The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss & Stephen Hawking

Author:Lawrence M. Krauss & Stephen Hawking [Krauss, Lawrence M. & Hawking, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General, Science, Physics, Performing Arts, History & Criticism, Video games, Television, Astrophysics & Space Science, Star Trek (Television Program), Space Sciences
ISBN: 9780465005598
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 1995-10-04T22:00:00+00:00

The Physics of Star Trek

CHAPTER SEVEN

Holodecks and Holograms

“Oh, we are us, sir. They are also us. So, indeed, we are both us.” Data to Picard and Riker, in “We'll Always Have Paris”

When Humphrey Bogart said to Ingrid Bergman at the Casablanca airport, “We'll always have Paris,” he meant, of course, the memory of Paris. When Picard said something similar to Jenice Manheim at the holodeck re-creation of the CafŽ des Artistes, he may have intended it more literally. Thanks to the holodeck, memories can be relived, favorite places revisited, and lost loves rediscoveredalmost.

The holodeck is one of the most fascinating pieces of technology aboard the Enterprise. To anyone already familiar with the nascent world of virtual reality, either through video games or the more sophisticated modern high-speed computers, the possibilities offered by the holodeck are particularly enticing. Who wouldn't want to enter completely into his or her own fantasy world at a moment's notice?

It is so seductive, in fact, that I have little doubt that it would be far more addictive than it is made out to be in the series. We get some inkling of “holodeck addiction” (or “holodiction”) in the episodes “Hollow Pursuits” and “Galaxy's Child.” In the former, everyone's favorite neurotic officer, Lieutenant Reginald Barclay, becomes addicted to his fantasy vision of the senior officers aboard the Enterprise, and would rather interact with them on the holodeck than anywhere else on the ship. In the latter, when Geordi LaForge, who has begun a relationship with a holodeck representation of Dr. Leah Brahms, the designer of the ship's engines, meets the real Dr. Brahms, things become complicated-

Given the rather cerebral pastimes the crew generally engage in on the holodeck, one may imagine that the hormonal instincts driving twentieth-century humanity have evolved somewhat by the twenty-third century (although if this is the case, Will Riker is not representative of his peers). Based on what I know of the world of today, I would have expected that sex would almost completely drive the holodeck. (Indeed, the holodeck would give safe sex a whole new meaning.) I am not being facetious here. The holodeck represents what is so enticing about fantasy, particularly sexual fantasy: actions without consequences, pleasure without pain, and situations that can be repeated and refined at will.

The possible hidden pleasures of the holodeck are merely alluded to from time to time in the series. For example, after Geordi has barged in rather rudely on Reg's private holodeck fantasy, he admits, “I've spent a few hours on the holodeck myself. Now, as far as I'm concerned, what you do on the holodeck is your own business, as long as it doesn't interfere with your work.” If that doesn't sound like a twentieth-century admonition against letting the pleasures of the flesh get the better of one, I don't know what does.

I have little doubt that our century's tentative explorations of virtuai reality are leading us in the direction of something very much like the holodeck, at least in spirit. Perhaps

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