Forgotten/Ignored Star Trek Technology

Cafe Society
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Inspired by this thread (and taking some cues from this thread,) I’m starting a list of Star Trek technology (“Treknology”) that is cool or amazing, but has been more or less forgotten by the show.

The rules?

  1. It has to be a technology or practice actually used on the show, or in the movies, but has since gone unmentioned and unused on the show. Coming up with creative ways to use/abuse Treknology is fine and good, but this is not the thread for it.

  2. You may, however, note ways in which abandoned Treknology could have been used, or even alternate uses for the Treknology besides what it was designed for (e.g. “Sure, the Genesis Device is too unstable for use in Terraforming…but it’d still make a fantastic weapon.!”).

It’s been established that the Transporter system can reverse the aging process, with no ill effects…opening the way for human immortality.

Seven of Nine used her Borg nanoprobes to bring Neelix back to life, after he’d been dead for more than a day. (The nanoprobes had to be constantly reintroduced into his system for awhile to keep him alive, and there was some concern that this might be permanent …but since, at the end of the series, Neelix stayed behind in the Delta quadrant, it’s pretty safe to assume that he didn’t need the nanoprobes anymore.) Thus, it’s possible that no one on Voyager had to die again. (Yellow Shirts rejoice.)

The Doctor was once able to transfer his program into Seven of Nine’s cyber-neural implants, and was able to take control of her body. The Doctor was once able to link a comatose patient’s cyber-neural implants to a holographic system, allowing them to “awaken” in a holographic body, yet still retain their memories of the experience when their real body was revived. (Both of the aforementioned require that the patient have a fairly complex cybernetic augmentation to their brain. However, this is apparently not so hard to achieve.The Orion Syndicate was even able to do this to some of their employees, who became cyberspace hookers, and/or data crackers.)

DS9’s Life Support brought up the intriguing concept of replacing damaged portions of a person’s brain with positronic implants—the same technology used in the brain of Data the android. In fact, Dr. Bashir replaced half of Vedic Bareil’s brain…and apparently had to ability to replace the entire brain, if he’d been willing.

On an old TNG episode (Seventh season), a Ferengi villain began using a “subspace transporter”…like a normal transporter, except that it had a range in light years. And, as I remember, could transport through deflector shields. I think it had some long-term health risks, or it was dangerous to operate, or something, which is why the Federation didn’t develop them. But surely one could find a use for such a device anyway, even if not to completely replace conventional transporters.

The Genesis device. Even if it was unusable for terraforming, it still makes one hell of a weapon.

In TOS, the Enterprise was able to fire it’s main phaser banks on stun—from orbit, at a street corner on a planet’s surface, knocking out a band of people without hurting them, or even scratching the paint on a building.

So…anyone else care to add some?

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Some of those I’m glad they got rid of, like the stun setting on the ship’s main array. I mean, sure, it could come in handy but it sounds so cheesy. And what would happen if the Tactical Officer forgot to reset it back to full power afterwards and the Enterprise had run across a Klingon battlecruiser?

On second thought, that’d be hilarious. I wish that’d actually happened.

Four that jump right to mind:

  1. Transporter duplicates. Why even bother going on away missions when you can send unknowing and dispensable dopplegangers to do the work while you sit safe in orbit?

  2. Beaming through shields. Section 31 had the technology in DS9. Why isn’t it more commonplace?

  3. Heat seeking torpedoes. Why did they only use this once in ST: VI? Seems pretty wasteful to not do so and have all those other torpedoes miss.

  4. Phase cloaking. Fuck the Treaty of Algeron. That’s too badass of a tactical advantage not to pass up.

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Because it’s Section 31?

Seriously. The fact that Section 31 has it proves it’s technically possible. However, Section 31 is a secret organization. They ain’t going to share the technology - anyone else, including the rest of the Federation, has to develop it on its own.

Of course, you can bet as soon as someone other than the Federation develops it, a Federation scientist will make a sudden leap forward.

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It’s also been used by non-clandestine Starfleet engineers in the past… Section 31 using it more often drives home just how easy it must really be. So why aren’t they using it?

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From TOS “Plato’s Stepchildren”: telekinetic powers from a simple injection!

From TNG: the subspace teleportation used by the terrorists on that one planet. Sure it distorts the matter put through it so that multiple uses kill you, but it’d still be handy as heck to use in a dire emergency. (The Ferengi system used a standard transporter beam that was warp-boosted, and had about the same odds as Russian Roulette.)

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Undiscovered Country- The Klingon Bird Of Prey that can fire disruptors while cloaked.

DS9- The transporter gun. The Federation developed a projectile firearm for environments where phasers wouldn’t work. Then, a serial killer had the bright idea of adding a miniature transporter. The bullet is beamed as it leaves the muzzle, and transported through walls and such.

The telepathic interrogation device Bashir rigged up. It allowed the user to enter the subject’s mind in order to retrieve information. Some parts were forbidden by a Federation law, and use of such a device would have to be heavily restricted and monitored. But still.

NG- The Exocomps. Ok, they’re actually a simple kind of artificial life form and destroying them is wrong. But why not make more and study them?

The repulsor beam Wesley made. It would have all kinds of uses and requires only minor modifications to existing tractor beams.

The Borg subspace conduits. After defeating Lore, why didn’t Geordi and Data raid his stocks of Borg technology?

The tricorder fooling chip. An invention of Doctor Sung (Soong?), this chip gives false readings to scanners. It would be useful for undercover missions.

The Ferengi phaser whips. I think the Ferengi were too primitive and animal in their first appearance. I was glad when the hide surcoats were replaced by business suits. But, I miss the whips.

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Androids - Why are data and his evil twin the only androids in the universe? Or make stupider robots that can fix shit.

Anti-cloaking technology - In ST6 and episodes of TNG, they jury-rig torpedos and sensors to detect the exhaust from cloaked ships. Well, it seems to me if a makeshift probe can make a cloaking device useless, why not simply make such sensors standard issue?

Time travel - There are enough episodes where the crew “accidently” travel in time that it should be commonplace.

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This reply will contain spoilers for episodes of NextGen, DS9, and Voyager.

Data and Lore have positronic brains. There may be another way to make androids (Like the ancient alien machines in TOS ep with Lurch and that chick in the halter top), but Federation scientists don’t really know any. Other scientists have made positronic brains, but they don’t work. The brains Dr Sung designed are his invention, there aren’t sufficient notes or schematics to recreate them. It might be possible to disassemble one and reverse engineer it. But that might also result in destroying one of the few models without learning enough to reassemble or recreate it.

Data and Lore are not the only androids. Data used new research to create a new positronic brain and made himself a daughter, Lal. Some difference in her brain allowed Lal to feel emotions. Shortly after that, it began to malfunction. Data had no choice but to deactivate her. She’s stored in his lab in hopes he’ll eventually be able to repair and reactivate her.

Doctor Sung also created a third android. She was a recreation of his wife. She doesn’t know that she is an android. The chip I mentioned in my previous post makes sensors give out proper human biological readings. She is programmed to eventually die. Presumably, federation researchers use some excuse to hover around her like vultures so they can examine her workings.

The programs Moriarty, the Countess, and the Doctor have all atained consciousness. Though Moriarty was able to replicate the process, nobody really understands it. Voyager gave the Hirogen (Predator rip-offs) holodeck technology so that they could hunt holograms instead of actual living beings. However, as the Hirogens reprogrammed and improved the holograms they eventually attained consciousness.

The same programmer who designed Voyager’s emh has designed dumber programs for simple tasks. Voyager’s emh is the only one of that model still in use. The other were found to have poor bedside manner and other defects and are used for mining, duct cleaning and other manual labor that may be dangerous to organic beings.

The Exocomps I mentioned above were intended to be a programmable multitool with a simple AI- dumb robots to make simple repairs. However, after a certain amount of experience the Exocomps also attained conscousness though of a simpler type.

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They defeated it. Why keep a ship that can be detected and then destroyed in one shot?

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Why do you need lasers and proton torpedos when you can simply place a lit stick of dynamite in the transporter, and send to to the nearest Klingon vessel?
Damn cheap, and effective to boot! of course, you have to use a VERY short fuse-the damn Klingons might send it back! :smiley:

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  1. They’re phasers and photon torpedoes, not lasers and proton torpedoes.

  2. They’re several orders of magnitude more powerful than a stick of dynamite.

  3. If you’d read the thread, you’d see that while people can beam through shields, it’s not common at all and is only used by clandestine organizations.

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A coupla more…

•The “Psychotricorder.” A device (almost) used in TOS’ Wolf in the Fold. It could scan and record memories.

•The “wide-field” setting on Phasers.

And I’ll have to disagree with DocCathode on the difficulty of creating A.I.s. Not only was Bashir seemingly able to create a stable Positronic matrix, but on an episode of Voyager, Torres mentions that the Federation does make use of non-sentient robots, though she doesn’t go into specifics. (Of course, she might have been talking about space probes and factory robots, for all we know.)

And the Hirogen were, using Starfleet holographic technology, able to create non-sentient holographic slaves, which they sold on the open market. Torres said they only had a “few simple subroutines” running them. It doesn’t seem so far a stretch that, even if pure holoslaves aren’t acceptible for some reason, you could use the software used to run the holoslaves to run a simple robot.

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Ralph124c

If you don’t know that they’re phasers and not lasers, I doubt this is the thread for you.

Also, please read the OP

Back to the OP

Outpatient gender reassignment surgery. Bashir is able to switch Quark back and forth a few times over several days. While this would have no military applications, I’m surprised more folks don’t have this on vacation. “This year I’m leaving my worries and genitalia behind and going to Raisa as large-breasted blonde woman.”

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[hijak]

Given that Lal, Moriarty and the Countess were all located aboard Enterprise-D, is it reasonable to assume that they were all destroyed with the ship?
[/hijak]

As for forgotten tech, there’s the tactile probe thing Geordi was testing when he “saw” his “mother,” and the probability-altering device from DS9 “Rivals.”

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I almost mentioned that. But that episode goes against every discussion of positronic brains in NextGen. I hold it to be in error. Similarly, there is a NG ep in which Barcley sees and experiences thing in between being disintegrated on one transporter pad and reintegrated on another. As the transporter works by taking you apart and shooting your molecules to the destination, where you are reassembled using your pattern, this episode is impossible.

Yes, but eventually as they tried to make more realistic prey, the programs became sentient. They went so far as to band together and form a rebellion. Their ship did encounter some non-sentient holograms of whom Torres said ‘They can’t have more than 40 subroutines. They’re no more alive than a replicator!’

As I said earlier, the federation does use some holograms as labor. Since you only need to worry about one piece of hardware(the hologram emitter) instead of all the robots, holograms are easier to produce and maintain.

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Otto

If we assume that, other than her brain, Lal’s construction was very similar to Data’s, it’s a safe bet she survived. Isn’t his skeleton duranium? Whether the Countess and Moriarty survived depends on the details of the chip and portable computer and exactly where Barcley stores it. Considering his personality, my guess would be somewhere protected from extreme temperatures, humidity, static discharge, and those times the inertial dampeners don’t quite do their job.

Back To The OP

Lore’s experiment to use nanocortical fibers to create an artificial brain. Sure, there was an 80% chance of failure and death. But you’d think some researcher or another would continue the research in attempt at creating more androids or achieving immortality.

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There was that episode where Barkley became super-smart and built the super-powered warp drive.

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If someone has “Encounter at Farpoint” on tape, I believe Data tells McCoy the composition of his body… I seem to recall molybdenum being mentioned but have no memory at all of duranium being named.

Also, in concern to Lal, Moriarty: it depends heavily on where they were stored. If they were on the saucer section, they most likely survived but if they were in the engineering hull, they’re nothing more than scattered atoms.

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I assume that the records of the subspace technology he used to travel to Sytheria, and any other inventions (eg, the neural interface) were removed from both his brain and the Enterprise computers when the Sytherians reintegrated him. I always figured that since the Sytherians desire to learn about new life and new civilizations, they have a Prime Directive of their own regarding advanced technology.

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Re Data’s Composition-

He also describes the materials of his skull and spine to a Klingon in the computer-program-hidden-in-genetic-code episode.

I think Fajo’s assistant mentions what percentage of compounds is needed to fake Data’s vaporized remains in the ‘You will sit in this chair and entertain my guests.’ episode.
I think Ryker describes some of Data’s construction as part of his argument in The Measure Of Man