Star Trek’s level of medical care is far more advanced than today’s. As Beckett says in LD, “Doc will wave a light over it.” Yet, in Star Trek people aren’t shown doing hobbies and pastimes that are much different from what’s done now. Still, I wonder about differences in a society where people know they won’t be laid up for months for doing or trying something that some folks of today might look at and say, “nope, too dangerous.” Injuries will still hurt, there’s a big difference between say, a broken leg taking months to heal and possibly multiple surgeries, and Star Trek’s healing of a broken leg in a matter of hours.
I’m trying to think of what I’d do differently if I had access to Star Trek level medical care. There are things I want to try, but I look at sideways because of the possible injuries. It’s mild, but one thing I think I’d try again is skating. I injured my knee roller skating at a rink years ago, and that knee is still a problem. That injury left me skittish of skating. If I knew an injury from skating (within reason) could be an easy fix, I would have given it another go.
Is there a pastime you’d be more willing to try, or try again, if Star Trek level medical care was available?
In an early episode of the Orville, Gordon and Isaac get into a prank war which culminates in Isaac removing Gordon’s leg. This is treated as going a little bit too far but ultimately harmless and funny.
In Star Trek, they tend to prefer to mitigate risks protectively with things like anti-grav harnesses and holodeck safeties, except for exceptionally reckless individuals like James T. Kirk and Jason Vigo.
In that episode of the Orville, Gordon was able to get a new foot grown fast enough that it wasn’t really an issue.
In contrast, in TNG, Worf sustained an injury from a relatively minor industrial accident which left him paralyzed and could only be fixed by a radically dangerous and experimental medical procedure. In Voyager, Vidiians stole Neelix’s lungs and it took a Vidiian to alter one of Kes’s lungs to become compatible.
I don’t think the Federation’s medical technology is that advanced, especially with the banning of genetic manipulation.
Edit: And here I am forgetting about Nog’s amputated leg, which was not a perfect regrowing and caused Nog to experience phantom pain from his severed limb.
The Union’s medical technology is notably more advanced than the Federation’s, yes. Dr. Finn would have Pike up and walking in an afternoon.
They seem to be able to repair homogenous tissue extremely quickly, but complex micro-structures are much harder to produce. Nerves, lungs, all complex.
Heck even producing Romulan ribosomes was beyond them.
The Union’s medical technology is notably more advanced than the Federation’s, yes. Dr. Finn would have Pike up and walking in an afternoon.
What about the opposite of that, though?
Permanent injury and disability is unlikely. Chronic pain is likely a nonissue. Most of the unpredictable diseases can be sciencemagick’d away. Even old age, you’ll still be mobile, active, and happy. Long, thriving lives are the minimum expectation.
In a world where medical technology is so good that only “natural” death will get you in the end, and one where there’s no resource constraint forcing you to a stressful and awful life with no opportunity to thrive, everyone kind of has a lot more to lose. I might be more willing to do something “risky”, but not if that risk contains “risk of immediate death” because there’s no fixing that.
Though whether this is the way human psychology works… who knows.
Yeah, it’s the old story of the immortal who refused to cross the street. The kind of risks that someone expecting to die by 80 would take are much different than risk assessment of someone expecting to live–comfortably, with their mind and body intact–to at least 160.
They have low key revived people right after death. Just not tasha yar
I’d take up white water kayaking if I could just walk into the infirmary and get it taken care of.
Stuff lik torn ligaments in your arm will still need to heal naturally if you overdo it, though. As we see with O’Brien.
Oh, that sounds amazing. I agree.
Honestly, it would just be nice if that kind of tech could rid me of my (at times excruciating) chronic pain.
I’ve reached the point – years ago – where it has become truly debilitating and there are days and longer periods where I can barely perform any physical action. It is frustrating and my quality of life would improve dramatically if I did not have that constantly hindering me in my daily life.
Forget “dangerous” hobbies; I might actually be able to have a social life again and see my friends or go out to see a movie or go shopping!
@Nmyownworld Nothing I can think of. My hobby(arboriculture) is pretty dangerous. I just do my best to minimize risks.
A holodeck would be a game changer though. While perhaps not truly dangerous with safeties on, doing Worf’s calisthenics program, or recreating historic battles where you meet on a field with sword and shield would be hugely fun and intimidating, even with the safety factor.
I wouldn’t count on the safeties. They are constantly fucking up in one way or another.
That would be great fun, doing holodeck combat simulations. With me having the danger level set very, very low. Like when I’m new to a combat video game. I start with the difficulty level as low as possible. Enemy NPCs are whaling away on my character, doing little to no damage while I try and remember which button does what in the game.
I think the pastimes I’d want to try would likely kill me so Bones isn’t going to be able to fix me, e.g. freestyle mountain climbing, skydiving, bungee jumping.
I get the siren call of skydiving. Part of me is, “flying through the sky, wind blasting, amazing scenery.” Another part of me is, “Girl, you are talking about jumping out of a perfectly good plane.”
That’s my thought. There are a few things I can think of that come with a significantly higher risk of injury than death, though. I’d go hiking and camping more often (and in more places) if I didn’t have to worry about ticks and mosquitoes spreading disease. And if I could carry an effective antivenom, that would open up more of the world as well.
I’d try some harder mountain bike trails if broken bones were easy to fix. Of course you could still suffer a fatal head injury, but with a good helmet I’m more afraid of smaller (but still life-altering) injuries.
I don’t have hobbies and barely leave the house now, so does a yes still count there? Honestly cut out the paperwork, travel time, and multiple visits and pretty much any scifi medical treatment would work for me… be it automated, vats, comas etc.
Some of my problems could likely be solved by today’s tech (at least significant relief), but not much hope of that when a place I want to go to doesn’t even have a website (or more generally, call-centric appointments etc).
I think it’s the pain of receiving high medical bills which keeps me (and most other US citizens) from doing fun/silly/stupid/risky things…
@rasterweb @Nmyownworld yeah, same response. If ST level care was available, and *free,* you bet your sweet patooty I’d be doing more fun stuff. Amazing things, like getting teeth pulled/replaced, or, y’know, getting my diabetes meds. Ahhh… If only we lived in the future Roddenberry imagined.
@Nmyownworld Probably not. That said I have a feeling that Mensur would be in again
I took fencing for a time in school. No one like being paired with me because they thought I was too aggressive with my fencing. Maybe they were right. Everyone else liked to do, “and one, and two, and three,” fencing. I admit to being very, “let’s go!” while still staying within the taught techniques.
If star trek medical care (which implies star trek economy + society) existed and were THE thing, I would be doing so sorts of cool shit. Like… Just wear a helmet and don’t die instantly and you’ll be back to normal in a few hours? COUNT ME IN. Shit. I might even become a doctor just to see cool shit knowing that I could actually help people.
Well, considering there are still people in wheelchairs in Star Trek, guess I’d still be in one.
I like the inclusion (in the show), but I would hope that paralysis was cured that far in the future.