# Plausibility of Star Trek Tech. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 7, 2018, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601 "2018-10-07T09:32:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/1 "2018-10-07T09:32:37Z")
I have to tell you, I have been an avid trekkie all my life, just like my parents. The only one I never followed was _Deep Space Nine_. Too depressing. Too much angst. What more can I say? Anyways, I have wondered for some time how plausible some of the forecasted technology is in the series. Are some some day possible? And are some, as far as we know, never possible? (I think I heard somewhere that matter-energy transporters may be impossible, due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. But in the series, the employ something called a Heisenberg compensator. Is _that_ possible?) Here is what I hope at least is a partial list. More may follow: [ul] [li]Matter Replicator[/li][li]Matter-energy transporter[/li][li]Warp (i.e., FTL) drive[/li][li]Stasis field[/li][li]Holodeck (i.e., fully-imersive virtual reality[/li][li]Phaser (i.e., laser-like weapon, in the palm of the hand)[/li][li]Etc.?[/li][/ul] Actually, the one I wonder about is the stasis field. A medical device that creates suspended animation, apparently by stopping all motion IIRC. Just how plausible is _THAT_? Thank you all in advance for your kindly replies:). :):)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/2 "2018-10-07T09:41:42Z")
MISSED EDIT WINDOW: Also, I have wondered about the plausibility of fully-immersive _SIMULATED_ reality. And they did cover that briefly on the pilot with _Menagerie 1 and 2_ and with _the Thaw_ on _Voyager_ I believe you could say. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/3 "2018-10-07T11:04:49Z")
FWIW, [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_Star_Trek) is the Wikipedia list: Star Trek technologies: [ul] [li]Cloaking device[/li][li]Holodeck[/li][li]Replicator[/li][li]Tractor beam[/li][li]Transporter[/li][li]Universal translator[/ul][/li] 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/4 "2018-10-07T12:15:23Z")
Everything that you have mentioned is incredibly highly implausible to the extreme–starting with the “a bowl of alphabet soup spontaneously spelling out the lyrics to any given song from _Labyrinth_” level and reaching the “violates everything currently know about physics” level. _Star Trek_ is as plausable as…um…_Labyrinth_. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/5 "2018-10-07T12:31:14Z")
Oh, I dunno; replicators don’t seem all that far-off, really. We have 3-D printers that can theoretically print food, and _can_ print guns. They don’t make these things out of pure energy, though. Warp drive is impossible according to our current understanding of the universe. Star Trek’s explanation is that there’s this thing called subspace in which the light-speed speed limit doesn’t apply. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/6 "2018-10-07T12:56:55Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Oh, I dunno; replicators don’t seem all that far-off, really. We have 3-D printers that can theoretically print food There is a huge gap between being able to squeeze globs of melted plastic out of a tube and being able to recreate arbitrary organic compounds an atom at a time. A 3D printer is one of [these](http://www.lafmon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/C122.2.png)–a replicator is filling the bag with water and dirt and squirting out a fully baked cake ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/7 "2018-10-07T12:59:23Z")
I’d say the most plausible Star Trek tech would be the universal translator. We’ve already got tech like Google Translate that does a fairly decent job. It’s not nearly as much of a stretch as something like transporters or warp drive. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/8 "2018-10-07T13:18:02Z")
The first thing to say is that of course whole books have been written on this topic e.g. [this one](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/95634/the-physics-of-star-trek-by-lawrence-m-krauss/9781415910412/) and [this one](https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/star-trek-science-space-astronomy-technology-fazekas/#/02startrekbooktalk.jpg). Star trek wasn’t necessarily intended to be a realistic prediction of the future, and so the tech runs the gamut of things that have already been realized (e.g. communicators) to things that seem impossible (transporter), and everything inbetween. However, my personal prediction is that much of the technology of a few centuries’ time will look implausible to us. So it’s both true that the tech in star trek is ridiculous _and_ it’s a reasonable picture of a possible future direction. > [@ekedolphin](#): > > Warp drive is impossible according to our current understanding of the universe. Star Trek’s explanation is that there’s this thing called subspace in which the light-speed speed limit doesn’t apply. Yes, and also there have been papers published on how warp could be used to travel FTL (yes, I’m thinking Alcubierre). Of course there are many, many problems with creating such a device and if the universe doesn’t contain exotic matter, we’re SOL. But certainly you can suspend disbelief that one day humans can do something like this. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/9 "2018-10-07T13:36:14Z")
A friend of mine and I once determined that the ST universe was dependent on about six or seven fundamental breakthroughs of which, aside from fusion power, we’d be lucky to get any one in the next three hundred years. Essentially it’s a universe that, in risk players parlance, rolled all sixes. Although, I do think that the Cloaking device and the force field might be almost in the current state of the art. Of course, we’d never use the latter for confinement cells because practically speaking it would never be cheaper than iron bars. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/10 "2018-10-07T13:38:50Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I’d say the most plausible Star Trek tech would be the universal translator. We’ve already got tech like Google Translate that does a fairly decent job. It’s not nearly as much of a stretch as something like transporters or warp drive. In the sense of a fluentish system of instant machine translation between multiple known languages, yes, that is plausible. To learn a new language after hearning 5 words? No, that isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/11 "2018-10-07T13:53:22Z")
I’m responding on my miniaturized communication device that can translate dozens of languages. Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/12 "2018-10-07T14:11:40Z")
> [@Yodalicious](#): > > I’m responding on my miniaturized communication device that can translate dozens of languages. > > Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk Try giving it a language where the rules \*haven’t \*been programmed into the system based on thousands of hours of human effort. Something from a language family unrepresented in its database. Plug in a block of [Warao](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warao_language) and have your miniaturized commucations device translate it. The key element of the Universal Translator is that it is a _universal_ translator–you meet up with someone who speaks a language unrelated to anything ever encountered, and the device instantly learns it. This isn’t going to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/13 "2018-10-07T15:40:18Z")
I just like the way their communication devices lack encryption, so they have to rely on clever wordplay. ---
**Author:** ![Arkcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Arkcon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arkcon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/14 "2018-10-07T17:09:31Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The key element of the Universal Translator is that it is a _universal_ translator–you meet up with someone who speaks a language unrelated to anything ever encountered, and the device instantly learns it. This isn’t going to happen. I always assumed the Universal Translator was an interface between two computer systems – both have the same function: translate sounds into words like contemporary software does. Convert the words into definitions, like contemporary software does. Email definition to other computer. Other computer does the reverse. 'Course that just adds different problems. How does sarcastic tone, snide facial expressions, and other duplicity translate for the various Federation, Klingon and Romulan languages, when even on contemporary Earth, they’re different across nationalities? I always like the actor playing the Klingon Gowron. You could never tell what he was thinking – his face was always a blank slate, no matter what he was saying. Don’t know if it was the actor or if the mask was too restricting for him to show expression. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/15 "2018-10-07T17:18:17Z")
Bryan and Darren at the Dope. Arkon, his sails unfurled. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/16 "2018-10-07T18:12:20Z")
One of the big problems with the transporter is stated to be the shear number of atoms to analyze and then re-arrange at a different location. Well beyond even today’s vast-yet-cheap storage devices. But what about if we _ **Jpegged** _ people, man? That should really cut down the number of individual atoms needed. I mean, one type of skin cell is like another - boom, we just saved 10 ^ 100 calculations. Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/17 "2018-10-07T19:06:49Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > I always assumed the Universal Translator was an interface between two computer systems – both have the same function: translate sounds into words like contemporary software does. Convert the words into definitions, like contemporary software does. Email definition to other computer. Other computer does the reverse. That could work between two advanced civilizations (assuming both had developed effective “basic primers” to get their computer systems to learn from each other) but the various crews are always meeting new low-tech species and members of new high-tech species minus hardware–and the Universal Translator still works (except where a plot point demands that it doesn’t, as referenced by AncientHumanoid–_Shacka, the eyes rolled!_) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/18 "2018-10-07T19:19:11Z")
What about the stasis field?;)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/19 "2018-10-07T19:29:06Z")
It was established in “Metamorphosis” that the Universal Translator is essentially a mind reader. There are certain concepts, like Male and Female, that are common to all forms of sentient life. The UT detects brainwaves, selects the concepts it recognizes, and provides the necessary grammar. Not 100% efficient, according to Kirk, but nothing is. It has nothing to do with computer interfaces or, in one of the most laughable items of _ **ST: ENT** _ “matrices.” A matrix is worth diddly-squat if you have no _a priori_ knowledge of the target language, as Egyptologists working without the Rosetta Stone knew well. Speaking as a professional translator of more than 30 years experience, I can also tell you computer-generated translations are almost always pure crap. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601/20 "2018-10-07T19:39:11Z")
As far as phasers go, it seems to me the main problem would be finding an energy source strong enough to power the device and yet safe enough to store in the hand grip (what Captain Tracey was talking about when he demanded extra “power packs” in “The Omega Glory”). What kind of material is capable of doing this? Obviously none that we know of today. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plausibility-of-star-trek-tech/822601.md?page=2)