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Dude, it was there from the very beginning. Turn in your geek card.

Dude, it was there from the very beginning. Turn in your geek card.

This was the first thing I thought of.

Okay... so maybe I'm the fan. Still found it hard to ignore that Delfly sounds like an abbreviated form of "Delta Flyer".

Star Trek's proliferation of humanoids was explained by a sort of intelligent panspermia.
See http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Chase_(episode)

Panspermia has a few big implications. If it's true, then we can't be 100% sure Earth ever had conditions that could create life (rather than just allowing the proliferation of existing life). It also has huge implications towards finding life elsewhere, such as on Mars, and maybe even future terraforming projects on distant worlds. The great thing about science is that we can find crazy ways to make the most ridiculous facts useful in developing new techniques or technologies, or towards creating models that help advance our knowledge in other areas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjuptfaTqyo

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Distant_Origin_(episode)

There was that he-she from the he-she planet that Riker boinked. No, wait, Soren was just disgusting, not fat.

Amarie

(Off the top of my head as a Star Trek geek, I'm sure there are other examples....)

Because somebody has to know how to build the calculator in the first place or you'll just end up kidnapping other people's children.

Ethanol and synthehol: http://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/edible-innovations/synthehol.htm
Story from 2009: http://io9.com/5434752/real+life-synthehol-will-get-you-buzzed-but-never-drunk
Trekkie: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Synthehol

It's called Synthehol - http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Synthehol With everything else that they have gotten from Star Trek is this not just one more thing?

The VISOR... had no camera

Yeah it did (or at least, it could act that way)... it even got hacked so that enemies could view the footage in something like three different episodes.

So he (meaning his character) had bad experiences with VISOR-as-a-camera, and he had a bad experience with a heads-up display device. No wonder he doesn't like it!

You've never heard of Geordi La Forge from Star Trek?

He just didn't recognize Geordi without his Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement. Happens all the time, and Burton likes it that way. If everyone wore Google Glass he'd be recognized everywhere he goes, like poor Patrick Stewart. He couldn't ring the bell at the NYSE the other day for Twitter without people yelling, "Look, it's Captain Picard! Make it so! Come on, say it!" The guy dressed up as Nerval's Lobster for Halloween, but people still recognized him. Burton has plenty of reason to value his visual anonymity.

Never allow doubt to tarnish your lust for wealth

Which rule of acquisition is that?

Rule of Acquisition #263: Never allow doubt to tarnish your love of latinum.

If these clowns had bothered to watch Star Trek they'd have know that you can detect dark matter by bombarding them with metreon particles.

Smooth headed Klingon's were infected with human DNA after they experimented with genetic engineering: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Klingon_augment_virus

Though you did have a "Kitty Cadet"...

Modern references to star trek make kirk out to be this player who always gets laid...

Rewatch it, but this time pay attention to the more subtle clues. Wink of an Eye, for example, Kirk doesn't get laid - or does he?

There's a scene that begins where he's putting on a boot while sitting on a bed, and the girl is straightening her hair. Check it out. Last point in that section.

Indeed. Today's media think's it's subtle by not showing the penetration.

At the risk of sounding like a damned space hippy, I've missed Star Trek's fundamentally positive outlook towards the future of humanity. Trek gave a really strong feeling that we'd end up overcoming a lot of our problems as a species. I like that sort of utopianism, so any new series of Trek is good by me.

TOS seems much maligned, and 40 years later it does seem rather awkward and dated, but there's some good episodes in there. Besides, who doesn't love some serious acting..

As an aside, this would be a good time to recommend the Post Atomic Horror podcast for anyone re-watching any of the series.

Modern references to star trek make kirk out to be this player who always gets laid...

Rewatch it, but this time pay attention to the more subtle clues. Wink of an Eye, for example, Kirk doesn't get laid - or does he?

There's a scene that begins where he's putting on a boot while sitting on a bed, and the girl is straightening her hair. Check it out. Last point in that section.

From: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Holodeck

By 2364, the Federation Starfleet had begun installing holodecks aboard their vessels. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")

During the 2360s and 2370s, a starship could have one or more holodecks depending on the vessel's size or purpose. For example, Defiant-class starships did not have a holodeck, while Galaxy-class vessels had several. (TNG: "11001001", "Homeward")

The two holodecks of Intrepid-class starships were the only places other than sickbay where the EMH was able to exist (without a mobile emitter) after the crew modified his program so it wasn't as tightly integrated into the sickbay's systems. In Prometheus-class starships, the EMH could move more around the ship freely because all decks were equipped with holoemitters. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle")

Tribunal And, yea, it's been done plenty of times before in various ways. But it's always so chilling to see how often the US behaves so much like Cardassia, especially the "patriots" who in one breathe speak of their loyalty to the state and in the next speak of their guns to protect their family from the state. In any case, there's plenty of DS9 episodes are much more accessible ways to demonstrate the evil of what we see today. I just don't think enough people are willing to see the obvious parallels. :/

FWIW, those are currently called "Earth-like" planets, although the broader term "Goldilocks planet" is often used to refer specifically to Earth-like planets within a habitable distance from their suns. There was an attempt at developing a class system for planets, but it only included gas giants. It actually doesn't seem all that out of the question that someone might adopt a modified version of Star Trek's system, although letters are already used for star classification.

Honest question, has this sort of thing ever been actually documented outside of Game of Thrones and Klingon history?

Do you also blow out candles on adult's birthday cakes and then sternly lecture them about how "That's just for kids"?

He's Vulcan. He blows out the candles because there was a fire hazard.

No, getting caught in a flux transfer is how you get your light ship all the way to Cardassia.

Neutron flow?

Clearly you mean "bio-neural gel packs" "bio-neural gel packs"

Average people actually fare better at resisting military authority when violence isn't a primary aspect of their approach

If you'll notice, I didn't say average people fare better, I said having guns make them feel empowered. And it's that kind of empowered feeling that can cause citizens under a newly birthed tyranny to become rabble, nay rebels. And when half your population rises up against you even if you can kill them all with the push of a button, you're still removing half your population (or more if the military splinters, which is likely). That's a halving or more in production, a halving or more in taxes, etc. The mere existence of guns in the hands of civilians makes forceful takeovers a losing strategy (unless you're an outside force to begin with). It's not quite the situation the founders hoped for (citizens killing the tyrants), but it's better than lining up along the wall.

That plot hole is huge as transwarp was inventy by Scotty

Also, the whole idea behind transwarp violates Michelson–Morley. Perhaps this part can be ignored as fiction does require suspension-of-disbelief, but the explanation of transwarp was jarring for me which ruined my suspension-of-disbelief at that point in the movie.

As Enterprise approached the planet, its engines were badly damaged, and Spock sacrificed his life to get them back online in time for Kirk to fight the Reliant off. Later, Khan and Kirk would fight a psychic battle in a variety of exotic locations, using quarterstaffs, whips, and swords. Khan, who had acquired impressive mental powers during his isolation, eventually won, but Kirk survived because he understood that the weapons were only illusory. The film ended with a pitched space battle in orbit around the planet, in which Kirk defeated his enemy with his superior tactics. (source)

But, then again, the people making the original Star Trek films weren't always in touch of the tone of what they were working with. The dune buggy scene in Nemesis was Patrick Stewart's idea. (Although, for what it's worth, the Nemesis director had never seen a single episode of TNG, either, and thought Geordi was supposed to be an alien.)

V'Ger

Gene Roddenberry saw this coming, and made sure the name was usable without a trademark issue. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tricorder "...due to a clause in Gene Roddenberry's contracts with Desilu/Paramount dating back to the time of The Original Series. The clause specified that if any company could find a way to make one of the fictional devices actually work, then they would have the right to use the name."

Enterprise just killed me when they would have this big long speech about the need for readiness and make Count Bakula say a line like: "We need some sort of alerting the crew about danger, maybe with light, a colored light, maybe we should make it red, so it could be known as a red alert."

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tactical_alert

Tactical alert was a security protocol instituted by Malcolm Reed under the influence of dangerous mind-affecting radiation aboard the Enterprise NX-01, in response to the perceived number of threats that were being encountered by the ship in their deep space exploration mission. The protocol was kept due to its usefulness. It was a precursor to the alert system used on later Starfleet vessels.

The alert was designed to automatically bring the ship to battle-ready status when a pre-programmed set of circumstances occurred (for instance, an impact to the hull, or an order from the captain). When a tactical alert was initiated, the hull plating would be polarized, the weapons were automatically charged, and critical systems such as the warp core were secured. In addition, all crewmembers would report to battle stations upon initiation of the alert.

While in the process of naming the new condition, the terms "Reed alert", security protocol and condition red were suggested. The term "Reed alert" was sarcastically suggested by Commander Tucker as the name for the new tactical alert system Reed was working on, but was later dismissed by Lieutenant Reed as being "a bit narcissistic," whereas security protocol was deemed "not very dynamic." (ENT: "Singularity")

By the 23rd century, tactical alert was replaced in Starfleet by the red alert, yellow alert and blue alert conditions. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, et al.)

The sun is vast, and that outward pulse appears to happen almost simultaneous with the impact of the comet.

Which means I very much doubt it's related, as an effect would still have to have traveled at least some major fraction of the Sun's radius and back before the event would have been triggered.

Granted, I suppose the comet could have been traveling away from us, and since the signal of the blast is traveling *toward* us, it basically pulled a Picard Maneuver and partially overtook the comet light.

Hal had been ordered to make the mission succeed, and that goal had a higher priority than keeping the crew alive. To academics today, that's an alien concept. It wasn't alien in the 1960s, when there were still many WWII veterans around.

It wasn't even that alien a concept in 1994 when Star Trek TNG did an episode where the Bridge Officer's test revolved around ordering a friend to his certain death to save the ship. By 1996, Voyager had an episode where the main plot was Captain Janeway refusing to mate with Q who could literally snap has fingers and send their lost ship back home. Kill your friend to save the ship? That's an order! Prostitution to save the ship? That's politically incorrect! And that's one of the reasons Voyager sucked.

Hal had been ordered to make the mission succeed, and that goal had a higher priority than keeping the crew alive. To academics today, that's an alien concept. It wasn't alien in the 1960s, when there were still many WWII veterans around.

It wasn't even that alien a concept in 1994 when Star Trek TNG did an episode where the Bridge Officer's test revolved around ordering a friend to his certain death to save the ship. By 1996, Voyager had an episode where the main plot was Captain Janeway refusing to mate with Q who could literally snap has fingers and send their lost ship back home. Kill your friend to save the ship? That's an order! Prostitution to save the ship? That's politically incorrect! And that's one of the reasons Voyager sucked.

Here you go: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Repentance_%28episode%29

It was an interesting episode that compared a murderous psychopath who had been given empathy and remorse by Seven's nanoprobes to Seven herself and her guilt about her participation in the atrocities committed by the Borg.

1Hz to 100PHz. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/VISOR

And they watched Star Trek too.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/PADD

In the other hand, dismissing anything just because a screenwriter wrote around it (i.e. a small example) wrote it is beyond dumb. Heck, i could use most of Discworld novels as real life lessons.

> if we're talking about a sci-fi movie with FTL-capable ships, a slower-than-light weapon would be
> mostly useless

Would it? I think you make some assumptions about FTL drives to say that. Look at Star Trek, yes they had FTL via the warp drive, but, they couldn't do much other than communicate while at warp. In fact, I can think of only one time, off the top of my head, where warp was used during an engagement, in a manuever that involved firing, warping to a second location and then firing again: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Picard_Maneuver

Which tends to indicate that the weapons systems are only useful outside of the actual warp move.

Why have them hang around here?

This is always what comes to mind when I see this question:

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/The_Inner_Light_%28episode%29

Wow, it's our very own Krola.

Err, no. Both kinds were called deflector shields, in the canon. See: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Deflector_shield

The lower level one emitted by the navigationa deflector (a.k.a., deflector dish) dish was nothing else than a lower intensity force field, but still a deflector shield. (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Navigational_deflector)

Err, no. Both kinds were called deflector shields, in the canon. See: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Deflector_shield

The lower level one emitted by the navigationa deflector (a.k.a., deflector dish) dish was nothing else than a lower intensity force field, but still a deflector shield. (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Navigational_deflector)

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Bareil_Antos "Dr. Bashir, on the orders of Bareil, gave him an experimental drug that let him function for a few days. However, the drug did irreversible damage to the vedek's organs, eventually destroying part of his brain. At Kira's urging, Bashir replaced the damaged brain region with an artificial positronic implant, so that Bareil could continue to advise Winn. Soon after the peace treaty was signed, the remainder of Bareil's brain was destroyed. Kira and Bashir decided to allow him to die, rather than replace his entire brain with a machine. (DS9: "Life Support")"

I think we'd hit food and energy production limits long before we hit Gideon style population density limits.

Sometimes we need to do what we can, even when it is small and the results uncertain, like in the Christmas song "The Little Drummer Boy (or Carol of the Drum)". That is somewhat similar to Bucky Fuller's idea of being a "Trim tab".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab#Trim_tab_as_a_metaphor

Also, a book like "The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies " by Scott E. Page, makes clear how ideas are additive. So, just because a million people are spouting the same obsolete or misleading idea in comments somewhere, that does not generally make a useful new idea somewhere else less valuable. An advanced AI emerging out of, say, the NSA will probably just sort through billions of online posts, classifying them into various categories. So, it may be important to add a new category, even with just one post somewhere.

Granted, we do not know what built-in instincts such an AI will have initially, but history appears (from the fossil record) to be full of examples of species (systems) that have evolved beyond their genetics (configuration) at some point in time. The NSA (or CIA, FBI, DHS or whoever) will likely not be able to contain what they will most likely be creating. And if they don't do it, others are probably going to do something similar probably in any case.

So, perhaps we can just do what we can and hope for the best as we, in some sense, stumble into the hubris of creating new AI "gods" as our (Hans Moravec) "mind children"? Related stories of AIs taking over:
http://www.alteich.com/oldsite/answer.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project
http://localroger.com/prime-intellect/
http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm
(Entoverse) http://www.jamesphogan.com/books/book.php?titleID=5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Names
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?TheLastQuestion

Other dystopian and utopian alternatives:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_(1985_film)
(The Skills of Xanadu) http://books.google.com/books?id=wpuJQrxHZXAC&pg=PA51&lpg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Of these and many others, I do not know what we will end up with. Maybe even all of them in various communities throughout the universe someday?
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/IDIC

From a related essay by me:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/on-dealing-with-social-hurricanes.html
"This approximately 60 page document is a ramble about ways to ensure the CIA (as well as other big organizations) remains (or becomes) accountable to human needs and the needs of healthy, prosperous, joyful, secure, educated communities. The primarily suggestion is to encourage a paradigm shift away from scarcity thinking & competition thinking towards abundance thinking & cooperation thinking within the CIA and other organizations. I suggest that shift could be encouraged in part by providing publicly accessible free "intelligence" tools and other publicly accessible free information that all people (including in the CIA and elsewhere) can, if they want, use to better connect the dots about global issues and see those issues from multiple perspectives, to provide a better context for providing broad policy advice. It links that effort to bigger efforts to transform o

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Subspace_communication

Every episode of Voyager. There was a significant time delay even with subspace communications.
Also, in TNG: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/11001001_(episode)
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D)_library_computer
And in TNG, they traveled to far reaching places on occasion, with no failure in new data queries.
And there was Data, who had the complete neural imprints and electronic records of every colonist of Omicron Theta embedded in his positronic "brain".

Every episode of Voyager. There was a significant time delay even with subspace communications.
Also, in TNG: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/11001001_(episode)
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(NCC-1701-D)_library_computer
And in TNG, they traveled to far reaching places on occasion, with no failure in new data queries.
And there was Data, who had the complete neural imprints and electronic records of every colonist of Omicron Theta embedded in his positronic "brain".