• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Feature 101 etc. inevitably make us pause, wonder and reconsid- er. Indeed, it has been speculated that this universe Simulation Scenarios in the Star of ours is some form of computer simulation since Trek Universe Reject Solipsism forecasts by serious technologists and futur- ologists predict that enormous amounts of Victor Grech computing power will be available in the fu- ture [...] (t)hen it could be the case that [...] Introduction minds like ours do not belong to the original WE RARELY THINK to question the true nature of race but rather to people simulated by the reality, which seems unambiguous and clear to our advanced descendants of an original race. senses – a Materialist viewpoint. However, since (Bostrom 1) that which we sense and come to know comes about through a potentially fallible sensory interface, it The possibility of the mind being fooled into believ- may well be that the nature of reality is different ing in a false reality is an old SF trope, as famously to that which we perceive, experience, and take as depicted in Gunn’s The Joy Makers and more recently given. The Matrix Many thinkers have attempted to come to grips and Weir’s The Truman Show. with this contentious issue, and a short list includes inJones film suchet al haveas the posited Wachowski six hypothetical brothers’ simulation Plato, Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Mill, Heidegger scenarios – that is, theoretical alternative constructs and many others. The essential questions are: what of simulated reality: physical presence, intercept, constitutes reality? Is reality comprised of objective matter and energy that are directly accessible to our In Star Trek (ST), reality can be altered in two ways: mind through our senses? Does this then provide throughavatar, android, non-Federation infinite regression, techniques and and monism. through an accurate description of the very quintessence of Federation holodeck technology. The former may be things rather than their possibly imperfect repre- further subdivided into procedures that deceive the sentation as offered to us through our senses? Or is mind and techniques that truly transform the very our perceived reality constructed of abstractions, fabric of reality. Examples of such simulations will - be investigated within the ST universe which has de- riences? Guba and Lincoln (104) have neatly sum- picted almost all of these scenarios. marisedwith thoughts and categorised reified as thesesubjective questions concrete as follows: expe The discussion will then focus on how mind may be duped through the senses and how the possibil- Ontologically: What is the nature and form of ity of humanity acquiring holodeck technology may reality, and what is there that can be discov- ered about it? Epistemologically: What is the nature of the Non-Federationhave both beneficial Techniques and harmful consequences. relationship between the knower and what Deliberate Mental Deception can be known? The Intercept Scenario proposes a situation where- Methodologically: How can the explorer dis- in although we are in complete control of our con- cover whatever it is believed can be discov- sciousness, the rest, including our bodies, are ar- ered? Matrix-type setting. Several schools of thought have endeavoured to an- tificialThis isconstructs, precisely whatexisting happens solely to in Captain the mind, Picard a swer these questions, including idealism, existential- when an alien probe paralyses him and dumps his ism, pragmatism, phenomenology, logical positiv- consciouness into an alien setting, living out a life ism, metaphysical subjectivism, deconstructionism, in speed-up/acceleration as a member of an extinct and post-modernism (Stokes). Naturally, the very race. This process is an anachrony, one form of delib- characteristics of the arguments preclude any de- erate time distortion wherein narrative time is faster than time in the external world. After living out an finitive conclusions, but the increasing realism of 3D 28 SFRA Review 317 Summer 2016 SFRA Review 317 Summer 2016 29 high definition television and cinema, videogames, entire lifetime in twenty-five minutes of objective time, just before being returned to the Enterprise, of this. The inhabitants of this planet can read Picard is told, while still within the simulation, that our minds. They can create illusions out of a the aliens had person’s own thoughts, memories, and expe- riences, even out of a person’s own desires. hoped our probe would encounter some- Illusions just as real and solid as this table top one in the future. Someone who could be a and just as impossible to ignore. (Butler, “The teacher. Someone who could tell the others Cage”) about us. […] The rest of us have been gone for a thousand years. If you remember what The Original Series bridge crew also succumb to we were, and how we lived, then we’ll have - found life again. […] Now we live in you. Tell selves in the simulated western town of Tombstone them of us. (Lauritson, “The Inner Light”) (McEveety,aliens in a Monism“Spectre Scenario of the Gun”), when whereinthey find the them al- most voodoo-like belief that one has been shot by a An even subtler deception occurs when the Enter- pistol can be fatal, as happens to Enterprise naviga- prise is scanned by unknown technology and the memories of the entire ship’s crew are selectively acting the roles of Billy Clanton and the McLaury and partially erased. They retain practical skills and brotherstor Chekov. against The crewimaginary thus find Earp themselves brothers and forcibly Doc knowledge but expunged is all knowledge of per- sonal identity, the identities of anyone else, and the Fortunately, Spock realises the nature of their pre- ship’s mission. The ship’s computer is also affected dicament:Holliday in the infamous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. in this discriminating way, and an alien joins the - A fact, Captain. Physical laws simply can- fest (including a false entry that adds the alien as a not be ignored. Existence cannot be with- high-rankingbridge crew. Aftercrew significantmember) effort,and an the altered crew maniship’s out them. [...] we are faced with a staggering mission are located within the computer. The false contradiction. The tranquilliser you created mission, spurred on by the alien, is an attack on an- should have been effective. [...] His mind other alien command and control centre while main- killed him. [...] Physical reality is consistent taining communications silence. However, the alien with universal laws. Where the laws do not defences are no match for the Enterprise which sails operate, there is no reality. All of this is un- into close proximity to the command centre against real. [...] We judge reality by the response completely ineffective resistance. It is at this point of our senses. Once we are convinced of the that the crew balks and refuses to carry out their reality of a given situation, we abide by its fraudulent order (Landau, “Conundrum”). rules. We judged the bullets to be solid, the Some alien species appear to be able to alter the guns to be real, therefore they can kill. [...] perception of the nature of reality by mental means Chekov is dead because he believed the bul- alone, thus producing the Monism Scenario, such lets would kill him. [...] I know the bullets are “that although we are in control of our own con- unreal, therefore they cannot harm me. [...] sciousness, our bodies and the material world that The smallest doubt would be enough to kill you. (McEveety, “Spectre of the Gun”) ST, the initial pilot, clear- lysurrounds demonstrates us are this an whenartificial the construction” Enterprise crew (Jones en- Spock hypnotically convinces his colleagues of the counter2). The very aliens first with episode incredible of mental abilities. They unreality of the situation through a mind-meld, al- are able to create a perfect illusion. They had us seeing just lowingThe the bullets crew areto survive unreal. the Without gunfight: body. They what we wanted to see, human beings who’d are illusions only. Shadows without sub- survived with dignity and bravery, everything stance. They will not pass through your body, entirely logical, right down to the building of for they do not exist. [...] Unreal. Appearances the camp, the tattered clothing, everything. only. [...] Nothing but ghosts of reality. They Now let’s be sure we understand the danger are lies. Falsehoods. Spectres without body. 28 SFRA Review 317 Summer 2016 SFRA Review 317 Summer 2016 29 They are to be ignored. (McEveety, “Spectre of the Gun”) “The Nexus,” a non-sentient natural phenomenon, an Both Kirk and Picard find themselves trapped in Deliberate Reworking of Reality energy ribbon [...] travelling through the uni- Reality may be refabricated through the use of vague- verse. It’s a doorway to another place [...] It’s ly described machinery resulting in a Physical Pres- a place that I’ve tried very, very hard to for- ence Scenario, as used by the Trelane in “The Squire get. [...] It was like being inside joy. As if joy of Gothos” (McDougall) and by Barash in “Future was something tangible [...] and you could Imperfect” (Landau). In both episodes, Trelane and wrap yourself in it like a blanket. And never Barash abuse their technology and it transpires that in my entire life have I been as content. [...] both are equivalent to immature, small children. The I would have done anything, [...] anything to latter is an even more complex scenario as Barash get back there. But once I realised that wasn’t and his devices bury Riker, the Enterprise - possible I learned to live without that. If you go, you’re not going to care about anything. totally different realities, which he has to individual’s first of- [...] All you’ll want is to stay in the Nexus. And lyficer, penetrate. in several The Matryoshka-like reason why Barash layers sought of nested to retain and you’re not going to want to come back.

Load more

  7

Copy Link