Because teleportation is murder. Whatever comes out on the other side may look and act like you, but isn't you, because you're now dead for having been disassembled by the teleporter.
Teleporters are interesting because when you think about it long enough, you realize the person on departure end died.
You think about it more... and if the person that comes out the arrival end is an exact replica -- down to the atom -- and, further, has internal continuity of experience... You realize that if you accept they died then you kind of also have to accept that the "you" of any given instant is constantly dying and giving way to the "you" of the next instant. That person living that experience at that exact moment will never exist again; they're dead.
So you're kinda back to transporters being business as usual again, but with a fun new existential crisis on the side.
In practice, I agree with you. The transporter scans, disintegrates, and reconstructs the thing being transported. But when the thing being transported is reconstructed at a subatomic level it is effectively identical.
I can imagine the society we see in startrek having already worked through the moral and philosophical implications. I would have loved to see that addressed in an episode tho.
Is one carbon atom the same as another carbon atom, philosophically? Can you keep your identity when all your atoms are replaced by other atoms of the same kind? It’s the ship of Theseus problem
@QDidNothingWrong I suspect it's just a simple case of the actor getting it wrong and no one on set really noticed at the time. It's definitely not the standard form.
Another fascinating point is it’s not tradition to do the Vulcan salute to a non-Vulcan of which none of the characters on screen were so it’s strange he’d use that salute when not referencing anything Vulcan in the scene.
I don’t recall why Riker would have been using one in that context, though, unless TNG was trying to establish the gesture had expanded in use across the Federation.
EDIT: also, this is in S01E15 “11001001”, not E14.
The thing is… the Vulcan salute is palm out. He has palm in, thumb in. It caught me off guard which was why I felt the need to come post as I couldn’t find it anywhere online.
Nope. His palm is definitely out. He just doesn’t have his thumb extended. Other than the thumb, it’s a completely normal Vulcan salute. Perhaps Frakes had a bit of trouble with it early on and just hadn’t got his thumb out properly yet?
I thought picard was crazy for questioning data in his quarters alone in clues. Especially after they confirmed something was wrong with him by catching him in a lie.
How does a Star Trek virgin go about losing one’s card? There must be a generally agreed order of approach to all the series and films by now. (The breadth and longevity of it has kept me wary.)
There actually isn’t a generally agreed order of approach, and many folks tend to assume what worked for them will be what’s best for others.
Most of the shows were designed to stand alone if need be, and can provide an entry point. They’ll fill you in on the essential lore along the way.
At this point, your own tolerances for 60s and 90s styles of television and visual effects might be a deciding point. If you want to jump right in with something new, Strange New Worlds is designed as the new live action entry to the franchise - but others have started recently with the animated comedy Lower Decks or the family show Prodigy.
There was a sidebar “Where do I start?” FAQ on the subreddit that listed options (release date; in-universe chronological; by personal preferences for serialization or not).
Just look at Lore. He wiped out a colony, and could do far worse damage if he was both more competent and stable. It eventually escalated to the point where Data had to shut him down, due to the danger he posed to the rest of the Federation.
I don’t see how star fleet allowed Data to remain onboard after that one. Being in the tech industry I often feel the Federation’s infosec is lacking in often trivial ways (unless the episode calls for better security of course 🙂), but maybe they have just accepted that sort of thing as the cost of doing space business since it happens all the time. So Data’s benefits out weigh his risk.
The Prime Directive is not a bad idea when it exists to minimise harm. When it gets turned into a pseudo-religious dogma, where it is considered better to allow a culture to be extinguished than to risk contaminating it, that’s when there are problems for me.
Zero tolerance policies ensure injustice in outlier cases. Yes, it’s unethical to interfere in a civilization’s development 99.9% of the time, but there are always exceptions. Ignoring outliers is pretending your system is above the fundamental laws of the universe.
A thought experiment occurred to me. What is the absolute best subject for a zero tolerance policy? Genocide is the first thought. The most horrific evil that could ever be inflicted.
But let’s say hypothetically, there was a virus that was highly-transmissible and has a 100% fatality rate. A virus killing all of mankind. And let’s say somehow this virus is sentient. We have no idea how it works, but we can confirm that it thinks, feels, etc. The virus is provably sentient for our hypothetical purposes.
If someone develops an absolute cure to the disease, it will save everyone, but it will also wipe out the sentient virus. That is technically genocide, but it saves all life from death. Should a zero tolerance policy govern? Or can we at least have a conversation about wiping out the sentient virus?
@NVariable@Benfell isn’t this an ‘us vs them’ choice for mutual genocide?
My hot take: we either (a) persuade the virus to stop our genocide or (b) kill it because we could have coexisted if only they’d been able to.
But that has a Corollary: If one deems ‘us vs them’ must be decided in favor of the organism able to coexist without annihilating another (something the virus can’t prevent itself from doing): is human-caused mass-extinction an indictment against us? Seems so.
I loved that they gave Dr. M'Benga some screentime front and center and showed that he can throw down if necessary, even if it was with the help of some super serum stuff. And while I even loved his (and Nurse Chapel's ) elaborate fight scene and enjoyed the way they filmed it, I'm also not sure if it quite fits with Star Trek. Just not sure yet with the excessive slow motion. The camera angles however were some great artistic choice. But overall one great start to season 2.
I’ve been visiting Reddit since 2006 and had an account there for nearly 17 years. I remember it before subreddits were a thing. It was for tech nerds and other associated weirdos before entering a genuinely charming period for a few years, but those days are long in the past. I’d rather try out something new with a smaller group of interesting people who are also into trying new things, and I hope this site is able to keep chugging along regardless of whatever is happening at Reddit.
I first joined r/startrek over 12 years ago when it was about 3000 subscribers. I had a lot of fun. Every post could be seen and not drowned out. No troll issues. Those early days were really nice.
Hey! Just wanted to say thanks to the admins here. I was interested inblemmy but didn’t know where to jump on until I saw the startrek server then I knew I was ready to move along home.
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