Arthur C. Clark
so the following can be categorically as magic:
- food replicator
- beam transporter/tractor
- holodeck
Q
Also, that guy who fucked with the warp drive in TNG to make the Enterprise go stupid fast and himself became transparent in the meantime
The Traveler!
Shows up, warps the crew to the center of the galaxy, refuses to elaborate.
Also in Voyager when they went so super stupid fast it turned them into giant horny sex salamanders. 🦎
that was some uwu shit
It’s comforting to know that humanity will remain horny even in salamander form
I remember reading that the transporter was added to TOS mainly to speed up storytelling, with the technobabble behind it being expanded on later. Then replicators/holodeck put in TNG because it made sense based on similar technology. So basically you’re exactly right, it is magic
Yes, transporters were originally made to avoid the high production costs of models, which would have been necessary to use for shuttles back then.
Very smart imo.
Smart in one way but it did cause a lot of storytelling problems because they constantly had to come up with half baked excuses for why it wasn’t working this time when just using the transporter would solve a major problem without fuss.
A much better implementation of transporters, from a storytelling point of view, is in Stargate, where the various versions of the technology all have pros and cons.
The ring systems are point-to-point only but they can punch through a lot of interference. The Asgard systems work more like the Star Trek systems but they’re much more easily interdicted.
We just need a Heisenberg compensator. Then we can make all of those things work.
When Walter White buys an F-350.
We’re there already. Look no further than your smart phone. You can’t explain that to someone from 100 years ago and have them come away with anything more meaningful than “magic”.
I always like the idea of traveling back in time with a smartphone to show someone in the past and then have to go “look it works better with an internet connection”.
Basically all I’m going to be able to show them is a bunch of apps that don’t work.
I suppose the screen will be impressive but that’s about it. They will be confused about what it’s for.
