Why Spore Drive may not work in the future

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Discovery' started by XCV330, Oct 10, 2017.

  1. Kevman7987

    Kevman7987 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 20, 2013
    Location:
    Erie, PA, USA
    Yeah. Wouldn't that be like removing dark matter from the universe? Existence itself would unravel as the universe fell apart?
     
    Longinus likes this.
  2. Vanyel

    Vanyel The Imperious Leader Premium Member

    Joined:
    Apr 23, 2001
    Location:
    San Antonio, Texas
    The entire multiverse spanning network need not be destroyed, only the part in the Prime Universe Milky Way. The Milky Way would be completely cut off from the rest of the multiverse via S-Drive.
     
  3. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2011
    I’m still expecting it to be a moral/ethical issue. Though that wouldn’t explain why the other powers don’t use it.
     
  4. Longinus

    Longinus Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Sep 2, 2008
    That is still destroying galaxy sized patch of mushrooms. Nope.
     
  5. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2011
    The network itself might just close itself to non-organic objects.

    Or some accident prevents access, but doesn't destroy the underlying network.
     
  6. Ronald Held

    Ronald Held Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2005
    Location:
    On the USS Sovereign
    Maybe kill the spore network, collapse the conduits?
     
  7. Krandor

    Krandor Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    May 12, 2016
    Exactly what I'm expecting. Either destroy it or somehow inject something into the spore network making it "inert" and unusable. I think Ripper may be a part of that since he evidently has some connection to the sport network and can use it.
     
  8. XCV330

    XCV330 Premium Member

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2017
    Location:
    XCV330
    Not necessarily. They mentioned the mycelium network was microscopic. If it exists on a different dimension it might not be large at all, by other standards (the whole, cutting a small sheet of paper to make a loop you can walk through, kind of thing)

    Also real-world mycellium is interesting, in that it requres individual fungi to touch and connect, where it then links them into a single lifeform. If the links were broken it would not distroy the individual fungi, just the links themselves.
     
  9. Flyer00Jay

    Flyer00Jay Ensign Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2017
    The klingons will get the technology and Lorca will destroy the whole fungus network to protect the federation
     
  10. Vger23

    Vger23 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2014
    Location:
    Enterprise bowling alley
    Part of me is very amused that people question whether this is magic or science.

    300 years ago, people would think that magical, flat, black devices that can take care of many of our needs (communication, entertainment, information, etc) would be ridiculous and completely implausible. They'd think the idea of splitting a microscopic thing that would then release a horrific and wonderful amount of energy is drastically insane and far-out kiddie fiction.

    We have no idea what direction science will go in in the next 2-3 centuries.

    At least DSC is trying to explore something that is extremely unique and interesting.
     
    Agony_Boothb likes this.
  11. WraithDukat

    WraithDukat Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 19, 2013
    Location:
    The Fire Caves
    It will only make any sense at all if it is somehow destroyed. The Federation might abandon it due to ethics but I can't see any of the other powers having any issues with that.
     
  12. dinzy

    dinzy Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Nov 5, 2015
    Location:
    Drinking Jippers on a beach somewhere in MD
    This is not really true. 300 years ago we were were just wrapping our heads around Newton. Yes the technology of today would look like magic, but there was such a limited understanding of science back then, they simply had not yet contemplated these things.

    Today we understand a lot of physics and we have an idea for what it might take to create such fanciful technology. 100 years ago we learned that you could not travel faster than life due to actual laws of physics. 50 years ago sci fi got around that by speculating that spacetime could be manipulated in some way to overcome that hard coded speed limit. A space faring civilization that can move from system to system in a reasonable time might not be technologically feasible at all, however we have some ideas about how to get there, but they are highly speculative and not very likely to work or to be practical. There are some areas that may still lead to new physics but we are in a much different place than not even knowing what an electron is.

    As a culture we now see lots of issues as problems to solve with technology and we have dedicated lots of resources towards solving them. They didn't have decades long technology roadmaps in 1717. We have them now for just about everything. It's not pure clairvoyance, but we would be a lot less surprised by human life in 300 years than those 300 years ago would be flabbergasted by this. I imagine that we would be more surprised by the lack of magic in the technology that exists 300 years in the future.
     
    Longinus likes this.
  13. Vger23

    Vger23 Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 19, 2014
    Location:
    Enterprise bowling alley
    ^Supposition based on our current frame of reference.

    I disagree.