What I loved about Barclay was that he showed there were still regular fucked up people in Star Trek’s future.
him and one of his deannas patients, the full telepath betazoid.
The creepy thing about Barclay wasn’t that he was using the holodeck for porn/sex. The creepy thing was that he was using his friends images and treating them like objects. Lots of people fuck in the holodeck I’m sure but most people wouldn’t go full creepy puppet master with recreations of everyone they know.
he turns them into fetishes. geordie did it with one of the scientists though.
Yeah I think what Geordie did was way worse actually. Barclay was just using the crews faces/likenesses, but he put them in absurd situations with completely different personalities. Geordie had the computer scan all of this lady’s public and private files, create as close a copy as it could based on that, and then fucked with her personality and removed her agency. He was a real fucking creep in that episode.
Bit strictly speaking, isn’t it unethical to create any virtual persons on the holodeck? They have shown again and again that they have self-awareness (see the holodoc).
The doctor was not a normal hologram, he had thousands of times more processing and memory capabilities and was designed from scratch specifically to [emulate] consciousness. He’s more like Data with a holographic body. The only other hologram that comes close was the Moriarty hologram that was created by the computer by accident and basically ended up taking like the entire processing capability of the enterprise IIRC. Normal holodeck characters are basically chatbots.
By the standards of Next Gen, we’re all starving refugees from a horrifying war-torn planet that would need years of therapy to recover from our harrowing ordeal. Giving one of us a holodeck would be the equivalent of giving a concentration camp survivor an all-you-can-eat buffet; it might literally kill us.
It nearly literally killed them. More than once.
I would end up causing one of the infamous “holodeck malfunction” episodes. Except mine wouldn’t be a result of the terrible design of the holodeck’s safety systems, but simply my urge to fuck with things.
“Computer, simulate a holodeck with safeties off while keeping the safeties on.”
“Computer, use the holodeck to construct an intricate simulation of the entire ship, including the holodeck and ship’s computer.”
“Computer, disable the safety locks and simulate a warp core breach inside the holodeck.”
“Computer, disable safety locks and simulate a world-spanning fire.”
“Computer, create a holodeck simulation of a holodeck. Have that simulated holodeck simulating a holodeck. Make that a hundred layers deep.”
“Computer, have the holodeck simulate both a holodeck larger than itself and a holodeck smaller then itself. Run both simultaneously.”
“Computer, create a simulation of Counselor Troi. Then create a simulation of Lieutenant Barclay pleasuring himself to that simulation. Then create a simulation of Counselor Troi psychologically analyzing the Lieutenant Barclay simulation. Then add another Barklay pleasuring himself to the the second Troy. Then and another Troi. Keeping doing this until the holodeck is full. Once operational and running, send an automated message to the real Counselor Troi and Lieutenant Barclay, in each other’s voices, asking each other to come to the holodeck for an urgent matter.”
Computer disable safety interlocks and simulate a wormhole back to the alpha quadrant.
There, sorted.
*cue IASIP music
How the gang got home with a vibe coded wormhole
Computer, create a simulation of the holodeck, but add mosquitos to any scene within. Do not indicate to anyone entering that they are in a simulation of the holodeck. Keep the program running while I leave until I say stop.
“Whenever someone starts to say the phrase, “computer end program,” generate a matching noise-cancelling sound wave at their lips before they finish saying it.”
Good one.
Black Mirror did an absolutely magnificent take on this in the episode USS Callister (in my opinion easily top three episode)
Now I want to see this, but I feel like I’ll regret it.
No it’s good. You’ll like it
Yeah, one of the few Black Mirror episodes with a “happy” (well for Black Mirror) ending. There’s also a sequel, USS Callister: Into Infinity.
barclay is a freak in the show, and irl apparently. tuvok did it uses it for sex, when he had pon farr one time.___
Funnily enough, when I bought a cheap VR headset, ca. 2020, I did try out the usual things like Google Earth, and, of course, at some point got curious about the, uh, adult contents. Who wouldn’t? Y’know, just to take a look…
But somehow, it is… much less erotic. People doing it in 3D is somehow much less cool and much more weird than regular old smut. I blame it on being too realistic for fantasy, yet clearly being not realistic enough for the real thing. The uncanny valley of porn.
I imagine a holodeck would be the same, maybe even worse. Just not working.
In this world, there’s absolutely no way that a holodeck isn’t going to be recording everything, and sharing those recordings with the government, targeting advertising clients, your mother, the HR department at your job, and anyone else who’s willing to pay for it.
I’m pretty sure characters in a holodeck can materially interact with you. So basically it should be quite realistic?
A holodeck gooner is still a weirdo in my book. Just go fuck someone, for chrissakes
So does a blow-up doll, and despite what yellow press is trying to tell us, Japanese sex bots haven’t stolen all the red light jobs yet. I guess some jobs are safe from AI, after all.
The holodeck is a bit more comprehensive at replicating reality than that.
I’d probably go the Mariner route: “I’m gonna work some shit out…”
Well, probably less “murder all my coworkers because therapy is scary” and more “morning workout routine Cardassian prison break” because I don’t hate my coworkers THAT much but I could totally see myself doing some “defend yourself/rescue the hostage” type stuff.
“Whoops, thought it would get me going in the morning by making my morning holodeck warm up a simulated version of the D-Day landings. Turns out while the violence was simulated, the PTSD wasn’t.”
Computer, 20% bigger.
I gained access to Minecraft, was bored by the lack of direction, and left after maybe half an hour.
Other people make CPUs in that game.
I won’t be Barclay. I’ll be like Riker with Minuet in “11001001”.
Maybe a holosuite, but if I’m on a starship, the wonders of the cosmos are definitely getting me outside every once in a while, at least when the crew gets shore leave if I’m not allowed on away missions
But like Risa though? Hard pass. I never understood the appeal. Maybe when you’re cooped up on a space ship for months at a time it makes more sense.
But yeah I’m definitely checking some cool space shit out.
Tell me you’ve never had jamaharon without telling me you’ve never had jamaharon…
Yeah, probably, at least most people. Though I suspect that real world holodeck technology looks more like the braindance from Cyberpunk than anything. No reason we know of we can’t build a computer to brain interface. Building a system capable of creating some sort of odd form of matter or projecting advanced forcefields (Star Trek uses both explanations) is, well, we don’t know if science even permits that in a practical manner. But I could see most people spending alot of their time in their own virtual world. Why not? You can make your real world existence very simple and spend your time in the virtual world living the most incredible life you can imagine - the sort of thing that real world constraints say only a few can actually experience for real. Or even stuff far beyond what you could or would do in the real world.
Yeah… for like five minutes. And four of those minutes would be smoking a holo-cigarette.
Scruffy’s gonna die the way he lived.
