on trial for being a grievously savage species - it was treated like a moral affront that humanity had to prove their innocence. The Federation's philosophy on hologram sentience: you're a sophisticated video game sprite until proven sentient. (and the burden of proof is on the hologram).
Plus, it's been established that not all holograms are even capable of it.
"FLESH AND BLOOD", for example... one of the groups of holograms Iden 'liberated' by killing a crew were just workers and had no ability to process anything other than the tasks they were designed for.
Yep - absolutely true.
So does that mean holograms can be toyed with like playthings until the burden of sentience is proven by them?
considering they condemned old EMH units to menial slavery does kind of show that UFP has nothing but a dark side when it comes to synthetic life, not to mention what happened on Mars.
(I wish the writers had NOT gone that route, kind of undoing every bit of progress made since Measure of a Man but its canon and we have to live with it)
I'm so glad you brought this up. I was going to, but I thought my post already looked like a dissertation. lol. With what you added, it's another reason I find the Federation's philosophy on artificial intelligence to be oddly against their greater philosophy about seeking out new life, exchanging knowledge, and never doing harm (minus self-defense).
It absolutely makes for great story-telling (some of the best episodes are about Data/EMH exploring their humanity and others adjusting to learn that they are sentient). Who doesn't love when Data shouts down Hobson and gains his respect at the end of the episode?
