Spoilers Star Trek Discovery - Starships and Technology Season Five Discussion

Could the tricom be controlled through thoughts?

 

They still had uses for Solar power.
And if anything, since most planets that left the Federation after the Burn hit ended up mainly 'keeping to themselves'... it actually makes MORE sense that they would construct Dyson Swarms around their own stars if they didn't want to rely on antimatter/dilithium or risk Warp travel.

In effect, a power output of a star massively surpasses a M/AM reactor by many orders of magnitude... a Swarm can easily harness most if not all of that energy... so each former (and existing) UFP member planet solar system would have had access to ridiculous levels of power - this in turns opens up the mind to even better concepts that can be turned into powerful reactor technologies that are not M/AM and Dilithium based.

I would imagine that the tech is distinctly interactive and specific to the user.
Could be using an advanced form of brain user interface technology, just wireless... aka, the commbadge is able to read the user's immediate thoughts on where they wish to beam to.

The 32nd century holodecks seem to do the same thing... and signs of this were seen with the Universal Translator back in the 24th century in the sense that when a person speaks, the UT translates that in real time - though they didn't have neural interfaces back then... at least not until the early 25th century (and Barclay made his own big one in the holodeck in TNG).

 

A generic Synaptic Transceiver could be common by the 32nd century with a universal interface communicating between your brain & your gear.

 

It'd be common by the early 25th century.
Admiral Janeway had one for her shuttle's communications to the Borg queen in Endgame, but she said the Doctor invented the technology in the alternate timeline '12 years ago' (from Admiral Janeway's perspective).
Admiral Janeway was from the year 2404... so the Doctor invented it in 2392.

Since she exposed the VOY crew to this technology earlier, its likely that the Doctor will try to recreate it earlier (plus the timeline has already changed, so that could play a part)... but if he keeps it all 'on schedule' despite that, then the tech should proliferate easily in 10 years after that (though for the UFP, making a new piece of tech from concept to experimental and to finished technology is brief to say the least, and widescale adoption wouldn't take 10 years... but probably 1 or 2 at most - to allow for some widespread testing - even now with advent of AI we can easily shorten the time needed to bring the technology from concept to experimental and to final product by about 10 times - so it no longer takes a decade to bring something to the people, but far less - for UFP which is more technologically advanced, it would be even less time - though proliferation might take a bit of time considering how many people live in UFP).

Either way it should be in wide operation/usage by the time ST: Picard S3 comes about... and from that point onward, the tech could end up miniaturized further (but the Doctor in the alternate timeline was able to make it TINY in the brain as is... so it would be what... atomic by the 32nd century... or more likely sub-atomic).

 

Integration with the universal translator in head and tricorder within comm badge?

 

In reality, given the passage of time, SF would have been able to miniaturize the technology in the tricombadge to the point where it would be subcutaneous. Alternatively, even if its microscopic or just nanoscale, you can create billions of them and spread them out along the entire surface area of the uniform and then network them to work together and increase overall performance, capabilities, output... you can do the same with any piece of technology - batteries even (heck we have nano-diamond batteries developed as is - create billions of them, spread them across the surface area of the uniform, network them together and they will supply decently high amounts of energy for tens of thousands of years constantly).

The concept would be similar to say creating billions of tiny computers... individually, while still advanced for the era, they wouldn't be considered powerful, but network billions of them to work simultaneously and you have a ridiculously OP supercomputer.
Same with transporter, pattern buffers, comms, scanning, etc.

Heck, already by the 24th century they had mini versions of various technologies that could conceivably be miniaturized further by the time ST Picard began and do the same (already in ST: Nemesis, Data had a personal transponder for one beam out cycle that was similar in size to the subcutaneous comms transponder Chakotay used in S7 of VOY).

At any rate, yeah, I do think a synaptic interface would have been a first step in that direction where the computer could essentially read a person's brainwaves and improve on the overall technology.
Prior to this, the UT was likely working along highly efficient and fast predictive algorithms...

 

If you read the MA article, that version of the Synaptic Transceiver was a specific version for shuttle piloting.

I'm sure later iterations / revisions would be more genric.

 

One wonders then if it’s a part of the programmable matter interface at the work stations on starships too. It “learns” your best way of interacting by reading your thoughts and guiding the interface to be more efficient.

VFX artist Timothy Peel has been posting his work on the graphics on Discovery. You’ll see that someone on the team managed to work up most of the three-deck corridor layout of the 24th Century Romulan scout. Also, a full work up on Jinaal Bex from this episode shows he erroneously lived from 2253-2367, despite the graphic also saying he lived in the 24th and 25th centuries and was active in “all quadrants”. Of course, the Dominion War was in the 2370s.

(Source: Facebook groups)

 

SF seems to be conservative in its use of tech. Might be a need for mil-spec reliable SW/HW and a requirement not to have an enemy exploit it without extreme effort.?

 

Starfleet has almost always been very conservative with technological advancement and its use. Rewatch TOS and there are a number of advancements that seem rather remarkable, that get put to the aside and not revisited. We see AI limitations, genetic engineering limitations, and warp speed get fiddled with but ultimately not ever fully moved away from because of how useful it is.

 

I always rather thought it was an intentional choice; they don't have robots/drones running things not because they can't, but rather because they don't want to. Why send a fleet of starships instead of probes unless you want to, and all that.

 

One interesting idea I saw bandied about by fans several years back was the idea that, especially post 24th century, is that probes are great, but when you have all your basic needs met, experiences are going to be what drives growth for many. So, rather than just see it from a distance, going out with Starfleet is the prime way to have new experiences.

 

Sounds reasonable and accurate. It also makes me think of the notion from the TMP novelization that the folks who joined Starfleet were "throwbacks" who didn't want to just enjoy Utopia and needed to be "out there" doing stuff.

 

Don't really need an implant to read someones mind,by this time the badge would be able to constantly scan there brain and just tell where you would like to go. But this goes against what it the tri com badge does when in tricorder mode, like they still have to interact with the hologram to use it, verses mind control.

 

If you physically need to act with a tricom tricorder function, why do you think the transporter function is controlled mentally?

 

A physical action could be a good idea to confirm the transport. To click after you point, so to speak. The mental component could be to determine the location you want to go.

It's been pointed out that in a possible future, Admiral Janeway controlled the Batmobile Shuttle with a synaptic interface developed by the EMH. While that was aborted, the option should be there.

As for the physical interaction with the tricorder of the tricom, one wonders if it's visible because it's 23rd century Burnham, used to more tactile interfaces; or because Saru or Book or whoever was also there who needed to look at the display for plot purposes...

Mark

 

So touch could be a backup to mental commands for the tricom tricorder?

 

There's nothing wrong with still having automation/probes and drones for all kinds of work to make things easier in such a setting.
Crews would still be doing relevant things... just not 'tedious and repetitive' labour that can easily be automated (unless its for training purposes), and they would still be in full control.

That's kinda the thing I wanted to see, but was never really done properly because the writers likely don't know or understand how to strike a needed balanace.

The badge/tech doesn't need to be in specific mode to do its job and still continue to read a person's mind or using advanced form of eye tracking and predictive algorithms to anticipate your actions.

Just before Janeway launched herself into the past, the technology has been in existence for 12 years.
Its likely she modified hers for her private shuttle (the one we saw), but I doubt it was limited to just piloting - we saw her using the synaptic interface for communications, so I imagine it was applicable for controlling all kinds of systems on the shuttle.

At any rate, I think the tech would have had more than enough time to mature and proliferate by 2404... its possible Janeway's was an earlier version or specifically modified/limited to use for her shuttle.

 

Never said that there was. Pretty sure automation was a feature of the vaunted galaxy class.

 

In the episode "Contagion", LaForge said that approximately 90% of the Enterprise-D's functions were done automatically by the computer.