Otherwise benign technology

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Didn't they kind of already do that in "The Big Goodbye" when the scan from the aliens disrupts the Holodeck?

Is that what happened?

 

[DonIago]

IIRC, yes.

 

[uniderth]

How would you repair the pot holes?

The more important question is, "How would you repair the plot holes?"

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Perhaps dispatch the mushroom-eating aliens from DSC?

 

[Tim Thomason]

Generally not, though: ignorant humans messing with things they have less understanding of than they think they do tend to make problems worse instead. Such as pretty much anything and everything having to do with medicine.

That our heroes would even be factors in this subspace scratching issue may well be the height of hubris. Humans on Earth are gods, presiding over a small rock with overwhelming might and numbers, and with all the wisdom, kindness and consideration typically assigned an inhabitant of Olympos. Humans in the Milky Way aren't worthy of being considered mites. Whatever we do, we do four billion years late - somebody has already tested this for us. And the Q issue still stands: it's just not plausible for us to do any such harm that those infinitely more powerful than us couldn't and wouldn't undo.

Sure, let the heroes play these safe and endearing games where they think it is their task to tackle the Space Amoebae or worry about the fabric of the universe. It's no doubt educational, too. But let's not make too much of it. If the universe were a fragile place, it would be long gone - and in the Trek setup of an easily accessed multitude of multiverses, we (and the heroes) can get actual statistics on that.

Timo Saloniemi

Could be that higher-than-Warp 7 speeds are unheard of. I'm not saying that the 24th century Alpha powers are the most advanced in galactic history (this is demonstrably not so), but that there is a transwarp or slipstream or spore drive usually utilized by cultures at that stage of development (shortly before transcendence and/or the weird isolationist thing some cultures do).

Cochrane-style traditional subspace warp drive with dilithium and M/AM at such high speeds was a unique crutch of the era, promulgated by the Federation's failure at research into higher technologies and nearby races just barely keeping up with the UFP. They are causing environmental damage, damage that fades away after centuries/millennia, but something they could experiment and replicate in scientific studies.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Are other types of warp that travel quicker not technically going faster, but rather taking a shortcut of sorts? Thereby arriving earlier than its traditional counterpart without having to move faster?

 

[Henoch]

Thereby arriving earlier than its traditional counterpart without having to move faster?

From the CAGE: PIKE: Our time warp, factor seven. So, warp science may involve both time and space concepts. High warp travel may involve a component of reverse time dilation, where more time occurs on ship and less time, or even reverse time, passes in the universe. We see in TOS that large travels backward in time occurs at high warp in strong gravity fields like planets and suns (TNT, YIT, A:E). I have a treknobabble theory about very high warp in the weak gravity field of the galaxy to cause a weak backward time travel component that offsets a portion of normal forward time. For example, if the Enterprise experiences 10 hours of flight time in the ship, but only 5 hours pass on the outside, then to the outside observer, the Enterprise doubled its speed while the speedometer on the Enterprise showed normal speed.

 

[publiusr]

You could always try this
https://www.researchgate.net/public...y_Means_of_Wormhole_Induction_Propulsion_WHIP

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

How would you repair the pot holes?

Drive around them until they become sinkholes.

 

[HelenofBorg]

It is my understanding that the warp drive works by warping space-time so that the starship is travelling through 'folded space' and therefore taking a shortcut made by the warp drive itself. Otherwise even warp one would be impossible. As to whether the warp drive should cause any harm to the space itself, it only ever did in that one TNG episode, but there was something unique about that particular region of space. The issue does not seem to affect any other places.

 

[DonIago]

My understanding was that that area of space was particularly susceptible to the kind of subspace damage caused by warp engines but that space in general was also prone to damage, hence the E-D needing to request authorization to exceed certain warp speeds in subsequent episodes.

Sort of like how stubbing a toe always sucks, but stubbing a toe you just stubbed is even worse.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

....What if their subspace communicator frequencies messed with a species' brainwaves or something? Like how some people are sensitive to wifi.

Could you imagine the entire planet's population wearing tinfoil hats to "keep those waves out"?

 

[DonIago]

Sounds like a good premise for an episode of The Orville.

 

[Ithekro]

In at least one of the novels, warp one was slightly faster than the speed of light. Not by a lot, but the laws of physics still applied and one could not travel at the speed of light. Warp drives got you around the light barrier, but never actually broke it.

 

[Qonundrum]

The TNG method is to just drive slower over them.

Or override the "55MPH in space" rule per orders every week, as TNG often ended up doing just that. :\ They really should have done a sequel where they find an ostensibly lost Romulan ship whose navigational sensors didn't go haywire but they're deliberately causing a rift to form. Which isn't terribly exciting and coupled with the stock music from season 7 TNG (the farting frog symphony), it wouldn't be even remotely watchable. Unless Ronald D Moore or Brannon Braga wrote it. They had some great imagination for the show.

 

[MetroKid]

Drive around them until they become sinkholes.

Once again, this is what we do in Michigan.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

https://www.autoblog.com/2019/06/02/these-potholes-are-being-fixed-with-band-aids/

Or you can fix the pot holes with new Asphalt Pot-Hole Band-Aids that are supposed to do the job properly.

 

[publiusr]

We could use some of those here in my state.