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Why aren't they using drones and more automation?
(lemmy.world)
I know this is how people in the 80s and 90 imagined the future and a lot of concepts were probably too far fetched for them.
BUT... why arent they using drones to explore planets? why are there not more drone-spaceships? why does enterprise need a crew to begin with? Why is there so little automation? Why so few uses of AI in general?
I am saying this as a star trek the next generation person. I'd also expect them to have full video and sensory streams of any surface mission teams.
The in-universe answer re: drones would be that people want to explore. Sure, it's dangerous, but it's also exciting, fascinating, and fulfilling. That said, I feel like a responsible captain would make much more extensive use of probes than any of the shows.
Re: data streams, I don't have a good in-universe explanation. I have a similar question of why they don't have security cameras in all the hallways and public areas.
Also, using the transporter to go down to a planet always runs the risk of some storm or an orbital threat stranding your party. Why not use the shuttle as SOP? It gives your away team more resources, both for their mission and for an emergency.
The cameras are more of a privacy issue that I imagine the Federation tries to uphold.
There was an episode of TNG where a "passenger" got onto ship's comms and was contacting Picard on the bridge. When Picard told the guy that the comms were reserved for ship's business, the guy asked why they weren't restricted, if that was the case. Picard said that was unnecessary as people in Star Fleet generally just...behave themselves.
That did change overtime though. They mentioned in Lower Decks that they beefed up security after the Pakleds attacks, which leads to Boimler not even being able to open doors (or activate emergency systems lol)
That's a totally insane explanation, though. Lots of people are on the ship at all times who aren't members of the crew, and that's before you even consider things like hostile boarding parties.
Most of the civilians present on the Enterprise fall into one of three categories:
A non-Starfleet staff member, relative, or passenger, who would already know and respect etiquette regarding ship's comms.
A non-hostile foreign diplomat, envoy, or similar passenger, who doesn't want to potentially cause a diplomatic incident by being rude.
I also recall lots of times where civilians used ship's comms for various purposes, but it was to contact the person directly attending to them, or a friend/relative, not the ship's captain. (It's been years since my last rewatch though so I could be wrong here...)
As for hostile parties, IIRC it's implied that the computer locks them out automatically, and in emergencies the captain can lock down the entire ship, which is how Data hijacked the Enterprise when he went rogue, and why it was such a big deal.
It's a military / government ship. There is no real privacy.
Everyone can read your personal logs if there's a good enough reason. Anyone can just ask the computer where anyone is at any time. People can just barge into your holodeck program. Anyone, from civilians to bartenders can just call up the bridge and talk to the captain whenever they want. People are just expected to control themselves.
I think of it like how people don't need to carry defensive weapons now, while a knife was very common in the past. People are just expected to control themselves and not rob random strangers today.
An important distinction is that they aren't military. Government, yes. But SNW recently had an episode establishing that a crew member's personal log is sealed and it took the crew member's death and a surrounding investigation to unseal them. The Federation clearly values privacy.
So then the lack of cameras seems like a huge security oversight.