I know this is how people in the 80s and 90 imagined the future and a lot of concepts were probably too far fetched for them.
BUT… why arent they using drones to explore planets? why are there not more drone-spaceships? why does enterprise need a crew to begin with? Why is there so little automation? Why so few uses of AI in general?
I am saying this as a star trek the next generation person. I’d also expect them to have full video and sensory streams of any surface mission teams.
The in-universe answer re: drones would be that people want to explore. Sure, it’s dangerous, but it’s also exciting, fascinating, and fulfilling. That said, I feel like a responsible captain would make much more extensive use of probes than any of the shows.
Re: data streams, I don’t have a good in-universe explanation. I have a similar question of why they don’t have security cameras in all the hallways and public areas.
Also, using the transporter to go down to a planet always runs the risk of some storm or an orbital threat stranding your party. Why not use the shuttle as SOP? It gives your away team more resources, both for their mission and for an emergency.
The cameras are more of a privacy issue that I imagine the Federation tries to uphold.
There was an episode of TNG where a “passenger” got onto ship’s comms and was contacting Picard on the bridge. When Picard told the guy that the comms were reserved for ship’s business, the guy asked why they weren’t restricted, if that was the case. Picard said that was unnecessary as people in Star Fleet generally just…behave themselves.
That did change overtime though. They mentioned in Lower Decks that they beefed up security after the Pakleds attacks, which leads to Boimler not even being able to open doors (or activate emergency systems lol)
That’s a totally insane explanation, though. Lots of people are on the ship at all times who aren’t members of the crew, and that’s before you even consider things like hostile boarding parties.
Most of the civilians present on the Enterprise fall into one of three categories:
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A non-Starfleet staff member, relative, or passenger, who would already know and respect etiquette regarding ship’s comms.
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A non-hostile foreign diplomat, envoy, or similar passenger, who doesn’t want to potentially cause a diplomatic incident by being rude.
I also recall lots of times where civilians used ship’s comms for various purposes, but it was to contact the person directly attending to them, or a friend/relative, not the ship’s captain. (It’s been years since my last rewatch though so I could be wrong here…)
As for hostile parties, IIRC it’s implied that the computer locks them out automatically, and in emergencies the captain can lock down the entire ship, which is how Data hijacked the Enterprise when he went rogue, and why it was such a big deal.
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It’s a military / government ship. There is no real privacy.
Everyone can read your personal logs if there’s a good enough reason. Anyone can just ask the computer where anyone is at any time. People can just barge into your holodeck program. Anyone, from civilians to bartenders can just call up the bridge and talk to the captain whenever they want. People are just expected to control themselves.
I think of it like how people don’t need to carry defensive weapons now, while a knife was very common in the past. People are just expected to control themselves and not rob random strangers today.
An important distinction is that they aren’t military. Government, yes. But SNW recently had an episode establishing that a crew member’s personal log is sealed and it took the crew member’s death and a surrounding investigation to unseal them. The Federation clearly values privacy.
So then the lack of cameras seems like a huge security oversight.
1 argument against the use of drones:
See also: any time an AI has been given command of a vessel (except Data, and even then he caused problems a couple times).
“That was the stun setting. This is not. I can reduce this pumping station to a pile of debris.”
—Data, the most sophisticated android in the federation, conducting diplomacy
Before that, M5 was one of the worst disasters in Starfleet history.
Please explain, this is a starfleet drone attacking a starfleet ship? Was the drone highjacked or just went rogue on it’s own?
Option B
Rogue AI hidden in code.
Thats drone ships going bad from lower decks
I can’t remember who said this in the show in Universe; maybe Janeway? But I think a similar question was posed, and the answer was that nobody would have anything to do if exploration was entirely automated. It’s fun and exciting and gives people’s lives meaning.
My headcanon is that many mundane things are automated, and we don’t see them because they aren’t plot-relevant.
They are mundane and automated until something goes wrong, then we get a holodeck episode.
No one’s going to watch a realistic exploration sci-fi show about small unmanned ships quietly going about their jobs with no drama.
You sure about that…
I’ve always said that Starfleet is, first and foremost, a jobs program.
It gives purpose to people who can’t find their own, in a time where your needs are provided-for by default, and seeking personal fulfillment is the purpose for most people’s lives.
Drones would cut out the human driving a shuttle over to inspect an anomaly or object themselves, robbing them of a sense of accomplishment and achievement. Starfleet is about that stuff, so that’s a no-go unless nobody wants to do it and it needs to be done anyway. We see that a lot, too. They do have probes and sensor stations and stuff, after all, usually in really boring and unfulfilling locations.
They have excessive, ridiculous redundancy. They have people doing jobs the ship computers could (and often, in times of need, DOES) perform very well on its own. There are several recorded instances of entire starships being successfully maintained for extended periods of time by a single individual (who does go insane due to isolation every time, because plot).
You forgot to add “Are they stupid?” at the end of the post title
😂
In a similar vein, I’ve been rewatching TNG and find myself thinking that they really should have put a cctv camera in engineering. Could have saved them a lot of trouble.
Why aren’t they using drones
They use probes all the time… Those are basically drones. But better.
Also: The Borg have several drones. 😏
I mean i just watch a the next gen episode where some science guy had created a rift in spacetime and instead of sending in a drone/probe they almost got Lieutenant Data killed. Another thing I was wondering why aren’t they backing up Lieutenant Data?
Having also recently seen that episode, they send Data in because he’s the only one who wasn’t confused by the time weirdness. Picard even tells him sending others would only slow Data down and if they should get hurt it would make the time sensitive mission even more difficult.
As for why they don’t have more Datas: They don’t even know how he works. The dude who made him and Lore died without sharing his research.
Oh I didn’t get that far, I do remember Data’s whole exploring his roots/dad episode from back in the 90s when I watched at the time. But haven’t gotten that far in rewatches yet. That would explain why they can’t back him up to hdd. They probably wouldn’t get all the permissions for all the folders right so a restore from backup would probably not work.
Actually… That kind of backup may be possible… 🤔
I mean, if they can accidentally backup real humans (second Riker, Scotty in the transport buffer, Broccoli turning himself into a super computer, etc), surely they could purposely backup the android. lol
One thing to remember, is that the concept of drones and AI, how we are currently developing and improving those, was not something people back then had on the radar.
In the original series episode I just watched, they reference that they’ve sent out tons of unmanned drones/probes to map out systems and planets, but starships are enormous and better equipped, so they follow up on any readings from the probes that seem interesting. If there’s an in-universe answer that isn’t “it makes better television”, I’d say it’s a combination of:
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Space is really, really big, so probes are only covering small areas anyway.
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Their mission is to explore and contact new life, which is more likely to be successful with a human touch.
Also, a lot of the niches served by drones are already covered by AI driven holograms. If you’re not worried about bulky hardware and can supply holo-emitters on the cheap via replicators why wouldn’t you?
which is more likely to be successful with a human touch.
Andorians and Tellarites: “Are we a fucking joke to you!?”
Vulcans: “We must expend great effort to suppress our feelings of amusement at all of you.”
*Federation civil war begins
Their mission is to explore and contact new life, which is more likely to be successful with a human touch.
Have you met us? ;)
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The Amazon drone wars of 2032 is still a touchy subject in the future
They tried to, but the exocomms became sentient and they couldn’t be used as slave labour anymore.
PIC touches a bit on this subject, spoilers ahead:
The first season has artificial intelligence and the attempts to (re)create a true artificial life form like Data as one of its main themes. Also an explanation why it isn’t and hasn’t really happened so far, anywhere in the quadrant(s).
There is also the stated reason that simply cataloging space with probes or so is not enough, mankind (and in extension, starfleet) consider in-person exploration much more rewarding and fulfilling, and a worthy occupation in itself.
As for data streams from their away teams, yeah that would certainly make sense. Even today’s military is essentially fully online. Camera and audio feeds, gps access, depending on the soldier’s function full drone control suites, various other situational devices.
They aren’t?
Enterprise sends out probes (drones) just about every other episode, especially in TNG. Almost everything is automated on the ship, controlled through the computer interface.
You probably hit it on the head about the limits of people’s imagination in the 80s/90s, but also I wonder if it had anything to do with Roddenberry and his opinions of what was / wasn’t going to show up in Star Trek? He famously forbid interpersonal conflict between federation people, making it annoying AF for the writers on TNG. Plus drone ships exploring everything might not make for captivating TV
You are right, it would remove all the stakes, but then I feel that is just bad/lazy writing, If you really went into such a future with your imagination, I am pretty sure it might even raise the stakes as there might be probes hiding/sleeping in places you do not expect or in general all of that while making exploring a planet more secure, it could then make for a great twist if all of the sudden a swarm of drones dropped out of hyperspace right on top of them.
I seem to remember at least one episode about a rogue drone missile (nuke?) of some type that they had to board / disarm, but yeah that aspect of things was really ignored. Same thing with space infrastructure / communication relays and all that, never hear about it unless its a hook for a specific episode…
I also don’t understand why they use elevators instead of just asking to be beamed to whatever part of the ship they need to go. At least the captain could probably be beamed around.
This drives my husband insane. He can’t figure out why anyone bothers to walk anywhere. Why do they still use bathrooms when you can just transport the pee from your bladder into the replicator recombinator or whatever?! I assume the transporters must use an amount of energy that makes it inefficient to use for every little thing.
transporters must use an amount of energy that makes it inefficient to use for every little thing. that makes a lot of sense
The same reason all the top ranking officers go on all the away missions; so the show isn’t boring.
They also don’t have armies in star trek, like, if it makes senses to send 5 armed people why wouldn’t it make sense to send platoons or batallions in some cases? it is always individual enemies they never seem to face entire armies on foot.
So, this one is a little more justifiable.
Phasers, and starships. And because ST isn’t about war; it’s about diplomacy.
With the exception of the Borg, there are no personal shields. One person with a phaser is a WMD; it’s a sweep-able, incredibly destructive weapon, and if you’re not interested in merely maximum casualties, it also has an effecting area-effect stun mode.
But the other reason is starships. Ignoring plot devices, orbital targetting is incredibly accurate and starship phaser banks can anihilate entire areas. If you tried to move an army across an area, it could be vaporized by a single enemy starship.
Either the enemy has superior technology, in case it doesn’t matter if you send 1 or 1,000 people; or they have inferior technology in which case you need only one person. And if you have air (space) superiority, you can level cities with even a smaller starship.
So ST is more like special forces making surgical strikes, sending in problem solvers and diplomats, and hoping nobody starts shooting in earnest.
Because phasers are OP.
a phaser is a WMD
I had no idea about this tbh they come of as very tame weapon, especially the whole stun setting part.
It can be used that way, sure, and the Very Civilized Starfleet uses them conservatively. But a beam weapon that is capable of disintegrating anything (unshielded) that it touches is crazy powerful. And those are only the hand phasers; we don’t often see the phaser rifles, but holy heck. If phasers scale like projectile weapons do, a single phaser rifle would be capable of vaporizing entire buildings, tanks, aircraft.
