this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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Picard was also incorrect by omission that there was no money. United Earth on its own had rid itself of a monetary system, but has to barter goods/services with other systems.
As for total automation of "menial services"... I'm not sure how you get around that without the use of a semi-sentient intermediary. Plus maintaining those systems, which would fall under the purview of the most important man in all of Starfleet history.
The secret is that they could have replaced him with a machine long ago.
They decided instead to make him suffer.
And we're the sickos here, watching and thereby incentivizing it - that universe could have been allowed to die out long ago, but we keep spinning it up in our own version of a holodeck to keep his suffering fresh in our minds.
Joke's on you, after a while, the CBT is now one of his fetishes.
The rest, not so much, but he'll take what he can get.
.....why? why do they need to be sentient? we already have machines capable of doing just about everything we could want them to in terms of menial tasks. The biggest issue is a) they're usually hyper-specific in terms of what tasks they do, and b) universally expensive as fuck. It's just currently cheaper and more "efficient" to have a few humans doing most the tasks. but that's increasingly becoming less so. (I'm thinking of the deep sea mining robots that while awful for the environment are... pretty impressive engineering... and also the commercial floor cleaning robots my grocery store is starting to use.)
As for repairing stuff... replicator technology is way, way under utilized. (seriously.) Like. Seriously. Why starships, space stations... buildings...can't repair themselves I will never know. I mean, think about it. there's already hundreds, probably thousands, of replicators on the D, just an example. in every crew quarters, office, medical or engineering bay... i think the only prominent room that doesn't have one is actually the bridge... and there's one off in Picard's ready room not twenty steps away. You have to assume the notion has occured to every single starfleet engeering wonk every single time some EPS conduit blows out or worf's face gets imprinted in a wall to prove how strong a villian really is. (lets be honest, Geordi probably has a collection of wall-panels framed with Worf's face. I would.)
There's absolutely no reason that replicators can't be integrated into the structure as an array that could just automatically repair it. An array isn't even strictly necessary if you use the transporters.
Considering that the Delta Flyer and the Runabouts had a replicator on it, too, and I'm guessing other shuttles, that would suggest anything too small to have one themselves... would easily be replicated in something like a shuttle bay with an industrial replication pad. Storage, repairs. etc, all happen just by recycling it and printing another.
All salient points. My end of the argument lies squarely with the interaction portion of some services. An app/robot displays a message of "Thanks for your patronage" with all the heart of a trash can on wheels (No offense to R2). A medical scanner stating to a frightened child their ailments and odds of survival. That nonsense vs the relatively few people/androids/non-corporeal beings/etc. who are genuine in their task and appreciative of those around.
The self repairing station/ship idea was brought up in ENT s2e4 "Dead Stop" and never brought up again! While DISCO at least introduced the programmable matter concept, it still lacked the nuance of something that existed before Kirk's time in the chair. Between that and the absence of the Conspiracy bug's return, I've got the Krogan equivalent of a quad of nerdy sci-fi blue balls.
But again…. How human is the connection at Starbucks? Especially at 5am on your way to work?
Like. If a machine can spit out a Starbucks latte to order and there’s one less person? Hell yes.
In the Voyager episode (where Kim is somehow in an alternate timeline stuck on earth developing some kinda snazzy shuttle), it’s not a social thing. It’s a pop-in-get-coffee-and-go thing
For that level of task, absolutely. Simply suggesting that personable interaction is unlikely to be eliminated in all sectors deemed of lesser import.
Introverts would pick the choice with no interaction any day. For us, the dry protocol of getting a coffee by talking to someone is draining not rewarding.
In Farscape, EVERYTHING is alive. The universal translators are nanos, iirc you brush your teeth by putting dental worms into your mouth, the little Star Wars like robos underfoot are even sentient, being a mixture of biological and machine, and even the spaceship itself is alive, with new ones borne not built, and grow up over time!
Such a cool concept and show.:-)
irl too, actual scientists and engineers made bacteria that produce human insulin, so we're seeing not just metal and physics tech (like microwaves and Velcro) but also biotech too, as well as more abstract developments like generative language models. Which makes me wonder whether the sex dolls in the future will need consent? :-P (I'm just trying to work in a reference to Ghost in the Shell for being such an awesome anime:-)
That was quite the journey just to nod Ghost in the Shell. Well done. And Farscape is so bizarre to this day.
The work in was just the one sentence before:-).
Anyway, bizarre is good 👍
Chief Miles O'Brian