As fun as the holodeck sounds, you need a security camera in their at all times. Seriously, if you can’t see what is happening, someone might die.
Well, obviously it is based on Linux. What, you don’t want root access to your holodeck?
At least you don’t need a Meta account to access the holodeck!
Oh! Edit! That’s the Ferengi model!
“Disable the safety protocols”
“That functionality is not permitted”
“Sudo disable the safety protocols”
“Okie dokie”
“Disable the safety protocols”
“That functionality is not permitted”
POP! hisssss “Computer! Observe verification can consumption”
Fun fact: In universe the OS is called LCARS or Library Computer Access and Retrieval System. The name and how they use the computers are largely due to the main lore building happening in a time before PCs were ubiquitous and mainframes were still the norm.
They were still outputing paper tape in the TOS era. Almost like they had to relearn computing from first principles at some point.
Yep. The ship computers are basically terminals that are sub-space connected to the mainframe, called Memory Alpha, in San Francisco, where Starfleet is headquartered.
In the TNG episode Descent, Data tries to run a physically dangerous experiment and turn off the safety protocols, but this time the computer requires 2 officers to authorize it. I guess they finally got smart after a few years?
Or the ships computer doesn’t see Data as an actual officer.
The racist bastard.
Racist? It’s Machinist!
Maybe it was just that dangerous to let data fuck around with the holodeck.
Wait, disregard I’m thinking of Geordi and Barclay
Haha maybe Picard had set it up to only say that to Data.
Everyone else was allowed to do it.
The answer is religious purposes, notably Klingon and presumably Jewish ceremonies with one being explained in the show and the other is me just assuming they probably don’t have all the religious centers onboard but could generate any of them in the holodeck.
What Jewish holidays are we celebrating that require the holodeck be turned off??? Are we bringing Haman back for some reason?
A moyle which is traditionally done in Temple with family but many religions have done form of bloodletting or ritual combat/painful physical contact. Like say for instance they got a dude from that tribe in Africa that use those trippy ant filled reed gloves, the pain has to be real and the danger has to be real or they couldn’t be considered a man. For any of these to work safeties would have to be off to accomplish them.
I’ll stick with the pain sticks.
Nah, in the future they just use the teleporter and a deft hand.
Always use protection!
If you turn off the safety protocols can you get a HSSTD (Holo Space Sexually Transmitted Disease)
What episode is this lol
Deja-Q
At the very end of the episode
Just watched it lol
That, and why do the doors not have a manual override?
I think they do but the problem is finding them
It’s also getting to them. Holodecks appear larger than they are because as you move around the projections move with you.
And they can even isolate individuals inside the holodeck in smaller “rooms” that move the projections relative to that person so people can be spread around in the virtual space while remaining in the room.
Because apparently getting your balls stomped on by the tall vampire lady from Resident Evil counts as “unsafe.” She knows my safety word, how is that not safe?
My headcanon is that the holodeck is basically like a big replicator that you can play around inside. It can effectively create anything from the molecules up. That’s why you can drink alcohol in a simulated bar, for example. Most of the time the holodeck is just used for fun.
If you went into the replicator for a camping trip, you might want to boil some water over the holodeck “fire”, but most of the time it would be a simulated fire that didn’t get hot enough to hurt you because of the safety protocols. It could simulate the look of the boiling water over the fire, and let you pour that into a teapot. Then, it would simply replicate some tea, earl grey, hot, into the teapot (at a safe, drinkable temperature).
In that case there’s really no need to disable the fire or boiling water safety protocols.
But, what if the ship was damaged while out in deep space and couldn’t easily get back home to a repair dock. You’d want some way to repair it. As far as I can remember, they’ve never shown the ship to have a machine shop, so maybe that’s how they use the holodeck. Since those situations are really rare the holodeck is mostly a place for people to play around, but in a disaster you see its primary purpose.
For certain things, it can just replicate them directly, like say some antimatter conduit, it’s just a room-sized replicator that can create big items. They even show the holodeck having a huge doorway, instead of just a normal person-sized door. Since the holodeck can simulate big things, presumably you wouldn’t need to say drive a dune buggy into the holodeck because it can just create one inside. So, maybe the big doors are for taking things out of the room.
Maybe you don’t need to disable safety protocols for that. You just say “replicate an antimatter conduit”. Then Barclay and Jordi can carry it out through those big doors and put it where it needs to go.
But, there seem to be some things that can’t be created by a replicator. I assume latinum can’t because otherwise why wouldn’t the Ferengi just create as much of it as they wanted. Also, if you could just replicate dilithium, a lot of problems would be solved, so presumably you can’t do that.
But, maybe you can build a dilithium repair machine, or something like that. Now, if the crew is training how they’d use that kind of a machine shop in a disaster, maybe the safety protocols would be on, and out of the simulated machine would pop a simultated dilithium crystal. But, if there were a real disaster, you’d need a real machine, with dangerous electricity, dangerous antimatter, who knows what else. So, in that case, the holodeck becomes a machine shop where you turn off the safety protocols and real physics happens and you can do whatever’s necessary.
They aren’t replicating things in the holodeck (though food/drink might be a special case, as well as smells), it uses holograms and force fields to simulate what is seen, heard, and touched. Taste/smell would depend on how fine the holodeck’s control is, as that’s not just a touch-based thing, but touch with a specific chemical interaction between our cells and the substance touching them. The holodeck would either need to fake that interaction or fake the signal in our brains telling us what that interaction felt like.
The safety protocols are likely just rules on how much a hologram (or rather the force field making it feel real) can enter your personal space (it’s fine to press a bit on skin but you don’t want to pierce into it), how much force can be used to interact with you or subject your body to, probably rules about those chemical interactions (if the holodeck is capable of simulating those) or what chemicals it will replicate (if that’s the mechanism it handles taste/smell with), and acceptable environmental parameters like pressure and temperature.
I wonder if realistic holodeck safety protocols even allow for sex. Not because I think they are prudes but just thinking about how to simulate sex using holographs and force fields makes it seem risky to do at all. Like how would one determine the exact position of the skin in contact to be sure it feels pleasurable and doesn’t do things like getting too close and pinching parts it is supposed to just rub up against. The sensor array that would require might be unrealistic on its own, let alone the processing you’d need to do to handle that in real time.
I’ve always seen it described as a mix of holograms and replicator tech.
What you say about the holodeck could make sense, but, for whatever reason, they frequently make a point that things can’t be carried out of the holodeck… except when someone gets soaked in the holodeck and walks out wet meaning they did incidentally take something out of the holodeck.
Of course, even if very large and with pretty big doors, probably not big enough for any equipment they might need. Since the replicator technology is like the transporter tech, it would stand to reason they could just replicate something to anywhere they need, without having a dedicated area where replicator stuff must come from. Of course then you get into why do they even have cargo room transporter pads, or transporter pads at all, why is ‘site to site’ transport the exception rather than the norm? Why do they have to ‘go to the replicator’ to get their food instead of it materializing right on their table?
Then you get into Voyager where they got extra weird about things being “holographic” as a kind of whole distinct state of being…
Well anyway, short answer is repeat to yourself 'It’s just a show, / I should really just relax.
But yes, the safety protocol off for some actual experiment is ok…
The official Treknobabble explanation, seen in the TNG Technical Manual and other official media, is that most of the stuff on the holodeck is holographic and can’t be carried outside but some stuff (like food and drink) is replicated matter you can really eat and drink. The “mostly holographic but sometimes it’s replicated” explanation also covers the occasional on-screen inconsistency like when someone in an episode threw a snowball out the holodeck doors into the hall, or when someone fell in holodeck mud and left footprints in the corridor as they left.
That’s pretty much it. The common explanation is “light and force fields”, with some replication for spice.
The holodecks must flow
they frequently make a point that things can’t be carried out of the holodeck
Yeah, in my head that’s a “safety protocol” thing too. I know it’s not really consistent with anything, but it’s just an explanation I like.
Of course, even if very large and with pretty big doors, probably not big enough for any equipment they might need.
In my head there’s no reason why it couldn’t just be a normal human-sized door like any other door unless they needed it extra big for some reason. Maybe the ships are designed with standard parts, so anything they need to replicate in the holodeck can fit through a standard-size cargo door. But, the explanation is probably really “the show’s designer thought that door looked cooler for that room”.
why is ‘site to site’ transport the exception rather than the norm? Why do they have to ‘go to the replicator’ to get their food instead of it materializing right on their table?
Yeah, if you really think about it, it all starts to fall apart. My thought was along the lines of “energy budget” and/or “margin for safety”. But, like you said, it’s a show, I doubt anybody really spent much time justifying it or thinking about it.
why is ‘site to site’ transport the exception rather than the norm
You know the episodes where they have to bring pattern enhancers and shit to get a lock on folk to beam them up?
My headcanon is that all that shit is built into the transporter pad as a safety/emergency thing, but you only really need it on both ends when the connection is shitty. And no one wants to end up confined to a beep chair
“Beep chair”. Nice reference.
The machine shop was a plot point in prodigy iirc
Dont they dock for repairs in TNG? Its like a Die Hard episode or something, with Picard in the McClain role.
Yeah, mostly they dock for repairs. But, if I were the captain of an explorer ship going out into the depths of space, I’d want some way to do basic repairs out in deep space if necessary. In the modern world that’s how things tend to work. Ships dock for repairs, but they also have machine shops on board that allow them to do the basic repairs necessary to get back to a dock.
It’s like the SafeSearch off option in Google Chrome
BDSM fans of course
Because safety protocols would inherently be a software issue and you might need to turn them off to calibrate it from time to time. Also, what might be safe for one species could be dangerous to another.
It runs on linux so it’s just one sudo away.
That’s what it is for:
When you really just need to empty a Tommy gun into a guy.
So you can pull out emergency Tommy guns if the ship ever gets boarded.
Clearly you are someone who knows where the line must be drawn.
How else do you expect to use it against the Borg?
Would You expect them to replicate real machine guns? Are you crazy?
Picard out here making ghost guns.
I love the term ghost gun
Would You expect them to replicate real machine guns?
“We are an advanced race of super-intelligent networked computers. We have solved the problem of your primitive laser pistols by creating a deflection shield that can be tuned to the frequency of the beam within a few minutes of its use.”
“Okay, but I’ve got a high velocity shard of metal that I can launch through a long tube.”
“Does not computer! Does not computer! We are defeated!”
It’s the Stargate’s replicators logic… That I’m sure is a joke about the Borg.
Now imagine putting a localised emitter on a t1000 terminator type program on an enemy ship
For those…extra spicy…holodeck programs
Sigh… time to change out the holodeck biofilters again…
