Editing FederalSpace:Technology (section)

== General Fields of Technology ==

=== Genetic engineering ===

Genetic uplifts, upgrades, parahuman hybrids, etc. make up the bulk of the aliens in this setting. It's an established technology.

==== Commentary ====

'''Albert:''' An idea about gene-mod . . . 

What if ''everyone'' is a product of gene-mod? What if the nasty diseases and disorders have been identified and removed, and the general genome improved on? Such that people are generally healthier, stronger, more graceful, better centered, longer lived, and smarter than they are today at the beginning of the 21st century?

(Nurture continues to be important, of course.)

Now what if it's very hard to come up with an improvement in one area that doesn't disproportionately harm another area? If "improvement" is really a matter of balancing trade-offs, and the real business in gene-tinkering is repairing damage from space and/or industrial hazards?

That might explain why people aren't happy with the idea of making genetic supermen: It's been pushed to the safe limit already, and people looking for supermen always seem to end up making them stupid (grunts) or unstable (officers). 

'''Susanoo Orbatos:''' It would also work as a really good explanation for game mechanics. That way your "humans" can be the middle baseline and all the "adaptations" can have strong downsides for "balanced" racial packages.

=== Warp-tech and high-energy miracles ===
There's only one major miracle: warp technology, used for the FTL drive, FTL comms, and the trademark ''transporter.'' I combine all of these because it feels satisfying to have all the obvious impossibilities in one place. 

There's no gravity or "force" control. Therefore, there are no contragravity vehicles, artificial gravity control, inertial dampers, tractor or pressor beams, force fields or deflector screens, or anything else along those lines. Spacecraft must spin or thrust, or their crews must accept the problems of microgravity. And we have the full variety of conventional vehicles to draw upon, from maglev trains and all-terrain vehicles, to aerodynes and hypercavitating submarines. 

Projected holograms—mere images—seem both cool and harmless to me, though, so I'll permit this minor bending of the laws of physics. Realistically, it's probably pretty easy to detect the trick except under controlled circumstances—outside of a holodeck or holotank, you'd likely see the light beam, for example—so we won't have invisibility cloaks or scare-the-natives god displays, but it's a fun detail for control rooms and R&R. 

There's no matter-energy conversion. The transporter just moves stuff, nothing else. "Replicators" are physical manufacturing units requiring materials and time, not anything-out-of-thin-air devices. Holodecks just make images and sounds (and maybe scent, from little chem units)—no manipulation of physical objects.

'''Commentary from LordDraqo:''' What form of propulsion do ship use, when they are not zipping around at warp?  It occurs to me that not every ship operating in a system is going to have warp-drive, and I can't see using warp to get around in orbit.  So people use transporters for all of their interplanetary travel?

=== Physical Tech ===
We have nano-materials and manufacturing processes now, of course, but this setting does not have "grey cloud" nanotechnology, monomolecular materials, living metal, and similar wonders. Turns out that the only effective nanobots are extremely limited in capability and only work under tightly controlled circumstances; it's just not worth the effort. There ''is'' advanced materials technology, to permit the superconductors and superabsorbers needed for energy weapons and such, and allow for some nifty-looking spaceships and skyscrapers. And to let us handwave away the heat dispersion problem—call this a minor miracle. So we can also have smart materials (like color-changing, self-cleaning fabrics), memory metals and plastics, transparent metals, and similar toys.

Also, I think nanobots and microswarms and such break the feel. Cadres of baseball-sized drones I can live with, but microbugs everywhere spoil the "physical" feel.

There is some advanced biotechnology. Most of the "alien" humanoid races are actually gengineered humans, and the setting also has uplifted animals, genetically-targeted therapies, and various other bio-tricks. And the real aliens have equivalent technology. Oddly, there's been a retreat ''away'' from some of this technology, from the days of the Terran Empire. There's no point in bioengineering a perfect slave race when it's illegal or impractical to own slaves, for example, and experience has shown that there's only so far you can push genomes before unacceptable drawbacks appear. And the interstellar ecology has gotten complex enough that biomaterials and biogadgets are vulnerable to infection from unanticipated sources—you grow yourself a beautiful living skyscraper, and then it gets sick and dies from some random bug brought by an interstellar tourist. Hardtech is more reliable for functional equipment. But biotech is known and embraced, and I'm sure there are many busy terraforming projects going on out there.

An unresolved question: Just how far have lifespans been improved? How old is old for a modern human?

=== Minds ===
Artificial intelligence is possible, but intelligence and memory cannot be duplicated or transferred. Say there's some ineffable quality to sapience, or just say that thought is a ''process'' and not a state. Thus, an A.I. has to be birthed and trained over years, is considered a unique (albeit unusual) person, and is bound to a particular brainbox (though the shell could be changed or upgraded). No personality uploads, no xoxing, no "what is real?" mind games. Conventionally-programmed drones can be smart, but not clever or wise; send people if you want attention to detail. We do have neural interfaces, for use by the handicapped, in the experimental stages now, so some sort of passive neural input seems likely—a "hands-free" way to use your computer, in a pinch.  I'm hesitant on the idea of sensory-input, though since memory can't be recorded or duplicated… A good compromise might be that tricks like ecstasy machines or electronic anesthesia are possible, but must be tuned for a particular individual. So no neuronic whips. 

Incidentally, no universal translator. You can have pretty smart translator programs, and linguists have computer analysis to help them, but there are still language barriers. English is one of a small number of ''lingua franca.''

Just because the mind can't be duplicated doesn't mean it can't be ''analyzed.'' Psychology would be more advanced and effective, thanks to good brain scans and analysis tools, and presumably there's some understanding of memetics. I don't know how powerful I want this to be, because I feel that free will is important for to the Trek setting, and having other people mess with your thinking twists that. On the other hand, one must keep in mind the importance of the bell curve and edge cases—you may have used memetics to construct a peaceful utopian society, but that 10% of the population who are assholes will still be assholes… 

And does that mean we have a functioning lie detector?

=== Exotic Talents ===

I ''was'' opposed to the idea of psi powers—I go to all the trouble of stripping the magic tech out, and now we want to put magic mental powers ''in?!''—but after consideration, I do like the idea of "exotic talents." Let's say that the usual psi explanation, of manipulation of energy or information at a distance, remains impossible. A Talent is an intriguing edge case, like an idiot savant—they've got some incredible personal knacks and quirks that, in the right combination, can do some incredible things. A person who's incredibly good at reading people's emotional states; a person who's a linguistic savant, rapidly identifying languages and following the tone; a person with pronounced meditative control over their metabolism; a person who can hear and understand minute changes in active machinery; a person who can intuitively sift large amounts of intelligence data. With this setting's improved understanding of psychology and genetics, it's possible to locate these people, and train them to use their knacks more reliably and in concert with conventional skills and technology. It's even possible to ''try'' to manufacture them—nature and nurture being what they are, you'll get hundreds of normally-odd people for each success, but it may be worth the trouble for some organizations.

==== Commentary ====

'''LordDraqo:''' If you've had the opportunity to catch Fox-television's "Lie To Me," or NBC's "The Mentalist," you have seen how people can develop hypertrophied perceptual abilities.  Combine this with training from the cradle, and Betazed "empathy" might not be so far-fetched.


'''Susanoo Orbatos:''' …Councilor Troi isn't Telepathic because she's a Betazoid, she's telepathic because she's a Councilor. The world they were from spent most of its time developing the "Telepathic" skills. So when they joined the Federation they ended up taking up roles in society where "telepathy" would work well Gamblers, Councilors, Diplomats.

Anyone can go to the Betazoid schools for Diplomacy, psychology etc they are just the best in the Federation for such things.

Your "warrior Races' might have an equivalent with things like Gramaton Clerics....