# Star Trek tech features that logically should exist but didn't seem to **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [March 18, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193 "2021-03-18T16:30:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/61 "2021-03-19T14:32:40Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > “[That man is playing Galaga!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Fy6AUMv8E)” Nice! > [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > If they do this, some other nerd is going to come by and complain about them wasting a valuable resource. After all, poo is matter and matter is energy. You can use the poo to power things on the ship, like the matter replicators that create the food that the crew eats that eventually gets turned back into poo. I’m not coming to any parties at _your_ place. BIP: In **ST: Generations** (and I assume elsewhere), they had these hand lights. Come on! Even I have several of [these babies](https://www.google.com/search?q=headlamps&oq=headlamps&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l6j0i457j0l2.3922j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) to free up my hands (My older dogs wear them around their necks at night for walks.). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/62 "2021-03-19T16:11:15Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > In **ST: Generations** (and I assume elsewhere), they had these hand lights. Torches are kind of silly. In the future, the military will co-opt an invention that creates a vision energy field: instead of casting a spray of photons, it will raise the energy level of everything in its scope, causing everything to glow. Hence, you will be able to make what you want to see visible without pointing out where you are to anyone who might be looking for you. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/63 "2021-03-19T16:19:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > A third would be why people bother with turbolifts if they can be transported about the ship, They do this on Star Trek Discovery now. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/65 "2021-03-19T19:41:51Z")
That doesn’t make it better ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/66 "2021-03-19T19:44:56Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > …and the computer whips up a (seemingly) self-aware, completely humanlike Moriarty all on it’s own with no sign of going to any special effort doing so. I believe that the lights dimmed or Geordi noticed a power surge or something to indicate that it a _little_ bit of extra effort. ---
**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:** [March 19, 2021, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/67 "2021-03-19T20:09:39Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > > [@RickJay](#): > > > > A third would be why people bother with turbolifts if they can be transported about the ship, > > They do this on Star Trek Discovery now. Where do they have long, static discussions laying out important plot points if they don’t use a turbolift? 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/68 "2021-03-19T20:20:11Z")
They’re too preoccupied doing shrooms ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/69 "2021-03-19T20:20:48Z")
Discovery still _has_ turbolifts, though. Which apparently, if you believe that ridiculous action scene in the last episode, occupy a pocket dimension inside the ship that is very clearly _much_ larger than the ship itself could possibly be. Soooo much empty space. You’d think they’d use this pocket dimension tech for more things. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/70 "2021-03-19T20:54:32Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The Holodeck is very, very good at emulating human personalaties. Androids better than Data should be trivial. I think that’s a misunderstanding. When human personalities are downloaded into Data’s hardware, they work just fine. And Data himself isn’t actually too bad at full on mimicry of human personalities. It seems to me that Data just wants his own personality. And that personality had its emotions intentionally removed by its creator, replacing them with “ethical subroutines.” The previous model, Lore, did have emotions and no ethics, so he wound up selling out the human colony to the Crystaline Entity. It seems to me that Data is an emergent intelligence. He’s an AI whose intelligence was shaped by his creator, but not actually programmed. And the only way the creator could insure he would behave ethically was to make sure emotions wouldn’t cause problems. He instead decided to create a special chip that could give emotions separately, but hadn’t finished said chip by the time the colony had been abandoned and Data was found. It seems to me that Data doesn’t want to be just a mimic of a human, like the “people” on the holodeck, which (with a few exceptions) have no real emotions, just programs that act like them. Data wants his own personality. (The exceptions are the few holograms that show sapience. But those cases are mostly accidental: Moriarty, Vic Fontaine, Voyager’s EMH, and possibly the people in Fair Haven. The only known intentionally designed sapient hologram that I know if was Minuet, and that was only due to the Bynars programming and system upgrade. It seems that most holograms are specifically designed to not become sapient. Data was designed to be sapient from the get-go.) ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/71 "2021-03-19T21:35:44Z")
I think the point about all these computers and AIs is that with them around, there shouldn’t be so much human labor needed. The Enterprise’s computer was capable of creating an AI capable of defeating Data, so the computer must be more powerful than Data. Moriarty, Vic Fontaine, et al are sentient, behave in a way indistinguishable from real live humans, are capable of performing complex cognitive tasks and making decisions on the fly, etc. So why can’t the ship’s computer largely run the ship itself? Why does O’Brien need to manually operate the transporter by moving some sliders? Why are there so many crewmen walking around checking readouts, pushing buttons, keying in commands, and pulling levers? Give what we’re shown, the computers of the time should be more than capable of doing all that. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2021, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/72 "2021-03-19T22:58:13Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Some of us women wear bras because we find the support they give a good thing while working or moving vigorously - this would not be supplied by a hologram alone. I am not talking about an Arnold Rimmer type hologram but more of the kind of thing that is generated on the holodeck, actually substantial. You could have your breast support/containment, and none of the straps digging into your skin. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2021, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/73 "2021-03-20T01:55:48Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > So why can’t the ship’s computer largely run the ship itself? Why does O’Brien need to manually operate the transporter by moving some sliders? Why are there so many crewmen walking around checking readouts, pushing buttons, keying in commands, and pulling levers? Starfleet is LARPing. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/74 "2021-03-20T02:07:25Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Why does O’Brien need to manually operate the transporter by moving some sliders? The operation of the conveyor transporter is more art than science. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/75 "2021-03-20T02:26:49Z")
Or a near-foolproof way of manually ejecting the damn thing… There should be a ton of cyber-enhancements in the future. Communicators are ridiculously primitive compared to cell-phones\*. Hell, tricorders and communicators should be combined. I can headcanon away most stuff that i wonr bother to mention, but still cant think of a good reason for the Bridge to be where it is. ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/76 "2021-03-20T02:30:24Z")
NO ONE should ever be able to breach the bridge physically through those things. Talk about funneling your opponents. “Vidians come out…Zap…more VIdians…ZAP…Vidians start to pile up, No one can even get in.” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/77 "2021-03-20T02:35:17Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Give what we’re shown, the computers of the time should be more than capable of doing all that. I put that down to all that stuff Picard says about humans wanting to better themselves. We actually do see that it only takes two people to fly the ship in a couple episodes. So everyone else must be there because they want to be. That also conveniently explains the bridge officers being on away missions. They’re the ones who earned the right to do that. They want the risk. Heck, if we go back to Kirk’s time, we know that they often somehow get revived. (The same actors, even sometimes with the same names, will often reappear) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Pavelb1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@Pavelb1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pavelb1)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/78 "2021-03-20T02:40:39Z")
Unless they really did do an episode and i missed it: ENT really missed an opportunity in not having an episode where Phlox says, “Why don’t I just whip up some cloned organs tout suite and we can heal Crewman Bob here”, and of course the humans retort with some moral revulsion. Phlox: “How quiant. Then perhaps some gentic manip…” Archer: “YOURE INSANE!!! LOCK HIM UP!!” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/79 "2021-03-20T02:47:15Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > > [@Broomstick](#): > > > > Some of us women wear bras because we find the support they give a good thing while working or moving vigorously - this would not be supplied by a hologram alone. > > I am not talking about an Arnold Rimmer type hologram but more of the kind of thing that is generated on the holodeck, actually substantial. You could have your breast support/containment, and none of the straps digging into your skin. Yeah, maybe, though there’s no guarantee that the holodeck would make comfortable clothes. We know it can barely handle making something as porous as lungs, only being able to do it if the person stays perfectly still. Still, that’s not really a problem. You could just wear comfortable, functional clothes, and have the others projected on. Heck, we’ve actually seen that happen before—Riker was wearing his uniform in the last episode of Enterprise. And, when playing Captain Proton, black-and white-versions of the officers are projected on to them (even if they do otherwise choose to get dressed up). My only conclusion is that people like dressing up for their LARPing on the Holodeck. They have the replicators, and find it fun. (Of course, the real life reason is for effects. It’s easier to have your actor fully clothed in front of a blue/greenscreen whenever you make the background holograms appear, disappear, or change. Having the actor hold a pose, then change, then come back and hit that exact same pose would be a lot more work.) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/80 "2021-03-20T02:50:59Z")
Have they ever shown transporter technology being used in a medical situation? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen various Star Fleet doctors performing surgery. You’d think it would be safer to remove a tumor or whatever by transporting it out of the patient’s body. ---
**Author:** ![TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thegunismightierthanthepen/32/2981_2.png) [@TheGunIsMightierThanThePen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGunIsMightierThanThePen)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2021, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193/81 "2021-03-20T04:18:10Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Have they ever shown transporter technology being used in a medical situation? A few incidences that I recall: - In the _TNG_ episode “Unnatural Selection”, the crew of the Enterprise use the transporter to cure Dr. Pulaski of an aging disease - In the _DS9_ episode “Body Parts”, it is implied, but not explicitly stated, that Bashir beamed Keiko’s unborn baby into Kira’s womb - In the _Voyager_ episode “Deadlock”, the EMH transports Samantha Wildman’s baby into an incubator As to why transporters aren’t used more often for medical situations, I guess an in-universe explanation is that the doctors can’t get a precise enough transporter lock, which incurs the risk of damaging other organs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-trek-tech-features-that-logically-should-exist-but-didnt-seem-to/938193.md?page=5)