Transporters: Is it just me, or do you disintegrate, and then get a clone that has your memories at the destination point?
Replicators: Are you aware that to create your sundae the way they do on the show, they'd need about as much power as they do to go to warp?
Sub-Space: What's with subspace anyway? It is WARP drive, doesn't that mean they warp space to make them go faster? What's with subspace?
Had this one game called Freespace which had Subspace, but the Subspace made me think more of hyperspace... and the way it worked made me think of Wing Commander, but we never do get a clear view as to what subspace is, or how it works in Star Trek.
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I'd say the current technobabble supports the idea that you move from A to B when transported, instead of being killed at A and a clone rebuilt at B. The technobabble speaks of a "phased matter stream" that is sent across space from A to B, so apparently your original molecules or quarks or whatnot move from A to B. It's just that they happen to be "phased" during the trip...
Apparently, the process of "de-phasing" and "re-phasing" doesn't take (or release!) quite as much energy as E=mc2 would suggest (since you aren't transforming the victim into energy, but into "phased matter"). So you don't need to burn a hundred kilos of antimatter to move an average person by transporter. Similarly, you don't need to burn 100 grams of antimatter to create a king-size sundae, because you aren't getting the sundae material out of thin air through E=mc2 - you are simply transporting it from holding tanks to the replicator terminal and rearranging it a bit.
And subspace, of course, is everything and anything - depending on story needs.
posted
Subspace, as a science fiction codeword for "freaky-space that's not quite within the four dimensions we're comfortable with," predates Star Trek by a bit. It's just hyperspace (n-space, foldspace, etc.) with a different name, I think.
Registered: Mar 1999
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In the novel Federation, Zefram Cochrane says, "I distort the continuum to change a small volume of it into something else where the restrictions of normal space-time do not apply."
That's about as good a definition of subspace (and why you can travel faster than light in it) as you're likely to find in a Trek source, even if it is non-canon.
-------------------- The difference between genius and idiocy? Genius has its limits.
Registered: Aug 2001
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Timo: Even if all your little bits are "phased" and transported, rather than being conveerted to energy, they're still getting shredded apart, so you're still dead.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Why? You're made out of the same stuff on the other end, and are apparently conscious (or at least imagine yourself to be) during the process itself. It seems to me we've got all the requirements for a continuity of consciousness, however unrealistic that may be.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Well, who defines "alive" then? If you're ripped into your constituent particles and you're still alive, then why can't you still be alive when you've been converted into energy? Supposedly, life has to do w/ neural activity, or a lack thereof. If that's the definition we're using, you're dead either way. When your brain has been torn into separate molecules and mixed all around, your synapses are going to be a bit too wide to work properly.
So, basically, what I want to know is why "being converted into energy" is defined as "dead" while "being cut up into the smallest convenient pieces" is defined as "alive".
Registered: Mar 1999
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In reality, I would agree with you, but we know that the mind keeps working during the Trek transporter process.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I think something to do with the Hisenburg compensators basically 'freeze' you at that point and time - molcules, atoms, quarks, synapses, chemicals, cells, hair, clothes, sundaes etc. and convert you to what ever move you through the ship and then down a path to your destination where you are reassembled - exactly the same as before - and when you are in the correct pattern, you are 'unfrozen' - you essentially think you are still conscious - and probably for a fraction of time at the start and at the end of transport you are (see "Realm of Fear" and "Wrath of Kahn". but for that split nanosecond you are 'frozen as is'. That also is probably why Scotty managed to keep himself alive for 75 years or so - he kept himself recycled in that 'frozen' state - which would normally be next to instantaneous for the transportee - ended up being several decades... as long as his 'pattern' didn't degrade and there was power available to keep this process recycled. Hmm - a new way for deep space travel in the 24th century!?!
I could just see Caretaker ok everyone into the Transporters! Next episode: "Endgame". (P.S. I haven't SEEN Endgame yet - I'm just using the name of the episode since it's the series Finale.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Hey, now there's a great idea. Have a series (really crappy anyway) and let it start one week and end the next with the final episode.
Why didn't they do this with Voy for real??
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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