Fire in the hole!

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[–] 11 points 2 days ago (8 children)

Some trekker should correct me here, or clarify, but I'm pretty sure that in TNG the character Barclay used the holodeck to treat his crippling social anxiety, which involved holos of his crewmates and got into some very awkward situations.

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  • [–] 15 points 2 days ago (5 children)

    Also Geordie falling in love with the holodeck version of a visiting researcher, Christy Henshaw in the episode "Booby Trap." She encounters her holodeck version swooning over Geordie and it weirds her out tremendously

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  • [–] 5 points 2 days ago (4 children)

    That’s the one I had in mind when writing the first comment. The worse part is Geordie kept that largely respectable. Could you imagine what someone with no self control and a holodeck of their coworkers could do?

    I’d love if there was an exploration of what holodeck usage for civilians looks like. If you can have a holodeck that can bring the entire universe to you, why bother doing anything? Especially since you are already in a post scarcity society where strictly speaking you don’t need to do anything. I always felt that the federation having motivated people is societal momentum from earlier centuries, but in a couple more centuries I think it’s entirely plausible that most of humanity would become simply indifferent to the greater world around them, infinitely entertained by holodecks and again, zero scarcity. Honestly, not so different from the Q in a way. How much of society in Star Trek is actually productive? Someone’s gotta be mining the dilithium. Is there genuinely enough people who just volunteer for that?

    How exactly does a post scarcity society function?…. And could they please tell us so we can get there ASAP.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago*

    I dunno, I want to live an interesting life, so I'd volunteer to try ALL the jobs. Mining dilithium, serving aboard a starship, fighting baddies on the outskirts of Federation territory, raising a family, becoming a holodeck program writer... A life of leisure means you get to try whatever you want, and can always fall back knowing you'll be fine. I think more people would want to do stuff, like me, than you think.

    Kinda like how every single pilot program and study they've done with basic income has had the same end result, no reduction in work force. People want to feel useful, and they want to get ahead. Maslow's hierarchy of needs, when everything else is met, people just want to feel needed.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

    Surely that would all be automated. Wouldn’t mining just be teleporting it out if the mine?

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  • [–] 1 point 12 hours ago (1 child)

    Teleporter technology is severely underutilized in the show. Unless teleporters is why its a post scarcity society? they just teleport most of the resources out of the ground? Some materials, for reasons not always explained, are not able to be teleported though.

    There is a lot of tech in star trek, or any sci fi really, that makes you go "wait couldn't they use that to x" and the answer is usually yes but that wouldn't make for good television. Kinda like in that scene in the star wars sequel where they rammed the ship into the imperial mega-ship. Why would the rebels bother fighting fair fights when they can just get random old ships that can barely do hyperdrive, and just ram them into the destroyers? 1 old musky ship for one top of the line star destroyer is an insanely good trade. Or what happens if you did that into a planet? You'd essentially be able to commit a 9/11 terrorist attack on a almost shoestring budget.

    The more I think about how potent this tech would be for killing, it gives me a new perspective on the great filter theory.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    One extremely interesting aspect of that episode is that while Barclay DID create holographic depictions of the crew for his fantasy world, and it does weird out the staff, they don't actually present the holodeck recreations of the crew members as a PROBLEM in and of itself. The prevailing view isn't "This is unacceptable" - it's that "This is a disruptive fantasy that is preventing Barclay from developing socially and fitting in as a member of the crew." Whether you chalk that up to bad writing or the future being accepting of using the holodeck to realize one's personal desires is up to the viewer's interpretation, I guess. Even after all these years, I don't think we have enough information about the Star Trek universe to know.

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