There was an Asimov story, the title of which escapes me, that dealt with this. It pointed out that the"past" begins half a second ago so any tech that would let you view the past would also, in essence, allow you to view the present.
Which Star Trek technology would people abuse the most if it was released today?
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
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I'm not the one having a hissy fit over a minor helpful revision to his post.I'd recommend you both refrain from getting too personal. Thanks.
I was just helping him out & he started acting petulant over a friendly corrective gesture with no ill intent of any sort.
Personal Shields & Transporter Jammers would be very important then if you were to weaponize the Transporter
That's a Pandora's Box that I don't think anyone in the writers' room wanted to open. Can't put that shit back in the horse if they went there. That might be a bridge too far, even for S31.
We have seen Transporters being used in Trek to beam photon torpedo aboard other ships.
VOY made use of that in their fight against the Borg... twice.
Seska tried adapting the transporter module to Kazon tech too and executed Maje's of other sects by beaming them into space.
We've also seen in TNG that subspace beaming was used by a terrorist organisation to gen onboard ENT-D.
Its not that the technology isn't used in that way, its just that the instances when it is used in such a manner are not too common (probably because such tactics are hardly necessary in most situations).
Starfleet after all is a peaceful organisation... so they try to disable and engage in dialogue rather than destroy.
Transporter beams can be interrupted with transport inhibitors, dampening fields and stopped with shields (though anything and everything is permeable if you know the frequency of the field you're trying to cut through - that said, shields can be penetrated by transporter beams [assuming they are powerful enough] without knowing the frequency).
But generally speaking, given the existing transporter tech, I'd imagine that most of this tech is well regulated where safety guards are in place to prevent such things from happening.
And besides, the UFP is a type of society where most people wouldn't really have a need to weaponize transporters like that.
Starfleet certainly should have these measures on standby if the situation arises of course, but given that transporters can be stopped with shields and various fields, I'm thinking most heavily secure locations have transporter inhibitors installed by default.
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They probably line the walls and roofs of every facility with the type of rock materials that would naturally block transporters and have a Transporter Emitter link on the outside of the building that controls who comes in/out to the facility that a Transporter System would have to negotiate with as well to control Ingress/Egress.
You would think so, but come live action, and suddenly everyone is turned into a moron (animated Trek tends to point out these problems at the very least).
Why can't the writers integrate deceptively strong security for Starfleet to AVOID making them look like complete idiots?
I mean, there are tons of options to use the technology, neither of which would go against UFP principles and ideals... its just using those measures dynamically for situations if/when they occur.
Because many of the staff who write don't think about the implications and how IRL Tech Design would evolve.
They're normal writers, not technologists or specialists in random fields.
Ergo, the surface level thoughts.
That's why they need better integration of Scientists, Specialists, & Technologists into the Writers Room to not make their characters look (Technologically/Scientifically) (incompetent/illiterate)
Plus, in Roddenberry's world, humans have "evolved sensibilities" and probably would never think to use transporters or any other advanced tech as WMD's. IRL, however, humans wouldn't hesitate to do just that. The writers try to follow this guideline for the most part.
So they're raised to be "Good People with Good Morals".
Probably spent his time working out engineering problems in his mind, or laughing over old memories - rehearsing how he'd greet his friends when they rescued him.
Or perhaps he took a tranquilizer to ease the fear of being trapped - maybe when one spends longer than normal time in the buffers (though never before as long as he did), they deliver medication every so often to ease one's mind while waiting to re-materialize
That's for people living inside UFP where use of the technology in such a manner simply isn't necessary, and the tech is well regulated in all probability.
Starfleet on the other hand is a different ballgame, and because they deal with the unknown and civilisations that are NOT too friendly, having the ability to use the technology like this should at least be an option and considered if other options fail (you know, have it on standby for defensive purposes - there are TONS of ways you can still use the technology like this for non lethal results - for example, beam a stun phaser array onto the alien ship to neutralize its crew... alternatively, beam a photon torpedo set to minimal yield to damage a certain subsystem that would effectively neutralize them in battle - or just BEAM the needed system out into space - if you know what you look for).
On the other hand, we have evidence that people in a transporter cycle are also put into a sort of stasis. This was evident in earlier seasons when people just 'stopped dead in their tracks' when they were beamed.
Remember that something was off with the transporters in TNG when Barclay went through them and survivors were in fact in the beam.
Usually, that kind of an experience wouldn't happen because Barclay was experiencing things in a separate time frame... so it was all kinda out of place with everything else.
Perhaps the person does see the transporter beam enveloping them, but they would only experience darkness for a moment before they rematerialize on the other end.
I suspect that because Scotty placed himself in a pattern buffer, he wasn't actually conscious in there...
for him it was basically the late 23rd century, and then he suddenly woke up in the 24th.... no evidence he was conscious.
While I do agree with you (I’m a very ends-justify-the-means kind of person), we have the ethical question that Bashir asks, what does that say about us as a civilization that we would have an organization like s31? Same thing here. I want to believe that humans will be able to wield such power with noble intent, but I just don’t see us ever getting there.
Like Sisko has said, it's "Easy to be a Saint in Paradise".
It's much harder being a Saint living out in the Frontier, in a place where all your problems aren't solved.
I think that would be the most regulated technology.
At most, the average person might be able to communicate with themselves in the future.
Imagine Text/Calling/Video Conferencing with yourself in the Future/Past.
Perhaps there are different transporter modes/settings that freeze people in case of emergency beam-out or criminal apprehension, but don't when it's a casual beam (to the surface of a planet for shore leave, from a station you're visiting back to your quarters for the night).
Transporters are able to arrest a person's momentum it seems, so there's that.
With Barclay, the experience was notably different, but its also possible we can chalk it up to the survivors being in the beam and his condition due to the microbes.
Apart from that, no materialization process really takes as long... he WAS kept in the beam intentionally for longer than necessary while they were performing diagnostics.
Also, its very likely that due to a variety of safeguards in the transporters, these things really don't happen.
I mean, they CAN happen to SF officers, but they are placed in weird situations all the time that can potentially have wonky effects on technology.
But otherwise, in Scotty's case, yeah, he wasn't conscious at all. He just blinked out and blinked back in (much like the EMH does - but the EMH also isn't conscious when he's in the void, but he understands he goes into a proverbial non-existent state when he's switched off).
What would be fun is if they give him a "CyberSpace" type VOID view when he's not made into a 'Physical Hologram' as a update to his software.
In his "Digital Mind", he can think of whatever his hearts desire / solve problems, then become a 'Physical Hologram' when he needs to.
Give him his own dedicated Server Box to operate from / deploy his conciousness from.
One that can get his own "Escape Pod" as needed in a worst case scenario.
Assuming it’s available somehow, combat stims.
Seriously — admittedly “dangerous street situations” are probably rare in Trek’s Earth, but they’re common enough in ours. Combat stims you can just take and instantly hulk out when you feel (or are) threatened, or when you want to threaten somebody else, would be immensely popular — they’d probably need a government crackdown to keep it from turning into an epidemic.
Seriously — admittedly “dangerous street situations” are probably rare in Trek’s Earth, but they’re common enough in ours. Combat stims you can just take and instantly hulk out when you feel (or are) threatened, or when you want to threaten somebody else, would be immensely popular — they’d probably need a government crackdown to keep it from turning into an epidemic.
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