• Gork@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    This is the reason I don’t like materialization/dematerialization transporters. Not only do they have the risk of coordinate failure like in the meme, but also:

    1. The person on the other side isn’t guaranteed to be the same person when rematerialized. There’s the ontological argument that when you’re dematerialized, you die as your physical form is eliminated and that the person appearing on the other side is merely a clone of you, but not you.

    2. Alien interference or environmental contamination can mess up the person on rematerialization. Even small changes can alter the delicate brain chemistry we meatbags have.

    3. Being stuck in the ship’s memory buffer while it verifies an open teleporter slot can’t be very fun or comfortable.

    This is why I only support non-dematerializing wormhole based travel where spacetime itself opens for you to enter. Less chance of mistakes.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        11 months ago

        How about all those many scenes where someone grabs a transported person to make a quick last minute getaway.

        So the computer was programmed and targeted for just one person but at the start of the transport sequence all of a sudden two people are now part of the transport.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago
      1. The person on the other side isn’t guaranteed to be the same person when rematerialized. There’s the ontological argument that when you’re dematerialized, you die as your physical form is eliminated and that the person appearing on the other side is merely a clone of you, but not you.

      Ah, the ship of Theseus O’Brien.

      • embix@feddit.de
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        11 months ago

        As most of the human cells die and get replaced within a few years, humans are already beings of Theseus.

        • MjolnirThyme@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          11 months ago

          Roughly every 7 years for most of the body, major organs tend to take longer, more like 10. Your brain replaces cells at a way slower rate, you’ll only Theseus your brain about 80% at best if you live a long healthy life.

          • embix@feddit.de
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            11 months ago

            Yeah, there is a wide spread in distribution. Some blood cells, skin epithelium and some gastric cells only live for a few days.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The first ever Star Trek tie-in novel, Spock Must Die, dealt with the implications of the first issue you brought up when Spock is accidentally duplicated by the transporter.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        11 months ago

        Except the Stargate also dematerializes you. Also there’s no way of guaranteeing that the gate on the other end is open and there’s apparently no safety protocols to ensure that it is so you could open the gate and then step through and just die.

        Oh you know it could be underwater.

        Or in space.

        Or around a black hole in which case you die even if you don’t enter.

        Really they’re actually quite dangerous technology and definitely not safe.

        Also sometimes they accidentally time travel you

        • Steve@startrek.website
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          11 months ago

          You know what? You’re right. I still think Stargate is a superior tv show, but the transporter is safer than the stargate.

        • JWBananas@startrek.website
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          11 months ago

          Also sometimes they accidentally time travel you

          As I recall that was one of the problems with Carter’s control interface. A proper DHD shouldn’t have that issue.

          At least that was the case until it happened again in the Pegasus galaxy. But Stargate never was great about canonical continuity.

  • MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    To be fair, this is the kind of bomb I’d totally expect O’Brien to say jokingly

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    I have one of those mugs. Not in that color. It is a HotJo travel mug. It’s the best mug I’ve ever owned. I’m on my second because I accidentally dropped the first I had for about 10 years. Sadly, they don’t make them in black anymore and the ones I’ve seen on eBay that don’t have a shitty logo on them have really expensive shipping, so I’ve made do with a white one. I didn’t even realize they used them on DS9 until I was doing a rewatch one day.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I should start paying attention to the props used on Star Trek when the shows are new so that I can buy something I like when they’re still sold new, instead of searching around for them after-the-fact.

      (I bought a pair of Nike sneakers off Ebay for cosplay a few months ago. Luckily they weren’t expensive, but they were used and I had to settle for ones a half-size larger than what actually fits me.)

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s definitely interesting what the props and model people found from everyday objects.

        In the very first show of our first season (recounts Roddenberry) (“The Man Trap” by George C. Johnson) we needed some salt shakers because we had a creature that craved salt, we had a story point which required the creature (disguised in human form) to give himself away when someone passed with a salt shaker on a tray. This posed a problem. What will a salt shaker look like three hundred years from now? Our property manager, Irving Feinberg, went out and bought a selection of very exotic looking salt shakers. It was not until he brought them in and showed them to me that I realized they were so beautifully shaped and futuristic that the audience would never recognize them as salt shakers. I would either have to use 20th century salt shakers or else I would have to have a character say, “See, this is a salt shaker.” So I told Irving to go down to the studio commissary and bring me several of their salt shakers, and as he turned to go, I said, “However, those eight devices you have there will become Dr. McCoy’s operating instruments.” For two years now the majority of McCoy’s instruments in Sick Bay have been a selection of exotic salt shakers, and we know they work, because we’ve seen them work. Not only has he saved many a life with them but it’s helped keep hand prop budget costs low.

        http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2009/01/dr-mccoys-sickbay-on-original-series.html

        For example, when the Enterprise is in Dry-dock a small utility vessel passes by. It is actually a broken toy robot foot embellished with throw-away razor handles glued to it. We didn’t have much time and used whatever was available to do the job. The makers of everyday objects do a great job of precise industrial design and manufacturing. If you can look at things independent of their actual size you will discover that the world is filled with space ship parts.

        https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Shuttle_drone

        • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I was “propmaster” for my buddy when he was making films (just some small ones, we had a tiny crew so propmaster is really overselling it I was the guy who knew how to make shit. Also held the camera. biggest we ever got was selling a short to HBO and that was because he won a big festival. Mad props to him) and this is legitimately how we’d build our props. If it wasn’t already something we had laying around we’d head over to someplace like ACE hardware and look for cheap stuff that looked neat and we could glue/weld/bolt/whatever together and then paint. Made some really cool props that way.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I appreciate the heads up. That price tag, though, just makes me appreciate the practicality of my “Starfleet athletic wear” cosplay even more. (FYI, it’s pretty awesome to be able to show up at a hot summertime convention wearing a T-shirt, jogging pants and sneakers and still have it “count” as cosplay. Way better than, say, TWOK or later-season DS9 uniforms, let alone the nonsense crazy people from other fandoms wear in the heat.)

          • StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website
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            11 months ago

            Fluevogs are very well made and last for years. Definitely worth it from a quality/price perspective.

            Depending on where you live in North America, there’s likely a John Fluevog location where you can try them on before buying.

    • limelight79@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Though that wasn’t established to be O’Brien, for the initial accident, I think.

      Great username, by the way.