The Star Trek Holodeck Enigma.

[Third Eye Open]

How does anyone on the Enterprise get any work done with all those fully functioning Holodecks to play in?

Seriously, I don't remember the exact quote, but someone said if we invented something like a Holodeck, it would be humanity's last invention.

 

[Brainache]

I want to know how they make their hologram phasers work or how they manage to eat hologram food, drink hologram drinks and swim in hologram water...

 

[not daSkeptic]

I want to know how they make their hologram phasers work or how they manage to eat hologram food, drink hologram drinks and swim in hologram water...

Not everything is a hologram. They explain it in the show ... a combination of holography and transporter effects.

 

[Fnord]

How does anyone on the Enterprise get any work done with all those fully functioning Holodecks to play in?

Rumor has it that those who exceed their allotment of holodeck time must compensate for the offense by working as a one-person "Squeegee Squad" after every holo-orgy...

 

[Ferguson]

How does anyone on the Enterprise get any work done with all those fully functioning Holodecks to play in?

Seriously, I don't remember the exact quote, but someone said if we invented something like a Holodeck, it would be humanity's last invention.

For a large segment of society, it might result in a kind of self-inflicted The Matrix. People would work hard enough and long enough to afford the rent on their little man-sized pod, and not any more. Once they had the pod, they'd be a paladin in the latest WoW, or an ace pilot in the latest Wing Commander, or a gunslinger in the latest Red Dead... etc. People in IT could probably do their work from within the holoverse.
Other segments of the population though, who aren't interested or can't afford their holojacks, would still work as farmers, or holojack technicians.

If we're talking specifically Star Trek and money is no concern... then yeah, game over. I'm going in and never coming out. I'll be the King of Fantalbion and live with my 200 wives, thank you very much. You fix the impulse drive.

 

[steve s]

I want to know how... they manage to eat hologram food, drink hologram drinks and swim in hologram water...

I think it's supposed to work the same way the replicators create things--convert energy into matter. Einstein, and all that.

Steve S

 

[Loss Leader]

How does anyone on the Enterprise get any work done with all those fully functioning Holodecks to play in?

Seriously, I don't remember the exact quote, but someone said if we invented something like a Holodeck, it would be humanity's last invention.

I tend to remember that they talked about some pretty strict social mores about holodeck use in that stupid episode where Barclay had a holodeck addiction.

 

[steve s]

How does anyone on the Enterprise get any work done with all those fully functioning Holodecks to play in?

Maybe it's like porn. Everything gets old after a while.

Steve S

 

[Earthborn]

I'm going in and never coming out. I'll be the King of Fantalbion and live with my 200 wives, thank you very much.

Some people may want to play "star captain" of a "starship" full of impossible tech, to "seek out new life and new civilisations" and to "boldly go where no one has gone before"...

 

[Wolfman]

I figure I'd use the holodeck to create another holodeck...then create another holodeck inside that one...etc. Then they'll never be able to follow me!

 

[Aepervius]

The interresting question is : how do you now when you are out of the holodeck ? Think about it : The holodeck can simulate that you step out of the holodeck and the program seem finished, and you go on doing your normal stuff, but in reality you are still in the holodeck. So for a suffisently complex holodeck, how do you determine that the program finished and you are really out of it ?

 

[HansMustermann]

The interresting question is : how do you now when you are out of the holodeck ? Think about it : The holodeck can simulate that you step out of the holodeck and the program seem finished, and you go on doing your normal stuff, but in reality you are still in the holodeck. So for a suffisently complex holodeck, how do you determine that the program finished and you are really out of it ?

There is a mission arc in Star Trek Online which turns out happened entirely in a holodeck without your knowledge. Involving space battles, boarding a disabled ship, and ground combat.

Though the idea isn't entirely new. Star Trek: Insurrection already basically revolved around a holodeck being indistinguishable from reality.

 

[HansMustermann]

Also, I think it's pretty futile to do thought exercises along the lines of "how would real 20'th century humans cope with X?" about Star Trek. The whole _point_ of Star Trek is that humanity had become some kind of Marxist utopia, only without actually calling it one.

 

[Fnord]

"Marxist Utopia" ... oxymoron?

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Seriously, I don't remember the exact quote, but someone said if we invented something like a Holodeck, it would be humanity's last invention.

It was Scott Adams, in 'The Dilbert Future' if I remeber correctly. Years since I read it but as I recall very, very funny.

 

[Mirrorglass]

Maybe it's like porn. Everything gets old after a while.

Steve S

Your doctor can help you with issues with your thing.

 

[elgarak]

The interresting question is : how do you now when you are out of the holodeck ? Think about it : The holodeck can simulate that you step out of the holodeck and the program seem finished, and you go on doing your normal stuff, but in reality you are still in the holodeck. So for a suffisently complex holodeck, how do you determine that the program finished and you are really out of it ?

"Ship in a Bottle", Star Trek TNG, Season 6, Episode 12. Holo-Moriarty (from the Sherlock Holmes programs) does exactly that: Creating a holo-program of the real Enterprise.

To the OP: "Hollow Pursuits", Season 3, Episode 21. Introduces Reginald Barclay, who spends more time in the holodeck than outside, so that it interferes with his work. It seems that most Starfleet officers are firmly grounded in reality, and have a low probability of holodiction.

Besides, most Science Fiction series have an episode where they stumble across a civilization trapped in a computer simulation. The point is quite often that it's not real, ergo nothing you do in it matters. How would a relationship work with the perfect mate you programmed (has also been done on Star Trek)? It doesn't work, long term, since you're always aware that the other one is not real.

 

[Senex]

It always made me laugh when a crew member just walked up to the Holodeck and just walked in. There would be a long queue of off duty crew staring at their watches if they weren't outright rioting for who goes next.

 

[Mark6]

Also, I think it's pretty futile to do thought exercises along the lines of "how would real 20'th century humans cope with X?" about Star Trek. The whole _point_ of Star Trek is that humanity had become some kind of Marxist utopia, only without actually calling it one.

Funny, I misread this as "Matrix utopia", until I saw the next post.

 

[Mark6]

Besides, most Science Fiction series have an episode where they stumble across a civilization trapped in a computer simulation. The point is quite often that it's not real, ergo nothing you do in it matters. How would a relationship work with the perfect mate you programmed (has also been done on Star Trek)? It doesn't work, long term, since you're always aware that the other one is not real.

"Star Trek: Generations". Kirk in the Vortex (or whatever it was called) leaping over a chasm on a horse, then reflecting how meaningless it is when it is not actually dangerous -- and eventually leaving Vortex to his death.

I think this is wishful thinking. Or pious thinking -- wishing people were not as shallow as they actually are. IMO, a large portion of humanity, possibly most, would be quite happy with a made-up mate. Especially if they could modify this mate when they got bored.

I suppose SF story in which protagonists are happy through artificial means, know it, and do not care, is not politically correct. Although I encountered quite a few people who say they would LIKE to live in "Brave New World". Their very existence belies the "It doesn't work, long term, since you're always aware that [source of happiness] is not real" claim.