Any truth in these Star Trek terms?

[willpittenger]

<li>Quantam dating -- In several ENT episodes (first I found was <i>The Expanse</i>, we hear how this technology can detect items that have been moved through time.<li>Plasma Extinguisher -- In a VOY episode, <i>Worst Case Scenario</i>, we see one of these being used to put out "plasma". The problem is that from what I know about plasma, it's not a type of fire.</li></li> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[enigma10]

•Plasma Extinguisher - A device containing some method to de-ionize plasma into a non-plasma version of the element.<br /><br />•Quantam dating - A device with the ability to determine the exact age of a molecule via the age of an atom and its subatomic particles. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"<font color="#333399">An organism at war with itself is a doomed organism." - Carl Sagan</font></em> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Not quite what I asked. Are these technologies something that could be used in real life? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[lsbd]

Is there a reason we would want to?

 

[hracctsold]

What? You haven't had a plasma fire lately? I saw the plasma extinguishers on sale over at Walgreens. They are the one stop shop you know.

 

[yevaud]

Don't forget the GNDN conduit, seen in many episodes.<br /><br />GNDN: "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing." <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[Mee_n_Mac]

Quantum dating :<br />- You can only go on 1 discrete date at a time<br />- Unless you're really attractive the odds of you getting together are "probablistic" at best<br />- You can't tell when the date will end nor where it's going<br /><br />In short, sounds a lot like normal dating. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-----------------------------------------------------</p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask not what your Forum Software can do do on you,</font></p><p><font color="#ff0000">Ask it to, please for the love of all that's Holy, <strong>STOP</strong> !</font></p> </div>

 

[hracctsold]

If quantum comes from the word quantas, or something of that nature, would that mean your date is really small? <br />Or would that mean that you could go out with a lot of little quanta's?

 

[qso1]

Much of Star Trek and other seemingly fact based sci fi are in fact, fiction (If that made sense). The fictional devices etc. in Star Trek and spinoffs are based in reality when possible but mostly its made up.<br /><br />Dilithium crystals are one of the best examples. No such thing as dilithium. There is lithium so when one with a laymans knowledge of science hears dilithium, they recall lithium and this gives the show more credibility because they may not realize there is no element on the periodic table called dilithium.<br /><br />And theres nothing wrong in that because the Star Trek series and spinoffs deal with an unpainted canvas called the future and one day maybe dilithium will be element number 173. Anyone who has ever written or tried to write about the future, especially technical developments knows that they have to make up a lot of stuff along the way. If a real tech person tries to write such a story, they tend to get wrapped up in whats not possible with todays tech and end up not writing.<br /><br />If you telling a fairy tail sort of story like Star Wars, the tech stuff doesn't matter as much as it does in Star Trek. Plasma extinguisher...not only is plasma not a type of fire were familiar with, its also at temperatures so high that anything remotely resembling a conventional fire extinguisher couldn't probably put out such a fire.<br /><br />Of course, to the best of my knowledge, there is no such thing as quantum dating, not even a concept for it AFAIK.<br /><br />At the end of the day, though they produced extraordinary works, Gene Rodenberry and other Star Trek writers/producers are people like you and me. They simply get paid to write stuff that requires them to project themselves into the future they think will materialize. Think back to 1968...2001 A Space Odyssey. This story seemed to have the future thought out pretty well at the time. The real 2001 was anything but a space odyssey...or at least the space odyssey that A.C. Clarke and company. The <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Quit the comedy. Otherwise, I will get you guys on the Tonight Show with every audience member given 20 ultra-ripe tomatos for throwing at you. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Interesting. My impression was that dilithium was simply an undiscovered crystalline form of lithium. The supposed reason we have yet to discover this form was parts of the molecule were hidden in other dimensions. We then mistook it for quartz. I remember reading in one of the books that sometime in the future, everyone with a mineral collection was testing every piece of quartz.<br /><br />Trouble is that my reason turned up nothing like that. Wikipedia claims that Dilithium is simply two lithium atoms together (like Oxygen molecules). Their Warp Drive article completely omits the word "Dilithium". So I checked at Memory Alpha. They claim that Dilithium is an element (like you mentioned) in the "hypersonic" series, whatever that is supposed to mean. <br /><br />Frankly, I like the first explaination better from a scientific point of view. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[qso1]

willpittenger:<br />Dilithium is simply two lithium atoms together.<br /><br />Me:<br />This is the closest to dilithium we would actually have right now AFAIK and its only a technicality. The prefix di being part of the word making it two parts of lithium.<br /><br />Warp drives are another semi science based item. Science itself has only begun to takle what warped space might be. Wormholes as shortcuts for example...today only sheer speculation backed with some mathematics but no actual testable data or proof that wormholes do what sci fi wants them to. But again, some of what we know today as theory, could become tomorrows fact. Some other terms might seem as quaint to a 21st century person as shooting men to the moon by cannon is to us now.<br /><br />The memory alpha site appears simply to be a continuation of sorts of the Star Trek story. Kind of like a site talking about future possibilities as though they are already fact. I would check sites dealing with actual chemistry, starting with periodic table refs.<br /><br />Even the undiscovered form of lithium explanation suffers scientific credibility IMO because of the reference to being hidden in other dimensions. That is until looking at the mistaking for quartz and discovering this in the future. That reads like another "Future possibilities as though they are already fact" angle. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Even the undiscovered form of lithium explanation suffers scientific credibility IMO because of the reference to being hidden in other dimensions. That is until looking at the mistaking for quartz and discovering this in the future. That reads like another "Future possibilities as though they are already fact" angle.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />Well, I was talking from the point of view of what might actually turn out to be the case and the angle from which Memory Alpha is written. I did not mean to imply that it would actually be true. However, that explanation avoids the problem of why we can't find any such elements. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>

 

[qso1]

willpittenger:<br />Well, I was talking from the point of view of what might actually turn out to be the case and the angle from which Memory Alpha is written.<br /><br />Me:<br />I understand and probably misunderstood you. I think for sci fi writers, one of the things they would like to do is be remembered for something they may have originated. A.C. Clarke for Clarke or geosynchronous orbit being useful for comsats. He had predicted this in 1945. Sci fi writers also try to come up with memorable catch phrases such as cyborg which I think was originated for the $6 million dollar man.<br /><br />Some of whats on memory alpha may well turn out true some day. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[yevaud]

Fine, if no one objects.<br /><br />I was always intrigues by two different plots and their "issues."<br /><br />The first is B5. What the hell <i>is</i> Hyperspace? Damnit, more!<br /><br />The second is "Genesis II." How <i>did</i> the entire Earth become a howling barbaric wasteland? Explain, please. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Differential Diagnosis:  </em>"<strong><em>I am both amused and annoyed that you think I should be less stubborn than you are</em></strong>."<br /> </p> </div>

 

[willpittenger]

Perhaps, you should start your own thread with this. You buried your topic under a topic with a completely different purpose. Those looking for stuff like your topic won't see it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Will Pittenger<hr style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em" />Add this user box to your Wikipedia User Page to show your support for the SDC forums: <div style="margin-left:1em">{{User:Will Pittenger/User Boxes/Space.com Account}}</div> </div>