Mimetic simbiots

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mimetic_simbiot

1) Could Trip have survived the events of TATV if this was done again?

2) Has this process ever been used for clandestine missions? Being able to fake someone's death, have them be in two places at once, etc?

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

If Trip had any say about it, he would likely refuse. We didn't see the aftermath of "Similitude," but Sim's choice to die to save him probably weighed heavily on Trip. And I can't imagine Phlox would do it again, knowing the symbiont would not survive.

Section 31 is probably morally bankrupt enough to sacrifice a symbiont's life to save a prospective agent. But if it's done without Trip's knowledge again - having a second being die for him? That might turn him into a version of "Twilight"'s vengeful, callous Tucker who dispenses with all compassion to go scorched-earth on Section 31.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It makes for built-in drama if the clock is ticking on the mission and their simbiot agent's life. But it also means if the simbiot knows they are a simbiot, not the original agent, they also have no reason to play it safe, since their days are numbered already.

 

[at Quark's]

Even so, I still find the idea in Similitude objectionable. Original or not, we're still talking about about a sapient being with a desire to live, however limited his lifespan may be. And yes, I understand Trip was worth a lot more to the crew than Sim and that desperate times call for desperate measures.

But they still took the 'easy' way out by making Sim willing in the end to submit to the procedure. What if he hadn't?

 

[Will_Carter]

Even so, I still find the idea in Similitude objectionable. Original or not, we're still talking about about a sapient being with a desire to live, however limited his lifespan may be. And yes, I understand Trip was worth a lot more to the crew than Sim and that desperate times call for desperate measures.

But they still took the 'easy' way out by making Sim willing in the end to submit to the procedure. What if he hadn't?

Welcome to Trek at its best, when it makes us discuss and ask. 'Is this right even when the person that will die is OK with it?'

 

[Hopeful Romantic]

Even so, I still find the idea in Similitude objectionable. Original or not, we're still talking about about a sapient being with a desire to live, however limited his lifespan may be. And yes, I understand Trip was worth a lot more to the crew than Sim and that desperate times call for desperate measures.

But they still took the 'easy' way out by making Sim willing in the end to submit to the procedure. What if he hadn't?

Sim was, in essence, Trip - he had Trip's personality and moral values. Would Trip have chosen his own life over the life of someone who could save Enterprise, and by extension, the galaxy?

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

You could get dizzy turning in circles like that.

 

[Sumire]

But they still took the 'easy' way out by making Sim willing in the end to submit to the procedure. What if he hadn't?

We’d get another Tuvix.

 

[FederationHistorian]

1) Could Trip have survived the events of TATV if this was done again?

Perhaps. The main issue was that Trip’s lungs were thermalized, so surgery is likely the only way out. Although I do not know why Phlox would not just have frozen Sim’s organs somewhere, so that he could use them if Trip ended up in another situation where his life is in peril.

2) Has this process ever been used for clandestine missions? Being able to fake someone's death, have them be in two places at once, etc?

I’m sure the possibilities are endless. Could be used to experiment with the transporter, and watch the simbiots get spliced or duplicated or Tuvix’d. Or extend the simbiot’s life by turning them into Augments, to replace a personal loss. Creating someone that can be under the influence of mind control, like an agent or a slave girl. Could probably create a bunch of cogenitors with simbiots, or a whole army of expendable soldiers. Or even a suicide squad of simbiots.

And because abuse of this tech is a very slippery road, there’s no way the Federation would not regulate or even outlaw simbiots.

The question is what would this tech be outlawed by the Klingons, Romulans, Xindi, Suliban, etc. ?Would the Tandarans make it illegal under the guise of genetic enhancement or would they use the tech themselves? Would the Triannon use it to repopulate their planet?