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Old 02-12-2022, 03:51 AM
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February 10th, 1992, "The Masterpiece Society"

No fiver

The Episode

Captain's log, stardate 45470.1. The Enterprise has been diverted to the Moab sector to track a stellar core fragment of a disintegrated neutron star. Our science teams have been asked to monitor the planetary disruptions it may cause.

Neutron stars themselves are the cores of supergiants expelled by supernova, themselves some of the densest stellar objects. They don't really "disintegrate", they either stick around or collapse into black holes.

Actually if a neutron star is a member of a binary system, the neutron star could accelerate the aging of their companion. At best this thing could be the remnant of the companion star after some sort of collision with something else.

A stellar core fragment also appeared in "The Naked Now", one wonders why they recycled the premise. The purpose could be achieved with a meteor shower threatening to impact with the star and creating a radiation burst.

PICARD: The fragment will have serious effects on your planet within six days.
CONOR [on viewscreen]: Yes, I know. We have been tracking it. But our biosphere has been constructed to withstand quakes of eight point seven on the Richter Scale.

The biggest earthquake on record is 9.5. Even in earthquake-intensive areas buildings are rarely built to withstand even a 7.

DATA: The fragment has a density of one hundred billion kilograms per cubic centimetre.

Neutron stars have a density of 10^17 kg/m3. Data just said 10^18 kg/m3. Shouldn't a fragment be LESS dense?

PICARD: I'm afraid we're going to have to evacuate your people.

I had a whole screed about the capacity of E-D and how many trips it would take to evacuate, but since we never got the population of Moab IV it would be rather pointless. However, we definitely got the impression that this isn't one of those sparsely-populated TOS planets, we have to be talking about millions of people at the least. Even if there was a planet close enough to evacuate two sets of people a day, that's a small fraction of the population.

PICARD: We are capable of matter-energy transport.
CONOR [on viewscreen]: Matter-energy?
PICARD: We can take you directly through the structure.
CONOR [on viewscreen]: Really? That's quite remarkable.

They'll later say that they left Earth two hundred years ago. Enterprise will say that they had transporters back then, even if it was only for cargo in the earlier days. They should be aware of the concept.

MARTIN: (an older man) This is a mistake, Aaron.
CONOR: Good Lord, Martin. What would you have me do?
MARTIN: Anything that would keep them out of here.
CONOR: We have nothing to hide.
MARTIN: We have a great deal to lose.

I've never been a fan of this "preserving our way of life is more important than preserving our actual lives" thing. It happens way too often.

CONOR: You see, this is an engineered society.
RIKER: Engineered?
CONOR: Genetically engineered. Our ancestors came from Earth to develop a perfect society. They believed that through controlled procreation, they could create people without flaws and those people would build a paradise.

Just because the people are genetically engineered doesn't make the society itself "engineered". When I see "engineered society" I think excessive socialism, which doesn't seem to be the situation here. Although I dispute the idea that your perfect career can be determined by genetics. This whole nature vs nurture debate could've been addressed.

MARTIN: Frankly, yes. No one in this society would be blind, for example.

You claim to have bred out all possible genetic factors for blindness and other handicaps? I'm dubious about that, I would find it more plausible that they have the habit of aborting handicapped fetuses, but of course they wouldn't get away with that in 1992.

CONOR: We've achieved a fully integrated existence. Not just among ourselves but with our environment. We don't just live here, we're a part of our environment. it is part of us. Every plant life, every microscopic lifeform is part of a master design. We cannot separate ourselves from it without irreparably altering who and what we are.

I find this disturbing. You can't possibly anticipate all possible interactions between species, or the affect of genetically modifying one species on the others.

CONOR: Not at all. My entire psychological makeup tells me that I was born to lead. I am exactly what I would choose to be. Think of it another way. Are there still people in your society who have not discovered who they really are, or what they were meant to do with their lives? They may be in the wrong job, they may be writing bad poetry. Or worse yet, they may be great poets working as labourers, never to be discovered. That does not happen here. It is, for us, an ideal existence. We will not give it up easily.

I'm all for educating people about the pros and cons of possible careers, but taking personal liberty out of the equation is also disturbing.

HANNAH: I've worked up a few schematics based on gravimetric potentials and deflector energy allocation.

Gravimetric potential? That just means an object's potential energy that comes from being at a higher elevation, it has nothing to do with this scenario.

HANNAH: Your ship. What kind of energy output is it capable of generating?

12.75 exawatts. That's 12.75(10^18) watts. The United States as a whole is 1.12(10^12) watts. Yikes.

LAFORGE: We can move a small moon or an asteroid, but a stellar core fragment? That's much too massive for our tractor beam.

You can move a small moon? You tried and failed back in "Deja Q", remember?

LAFORGE: A multiphase tractor beam?
HANNAH: When we first spotted the fragment approaching, I came up with the idea, but we can't generate the kind of energy we would need. You can.

I think the idea is that they're going to layer multiple tractor beams on top of each other, each with its own phase. How they are supposed to pull this off is beyond me. I wonder if the warp core is still tied directly into the deflector dish and they could use Wesley's repelling tech.

LAFORGE: It won't affect her DNA at all. There's been over a century of evidence to prove that.

Actually two hundred years if Enterprise is to be believed.

PICARD: They've managed to turn a dubious scientific endeavor into dogma.
TROI: You don't approve of genetic engineering.
PICARD: It was a bad idea whose time is long past.

We could have quite the conversation about the similarities and differences between what Khan did and what these people are doing. Frankly I have a bigger problem with the part where they imply that your entire life is set in stone and your personality is altered to like it.

PICARD: They've given away their humanity with this genetic manipulation. Many of the qualities that they breed out, the uncertainty, the self-discovery, the unknown, those are many of the qualities that make life worth living. Well, at least to me. I wouldn't want to live knowing that my future was written, that my boundaries had been already set, would you?

As Kassidy would say, our only boundaries are those we create for ourselves. And that's the real problem; these people have voluntarily placed themselves in rather narrow boxes because science says that it's a good idea. I kinda wish that they'd ditched the genetic modifications and focused solely on the "our tests can find a person's ideal mate and job" part.
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mudshark: Nate's just being...Nate.
Zeke: It comes nateurally to him.

mudshark: I don't expect Nate to make sense, really -- it's just a bad idea.

Sa'ar Chasm on the 5M.net forum: Sit back, relax, and revel in the insanity.

Adam Savage: I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

Crow T. Robot: Oh, stop pretending there's a plot. Don't cheapen yourself further.
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