Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side sim: Holodeck - Journal Club (open thread)

Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side sim: Holodeck - Journal Club (open thread)

Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Side sim: Holodeck - Journal Club (open thread)
Posted by… suppressed (13) by the Post Ghost! 👻

—SNIP—

“Maybe, but it still seems inaccurate given its apparently-beneficial effects.” Caelian shrugged, chuckling. “Still waiting for the other shoe to drop on this one.”

Giving his band another double-tap, a small halo of holographic information encircled his thought etched brow. A few quick gestures produced an ephemeral image of the virus in question on his left, surrounded by relevant data regarding its make-up; another gesture moved it to the periphery of his vision so that he could focus on the other grouping of data. That grouping even to someone outside the field of quantum programming appeared as pure computer system coding; anyone with actual experience might recognize snippets of the GALEN source code mixed in with augmented fragments. Caelian’s fingers tapped a rapid but silent staccato on the air above his lap as he worked while talking.

“I’m not sure it would be something requiring sympathy,” he noted as he worked, “since it’s considered in-fashion in its source system, and doesn’t carry any negative after effects associated with comparative intoxication—again, assuming it doesn’t have any side effects. Computer coding that improves your system, even temporarily, is usually called a ‘patch’ or ‘update’ because its purely beneficial to the system. Viruses are detrimental at best and malicious in the worst case.”

He gave Captain Taylor an impish grin. “Do you have another shoe to drop, sir?”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

Surra stared at Grayson and Weir then said, “Why is everyone talking like you are still on duty? We are here to socialize, take our minds off work for the time being. Give your brain a rest.” She waved her hand in the air as she said the last sentence. “I am going to have to prescribe some enhanced form of SSRI, to get you to relax. You all remind me of my cousin, Pilar. That woman is way too serious even is social situations. I keep telling her just because her husband is engrained that way doesn’t mean she have to be. But I guess that is what happens when marry a Vulcan.” She also grabbed some of the nachos and mentally noted that she would have go to the holodeck and run a 6 mile simulation course after this little gathering ended. “The virus probably isn’t real anyway. I don’t trust any information coming out of that galaxy.” She chuckled then said, “I have heard things about Daliahnax you don’t even want to know about.” Shaking her head, she picked up a nacho and crunched on it.

Almikaz, CoP

“I agree, let’s leave rank and position at the door. But to answer your questions so far in all of the trails there hasn’t been any side effects and it’s called a virus because apparently it was discovered by accident when they were working on a vaccine to their latest strain of flu. It’s not legal outside of that system yet but it was an interesting thing to discuss I thought,” she grinned and looked around. “Anyone else have something to share?”

Willow Taylor
Off duty

Oscar sighed. So, it was called a virus because it was literally a virus, and everyone else was debating semantics. He was almost glad that the Captain - er, Taylor, whatever - had shut down the discussion before it derailed.

She smiled and said, “Y’all hear that? Rank and position at the door.” She pushed her nachos to the side, looked at the Captain, and said, “So they are trying to keep it all to themselves. It figures.”

She shook her head and said, “In other news, I heard that there are Synthetics floating around this universe that you can’t distinguish from an actual organic human or any other being. They have organs and blood! And are said to be so advanced that they have the ability to rid that entire universe of all organic life. Actually, that is their goal. Scary right?”

Almikaz, CoP

“If their physiology so closely mimics actual biology,” Caelian murmured, sweeping the virus data away with a gesture to concentrate on his coding, “I wonder what the quality is that makes them ‘synthetic’. At the fundamental level, we’re all machines whose programming is originally dictated by our DNA and augmented by our environment. Even our starships run on systems routed through quasi-organic components like gelpacks. If you really want to sift into the nitty-gritty of life, we’re more akin to energy-based lifeforms in a self-contained electromagnetic field.”

He paused for a moment to snag a small finger sandwich, chewed on a thought. “There are any number of things out there that could wipe us out, but I’m more interested in whether or not they want us gone. If it’s their goal, the question becomes why haven’t they? Has Starfleet attempted contact yet?”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

“That’s oddly reductive, Mister Weir,” The Grouch said. “Honestly, I think what makes them synthetic is probably that, regardless of their physiology, they reproduce via manufacturing instead of biological processes. As to having the ability to eliminate all biological life, and that this elimination is their goal - the universe is vast. It is entirely possible that they do, in fact, eliminate all biological life they encounter, and simply have yet to encounter us.”

Oscar took a sip of his coffee before adding on to the thought.

“As for contacting them - why would we actively try to meet with a civilization which presumptively desires our destruction? Seems foolish, really.”

Caelian frowned, a bit disappointed, but there was no point in speaking up. The whole point of them being out here was to understand and explore, and to uphold Starfleet’s directive of peace. Why wouldn’t Starfleet attempt a dialogue and sue for coexistence? They’d done it before, after all, even at the risk of inviting ruin. Klingon, Romulan, Breen, and even the bloody Borg! And if peace couldn’t be found, then something could be learned from the encounter rather than just rolling over and…

Shaking his head, the engineer crammed the remaining half of his sandwich into his mouth to stifle his ire.

Cascarrabias paused for a second, then realized something.

“Where did you even get this information, Almikaz?”

Oscar Cascarrabias
Still The Grouch, Off Duty

“Ah…I knew you were going to ask,” she pointed at the chief engineer. “Well on my way here to the Ogawa, my shuttle made a stop at Starbase 277 or what we now call the Black Rock. I got off, did some exploring, talked to some of the locals, you know doing the whole catching up on what’s happening in this part of the galaxy thing. A bartender mentioned this bit of news to me as I was enjoying my spiked Plomeek Tea at one of the bars. I, of course, asked him where he’d heard such news and he said, a week before I had arrived, the USS Atlantis made a temporary stop there, and apparently, this was a big topic among the crew. However, no one was supposed to hear them talk about it, but obviously, they were blabbing about it.” Surra shook her head as she continued, “I said to the bartender, “Oh so you happen to hear the conversations though?” and he said “Yes! Look at my ears, I am Vorta. We hear everything. Even things we are not supposed to.” I told him he needs to stop listening to everything because he is going to hear something he really doesn’t want to hear one day.”

Surra looked at the Captain and said, “So Captain, what is your take on the synthetics stuff. Do you think it’s just a rumor or have you heard anything about it?”

Almikaz, CoP

Nearly choking on his tea, Caelian chuckled, “Didn’t you just chide me for nodding to rank, senorina?”

Willow had gotten up for a refill of her strawberry mojito and slowly sank into her chair again as Surra spoke to her. “I’d heard rumours in the past of such advancements but purely theoretical. Interesting that it seems to have developed so far along the lines that they are indistinguishable from humans. Wasn’t it Kirks enterprise long ago that encountered that planet of androids who could transfer human consciousness into an Android body? Is that what we are dealing with do you think or something entirely new?”

Willow Taylor
Off duty

Alexis looked up from the PaDD in her lab. “Life is life. Synthetic is really more akin to inorganic life. It is not our place to decide who lives or dies, that makes us no better than the Q that put humanity on trial to decide if we would be allowed to live or die. We know how we feel about that. If there is a planet out there settled by synthetics it’s beyond our directive. The Prime directive prohibits us from interfering in the internal affairs of other species. They are another species and therefore we can not interfere with them.” She looked over at Taylor, “And that has improved significantly, Captain. Ira Graves managed to transfer his consciousness into Lt Cmdr Data and then into the Enterprise computer. If the case is of a biological humanoid transferring their consciousness into a synthetic life, how do we determine where the ban lies?”

Bonner, AMO (what is off duty?)

Pondering carefully Willow nodded along while Alexis spoke. “You make a valid point. I had forgotten the Graves situation but now that you mention it I vaguely remember reading a report regarding it.” She sipped her drink. “How do we determine such a thing…I can see that getting messy quickly.”

Willow Taylor
(Mojito time)

“The perils of scientific exploration,” Caelian shrugged with a soft smile. “And intelligence. It’s understandable, the need to quantify a thing in order to understand it and associate with it. Something you understand—or think you understand—is a lot less scary than something you don’t. But the more you learn about a thing, the more that definition may have to change. The very definition of life has changed quite a few times since the seventeen hundreds, possibly earlier! As scientists, don’t we require those definitions and distinctions to know what we’re dealing with? Mess comes with the territory.”

He shrugged again, sobering a bit. “But I’m just an engineer, and apparently light years behind everyone else when it comes to Starfleet history. Personally, I’d like to know more about these things and why they’re just rumor if they’re so dangerous. If the Federation’s going to get wiped out, shouldn’t people be made aware?”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—
(Insert witty line here)