Skip to main content

star trek - Why doesn't the Doctor duplicate himself when he has multiple medical emergencies at the same time?


The Doctor in Star Trek: Voyager is a hologram. Voyager's Sick Bay is loaded with holo-projectors.


The episode "Living Witness" shows that the Doctor regularly makes backup copies of himself. After he gets his Mobile Emitter he is able to transfer his program completely to the device.


In a medical emergency with multiple patients, why doesn't the Doctor ever duplicate himself?



If it's a matter of the ship not having enough processing power, why not transfer his program to the Mobile Emitter and then launch his backup copy from the ship's emitters in Sickbay?



In the episode "Concerning Flight", the ship's main computer core is stolen. This cripples weapons, navigation, transporters, and propulsion yet the Doctor continues on in Sickbay unaware as if nothing has happened.


This suggests that the Doctor requires less processing power to sustain his program than the weapon targeting systems, which makes answers suggesting limited processing power seem less likely to be correct.



Answer



In "Basics: Part 1" when Voyager fights multiple Kazon factions, they created multiple holographic fighter ships to distribute the shots from the Kazon ships so that Voyager came under less fire. When they first initialise these holographic ships, the Doctor appears in space stating:



TORRES [OC]: Doctor, are you there? Are you all right?


EMH: I told you we should have run one last systems check.




Indicating that these holographic ships run under the same computer program as the Doctor. This proves that it is, in fact, possible for there to be multiple copies of a hologram running simultaneously. I assume that this never happens in the show for the same reason that transporters cannot create copies, or replicators cannot be used for cloning, yet they can be used to create organs.


There are tons of contradictions like this in the Star Trek series. Stuff like that is inevitable with science fiction, although Star Trek does a very good job at being scientifically accurate as often as possible (where the narrative allows anyways). In one episode of Star Trek (TNG I believe) they used a transporter to get rid of a virus in one of the crew's body using a backup from the transporter logs. If this was truly possible, don't you think they would have done this more often? Such as healing injured crew members, or even bringing them back from the dead?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

What is Tolkien trying to say in this letter?

In a draft of a letter, later recorded as #246, Tolkien makes a strange statement. I am interested in the first few sentences of the letter, but I will include the remainder for the sake of context. In the 'Mirror of Galadriel', 1381, it appears that Galadriel conceived of herself as capable of wielding the Ring and supplanting the Dark Lord. If so, so also were the other guardians of the Three, especially Elrond . But this is another matter. It was part of the essential deceit of the Ring to fill minds with imaginations of supreme power . But this the Great had well considered and had rejected, as is seen in Elrond's words at the Council. Galadriel's rejection of the temptation was founded upon previous thought and resolve. In any case Elrond or Galadriel would have proceeded in the policy now adopted by Sauron: they would have built up an empire with great and absolutely subservient generals and armies and engines of war, until they could challenge Sauron and destroy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Was Galadriel's temptation of Boromir instrumental to his fall?

We know Galadriel tempted the members of the Fellowship, did she tempt Boromir with visions of taking the Ring and saving Gondor? In the books, Boromir willingly accepts the judgement of the council that the Ring should be destroyed, but after the meeting with Celeborn and Galadriel his personality seems to change. Was the temptation offered by Galadriel in some way responsible for Boromir's fall? Answer It's likely, but not certain I believe it is likely Galadriel tempted him with the ring, and in doing so re-ignited a pre-existing idea to take the ring, but to be clear lets break this down into three parts. Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir after setting off Boromir after being tempted Boromir at the Council of Elrond Boromir pleas for the ring to go to Minas Tirith, to help Gondor in its defense against Mordor. “ Why should we not think that the Great Ring has come into our hands to serve us in the very hour of need? Wielding it the Free Lords of the Free may surely...
Post a Comment
Read more