Star Trek and History (32 page)

In the original series, Scotty is an engineer, but he does manage to help Spock with some of the technological problems on board. While Scotty knows more about engines and their warp drive functions than information technology, Spock regards Scotty as intelligent enough about computers to work with them when necessary. When any physical repairs need to be done to parts of the ship, Scotty is usually the one called to fix it. While he focuses on engines, he can and does fix other parts of the ship when needed, often getting the warp engines online in the nick of time to perform a miraculous escape.

In later series, such as
The Next Generation
, IT people become more necessary and common (probably because in our world and timeline, when the later
Star Trek
series were being produced, computers were becoming much more popular and widely used). Three excellent examples of this evolution of IT people are Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, Ensign Wesley Crusher, and Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres.

La Forge is, like Scotty, an engineer. Despite his title of chief engineer and his extensive knowledge of warp drives and the ship's engines, La Forge has the heart of an information technologist. On numerous occasions he proves his skill with the holodeck and its many programs, creating some programs himself. When the
Enterprise
-D is ensnared in an enemy's trap, La Forge creates a holographic program of Dr. Brahms, an engineer who helped create the warp drive systems for galaxy-class starships like the
Enterprise
-D. Together with the holographic program created for data in the ship's files, La Forge manages to free the ship (
TNG
, “Booby Trap”). In another episode, La Forge works alongside Data and manages to free the
Enterprise
from a destructive Trojan-like virus that enters the ship's computers through logs received from the USS
Yamato
(
TNG
, “Contagion”). La Forge does much more work with the ship's computer systems than anyone else before him, and that alone makes him worthy of being
Star Trek
's first real information technician.

Wesley Crusher is also skilled with computers. While performing a science experiment, he creates nanites, minuscule robots that reproduce at an alarmingly swift rate. They quickly become sentient and begin attacking the
Enterprise
. The fact that they are eventually powerful enough to stand a chance against the ship is a testament to their skillfully created design. Although the nanites do more harm than good, Crusher created an impressive piece of equipment (
TNG
, “Evolution”). Another good example of Crusher's aptitude is when an upgrade to the warp drive accidentally sends the
Enterprise
-D into another galaxy. Crusher, with the help of “the Traveler,” manages to get the ship back to the Milky Way (
TNG
, “Where No One Has Gone Before”).

From
Voyager
, B'Elanna is another great example of an information technician in
Star Trek
, and she is also an example of women participating in the field. Like Scotty and La Forge before her, she is the chief engineer of her ship. The directors who cast Roxann Dawson, who is Latina, as Torres made her a role model for minority IT professionals—as did the decision to cast Levar Burton, who is African American, as La Forge. Torres has to overcome some racial bias: she is half Klingon, half human. Torres is excellent proof that regardless of race or gender, one can be a great information technician. Although initially against naming Torres the chief engineer of the
Voyager
, Captain Kathryn Janeway decided to appoint Torres after Torres manages to help rescue the ship from being trapped in a quantum singularity (
VOY
, “Parallax”). Torres also has substantial knowledge of
Voyager
's technology and its capabilities. After blasting a hole through a nebula that turns out to be a cloudlike being, she suggests and implements the possibility of regenerating the wound by modifying a “nucleogenic” beam. She succeeds (
VOY
, “The Cloud”).

“Believing oneself to be perfect is often the sign of a delusional mind.”

—Commander Data,
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

There are a lot of different pieces of technology in the
Star Trek
universe. Some of them have been produced since the 1960s for mass consumption, including the personal data devices and instant communicators discussed previously. Unfortunately, some of the more amazing technology hasn't come to pass yet. While some of these currently unreachable technologies are only a few discoveries away, some exist very far into our future, or may never be developed. One of the greatest examples of these is the android Data.

Data is one of the most advanced technologies shown in
Star Trek.
He is a fully functional android, capable of performing almost all of the tasks any human would need to accomplish, and many more. On more than one occasion Data has even been the acting captain of the
Enterprise.
He has defended the
Enterprise
from aliens, other androids, and even its own crew. He also possesses the ability to learn (while this is shown in many episodes throughout the series, the episode “Inheritance” puts the most emphasis and explanation into the ability). Data proves to be a very interesting character.

Despite seeming perfect, Data is unable to feel human emotions without the aid of another piece of equipment: the emotion chip. While this prevents him from being rash in pressing situations, it also prevents him from making humane decisions on his own sometimes. He is designed to aid, but he does so logically, and without feeling. He also isn't always compatible with other technology. When La Forge proposes hooking up Data to the ship's computer as a sort of fail-safe backup system, the end result traps Lt. Worf and some other beings inside a defective holodeck program (
TNG
, “A Fistful of Datas”).

While Noonien Soong (creator of Data, Lore, and other
Star Trek
androids) seems to have understood humans enough to begin artificially replicating them, current-day computer scientists and programmers in our timeline do not. Data's movements are fluid, his speech is formal and eloquent, and his processor of a brain computes at almost twice the rate of a human brain.

Teams of scientists and engineers are currently working on different aspects of robotics and artificial intelligence around the world, but as of 2012, we do not possess any technology even close to that of Data. There are companies and institutes in Japan, such as the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, that are working on robots that can dance and move with little outside control.
14
Even so, their movements are limited as they are usually preprogramed. Meanwhile, there are other robots such as Roombas that are motion sensitive and can sense objects around them. They are not intelligent in the sense that Data is.

Since the beginnings of computer science, theorists have speculated about creating artificially intelligent beings like Data. Alan Turing, sometimes considered the father of modern computer science, predicted in 1950 that intelligent machines might be created within the next fifty years. He devised a test, the “Turing test,” which is a thought experiment in how to determine whether or not a machine possesses artificial intelligence.
15
The test has a human interrogator, a human contestant, and a computer contestant. The interrogator then uses a teleprinter to relay questions to the two contestants (in a different room). If the computer can answer the interrogator's questions in such a way as to make the interrogator unable to differentiate between the machine and the human, the machine “passes the test.”
16
Even the Turing test, in which a machine only has to mimic human speech, has proven too high a bar for artificially intelligent machines; none has ever passed it. An android with feelings and sophisticated, original, creative thoughts like Data is far outside the realm of what people in the present-day field of artificial intelligence think a machine can do.

One of the biggest hurdles to overcome in robotic/android design and implementation is the re-creation of the five senses. Touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste are all extremely difficult to simulate artificially.
17
A robot can be programmed to react when a pressure plate is activated, simulating one aspect of touch. In fact, such devices are easy to buy online, and they can be seen in iPads and other touch products. But there's much more to it than just registering a touch. Even adding a temperature sensor isn't enough to make it more human. How does one go about making it feel pain or having it differentiate between textures? These are the complications with touch.

Sight is even more difficult. What makes a human “see”? How do we translate that to mechanics? If you add a camera to a robot, does it see? Perhaps programming it to write what it observes to a graphic file can help, but even then it must be programmed to “understand” the data, or else it's just a snapshot. A robot would also need depth perception and the ability to understand opacity and whether or not the robot can move through a substance. Designing a robot that has the sense of sight is not an easy task. One university in the United States that is doing research on how to get a robot to actually perceive its surroundings is Fordham University. They currently run different tests in their robotics labs, such as using “Terrain Spatiograms” that use various sensors to map out an area, effectively allowing the robot to read its surroundings and to make the information accessible to other machines.
18

There are many different devices in our world that are sound activated. We have GPS systems, phones, even stereos that respond to the sound of someone's voice. Following that logic, it shouldn't be too hard to get an android to respond to sound. However, responding to and actually “hearing” sounds are two entirely different problems to solve from a programming standpoint. Once again, it's the challenge of “understanding” that is the real issue. In
The Next Generation
Data was able to hear and understand a situation, and then act upon it. In our universe it is hard enough to program a phone to accept the word
call
. Companies such as Sun Microsystems are intent on closing the gap between “accepting” and “understanding” verbal commands. Sun has various codes set up for programmers to use to incorporate voice recognition into their own creations.
19

Perhaps the closest thing the world has right now to a supercomputer necessary to do all of these things is IBM's Watson. It “understands” natural language, which in layman's terms means that it can pick out important keywords in a question or statement and search its immense database for an answer that seems to correspond to every keyword registered. Watson can't move, nor can it hear or see. Despite these limitations, it is the epitome of robotic progress. IBM is currently trying to push Watson further by implementing enough processors to hold 120 petabytes of memory.
20
A petabyte is approximately one quadrillion bytes. To put things in perspective,
Star Trek
writers in the 1990s gave Data a memory capacity of 100 petabytes (
TNG
: “The Measure of a Man”).

Watson may not be the “missing link” between current computers and Data-like androids (except in terms of raw memory), but it is more closely related to the EMH (emergency medical hologram) program found on the USS
Voyager
in
Voyager.
While Watson does not have the ability to become a hologram and directly interact with people, IBM hopes a Watson-like computer will soon be used by hospitals around the world. Watson's ability to locate and use keywords makes it an excellent companion in medical fields, especially in diagnostics. After someone enters a few symptoms of a patient, the computer will respond with a few possible causes of an illness. The more information that it receives, the better the chance that its diagnosis will be accurate. This would vastly improve the amount of time spent on trying to accurately diagnose a patient.
21

Another interesting advanced device that the
Star Trek
universe has that ours doesn't is the holodeck itself. IMAX theaters can create the illusion of being in a different time period or location, and our 3-D capabilities enhance the feeling, but compared to the holodeck found in
The Next Generation, Voyager
, and
Deep Space Nine
, an illusion is all it is. Unlike the holodeck, there is no way to interact with the illusion.

Throughout the various series, the holodeck is used in multiple ways. It contains many different programs, and it has the ability to produce some solid replications of actual matter, such as food. It has been used as everything from a swimming pool to a Wild West simulation. Although preprogrammed with seemingly hundreds of scenarios and uses, it can also be programmed to specific needs, as seen when La Forge creates the holographic Dr. Brahms.
Voyager
also uses the EMH, which exists as a separate entity from the holodeck. The holodeck is a useful technological advancement that doesn't exist yet.

“I am Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile. Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward you will service us.”

—Locutus of Borg (Captain Jean-Luc Picard),
TNG,
“Best of Both Worlds”

The hivemind is upon us. I bet you were just thinking the same thing (see how it works?). If you think about it, is there really a difference between Mark Zuckerberg and the Borg Queen? Both have made it far easier than normal to connect with other people. They both give us one set design to identify ourselves. While Zuckerberg gives us a web page with a limited way to creatively express ourselves, the Borg Queen wishes to fit us with brain-sapping headgear to take away all of our individuality. However, some of us are only one Farmville request away from losing our free will anyway. If the Borg from
Star Trek
resemble anything in contemporary life, it is Facebook.