Talk:FederalSpace:Technology
On transporters and being bounced- one simple thing that could totally screw up even a well surveyed and planned transporter assault: stringing ropes around the area to change the layout.
Contents
Jamming teleporters[edit]
Simplest way to jam a teleporter - string ropes across the large areas they'd be teleporting into.
More technological - if warp envelopes (a related technology) are 'finicky' then someone studying the stability of those envelopes would realize that turning those studies on their head would come up with a jammer. My bet is that it would require knowing about the teleporter system and the characteristics of their warp bubbles. That way, someone can take advantage of those characteristics to collapse them unexpectedly, or cause a bounce where there should be none. Also, you might be able to brute force your way through the jamming (if you've got enough power).
Thoughts and comments? Pilgrim
Lifespan[edit]
OK, uploads are straight out.
But you've at least implied protein fabricators, so artificial replacement tissues are fairly easy. That means need a new lung? Wait while they customize a left lung template based on your tissues. And so on. This would increase lifespan right there.
What else? Well, there could be nanotech therapies/surgeries that could repair damages from radiation and aging. Time consuming, expensive in terms of the time of skilled therapists, but doable. Another method of increasing lifespan.
So, what are we looking at? Today, we have roughly a 50-60 year useful adult lifespan and 6-10 of that are taken up by education. Given the ability to replace damaged organs, limbs, etc., with a minimum of disruption, repair general aging, better cancer and disease treatments, we're probably looking at at total lifespan of 120+ years, with maybe 80 of that useful adult lifespan.
13:58, 27 February 2009 (PST) Later: Given genetic engineering, some human variants might have a much greater lifespan.
My memories of the StarTrek series is that as a general rule the only time that you saw medical intervention was in the case of trauma. So 'tis quite likely that other then trauma, medicine takes a very Hippocratic approach, where proper diet and lifestyle enhances the quality of life and produces greater longevity and productivity, on its own.
Psychology, neurology and the like[edit]
Ok, this is where things can get creepy.
Memetics & Social Engineering Imagine the ability to craft an ad that would pretty much hook you on a deep level and you have to fight against to resist. That's what you're talking about. With memetics, you can get some nasty high powered ads. If you allow for say, low power and nearly ubiquitous fMRI machines (with a low range), the pitch men can tailor it for the best effect. Without it, you can study the effects of specific social techniques and look for the greatest effects.
Does this remove free will? No, but a person has to be aware they're being targeted. Otherwise, they will be influenced. For the removal of free will, see below.
Psychology and Neuropsychology How detailed can it get? Given your rules of thumb, a fmri machine is at least semi-portable. This means they could relatively common. Now, if you allow for high powered computers to interpret results, you have a all but unbeatable lie detector. Its also probably a very powerful therapeutic tool. With it, they might be able to identify areas of trauma, and worse stimulate areas of the brain through transcranial magnetic stimulation. Unlock a memory, induce a hallucination, make 'em see God, or administer a temporary lobotomy.
And that's the beginning... There are a host of books on this - from Peter Watts' Blindsight, Cordelia Fine's A Mind of Its Own, Kluge and most of Oliver Sacks' books. Look up on brain injury effects for some ideas and what could be done with them if they could be induced temporarily.
With patience (and a complete lack of ethics) you could implant memories. How? Good video, some drugs to induce a hypnopomp or hypnogogic state, and fmri assisted surgery to disconnect a person from his or her previous memories. Otherwise, want to induce amnesia for a specific memory its feasible. Or just make sure they can't remember what you did to them... Or they did... Trashing the process of transferring short term to long term along with other things can severely cripple an individual.
Alright, how widespread is this stuff? I imagine in the Federation, they restrict it. The OA may go all out. The Empire probably restricts it to themselves and the great houses. The Borg probably use it in ways that would scare anyone. The Romulans may hate it but study it to defend against it. And that's all I've got so far.
14:01, 27 February 2009 (PST) extracting a image from a brain.
Apparently your link is broken. Or at least my ISP doesn't connect to it.
AI: They're people[edit]
Really. They are raised like children (probably with a greater up front cost), but are people and citizens (@ least in enlightened polities). They may have legal obligations to their parents, but against a much greater than organic lifespan, this may not be much to them.
Now, that's how I bet the Federal Worlds deal with it. Outside of it... well, I bet it gets ugly. The OA probably practices some sort of longer term indentured servitude. The Empire out and out enslaves them. The Borg hives would take them as citizens. The New Byzantines ... I don't know. Probably long term servitude and may ban them from certain roles.
Neural interface[edit]
Things that read nerves are probably easy. We've got a version now being used in prosthetic limbs. Things that can stimulate tactile nerves are moving out into production as well - artificial legs with feet that feel the ground and feed it to the wearer.
So, for bionics and feedback for teleoperation would be pretty easy in the 29th century.
What else can you do with it? Well, getting it beyond simple reading of limb motion and providing tactile feedback, it builds on the stuff I mentioned above, particularly neuropsychology and its tools -fMRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. Between the two of these, they can 'read' the brain, particularly for physical motion and some sensory issues. Heck, they've reached the point where they can pull the image from a brain now. Now, the interface can see what the person wearing it sees. Probably all the other senses too. Using transcranial magnetic stimulation, maybe ultrasonics, they can induce the appropriate hallucinations as well.
Not easy. I doubt its cheap and the potential for abuse is huge. Probably restricted pretty heavily by most governments.
