tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post7710473596343725060..comments2024-03-27T08:49:38.786-03:00Comments on Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Star Trek #1455: Context is for KingsSiskoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-4991596612052943912017-11-01T11:00:46.747-03:002017-11-01T11:00:46.747-03:00Earth is a closed system though.
They explain it ...Earth is a closed system though.<br /><br />They explain it several times on the show, but it fails to make sense every time. I think yes it IS less believable than warp drive or transporters (if probably equally outside our reach, like time travel). Those are at least extrapolated from actual physics.<br /><br />Getting ahead of the reviews a bit here, but fungus that spreads roots through subspace, and creates spores with DNA that holds coordinates to which we can jump if only we can share DNA strands with said spores... It's completely nuts. Warp drive can be explained with a simple hand wave using armchair knowledge of sci-fi tropes. Spore drive requires too many new ridiculous concepts to work. In a universe that already has transwarp, wormholes, long-distance transport, slipstream drive, time travel, a psionic network (see Lethe, later), etc. you'd think there was a novel application of ONE of these that could have been at the heart of Discovery's experiments. It's like they so wanted to avoid anything the shows had already done that they stretched too far.Siskoidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08266365376486695812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-27261525262351586762017-11-01T10:39:50.597-03:002017-11-01T10:39:50.597-03:00We have a fungal network here on Earth that spans ...We have a fungal network here on Earth that spans the planet. Extrapolate that, and you have a fungal network spanning the cosmos.<br /><br />If we take science at face value, then the mycelium network doesn't jibe. The spores would have to exist at the Big Bang to cover the universe. However, there's no SF reason why panspermic spores couldn't eventually cover most of the universe by networking with existing spore networks or with help from spacefaring organisms.<br /><br />The Paul Stamets character is named for the real-life mycologist, who spoke with producer Bryan Fuller and the writing staff about his work and ideas. His TEDMED talk is interesting (and relatively short):<br /><br />https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world<br /><br />Some have speculated spore travel (or some variation thereof) being the method that Sloan used to seemingly appear out of nowhere to chat with Dr. Bashir.<br /><br />--DeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37940560.post-37478782449603978682017-11-01T08:52:44.184-03:002017-11-01T08:52:44.184-03:00Is the spore drive really more technobabble than w...Is the spore drive really more technobabble than warp drive itself, or transporters? We've grown so used to the latter concepts, we don't really think about them any more. I can kinda sorta see how "quantum entanglement" theorems might tie into the spore drive idea. And we've seen enough alien races use instantaneous teleportation over vast distances. Maybe Qs and Metrons and Caretakers use some variation of it...<br /><br />The bigger problem with the spore drive is one common to all prequels. Even though it's obvious it will inevitably fail, no doubt disastrously, it's inconceivable that any such quantum leap in technology would never have been mentioned in "later" series, at the very least name-dropped or rejected as a possible emergency option by Geordi or Data or B'Lanna, or that other races wouldn't have been working on it, or...snellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06181997862745538999noreply@blogger.com