This is part of the classic The United Federation of “hold my beer, I got this” post chain. It’s definitely part of my headcanon, if only in general spirit instead of literally that’s-what-happened. It conveniently explains so much about why these shows focus so much on humans. It’s like reality TV, it’s pointless to focus the camera on the well-adjusted ones.
Edit: I should mention that my headcanon extends humanity’s hold-my-bear mad science bent to the social sciences. Why else do you think we so rarely see other multi-species governments, or when we do it’s just a boring old “boss species conquered a bunch of subordinate species”? Humans were probably warned by the Vulcans that different species tended to have incompatible governing interests and doctrines and the humans thought “but what if we gave them all a vote anyway and see what happens? Maybe a Federation will go twice as fast!”
Wow. A lot of this is brand new to me and that’s saying something. This is hysterical. You should post it! It also really does explain quite a bit… extremely conveniently no less.
This is also the source of the “humanity fuck yeah” and “humans are space orks” genres
I’ve tried posting other things before and it’s been a bit flaky for me, I’m not sure if anyone else saw them. So feel free to reap the karma-equivalent for yourself if you like. Or edit it in to this post and you can pretend you meant to do that from the start. :)
Doesn’t look like you’ve made any posts at all if I click on your posting history. Huh. That’s strange. Also hell no, not going to take it from you! Not because of the karma or whatever. I post just so I don’t have to feel so lonely. I just don’t wanna deprive you of the option!
I’d be glad to try and help figure out why things aren’t posting if you’d like.
Well, it’s reassuring that those posts are actually invisible rather than just “nobody even cared enough to downvote them” :) I’m accessing the fediverse through kbin rather than Lemmy, which I like a lot in general design but which has had some glitches with fully federating stuff in other areas before so I’m not surprised. The bugs will get sorted out over time.
Also, you can’t take it from me because I’m giving it to you. Here! \
No Sir! Hold on to it for later! I’ve got over 1000 memes saved in a folder so I’m good for a fucking while. Hold on to it! It’s gold!
And I’m sorry on the Kbin front. Hopefully fixed sooner than later so we can see all your dope contributions.
Heh. You’ll likely be disappointed, I’ve always been much more of a commenter than a poster. 12 years on Reddit got me 450,964 comment karma and only 2,351 post karma, and most of those posts were my failed attempt to get a subreddit about moonbases off the ground. :)
Well that’s where you’re going wrong. Moonbases stay on the ground, even if that ground is in the sky ;)
I’m also on kbin, and I also see no posts in your profile.
Anecdotally, I lost a pretty good number of comments in previous months during the big migrations, but that seems to have gotten better.
I don’t care if it makes me inhuman, I’m not holding anybody’s bear
Don’t worry, you only need the bear arms.
Fortunately, US citizens have a right to those!
But isn’t that actual canon, that humans are the only species that actually brought together all those species.
Sure, but my headcanon is more about the underlying reasoning of why they did that. In canon it was out of some sort of high-minded ideals and a unique human ability to build communities and see past differences and such blather. In my headcanon it’s actually more because the Vulcans told them they didn’t think it would work.
Your version seems more plausible actually.
Vulcan: do not touch the hot griddle. It will burn you.
Human: You can’t tell me what to do! Burns hand
Vulcan: I will apply medication to the burn.
Human: I’m not burned! This is what human flesh looks like! Holds up mangled extremity
Vulcan: …
Human: …
Vulcan: …
Human: burns other hand
And yet somehow, we make it work.
I love it. Thanks.
Also humans: If we eject the warp core behind us, we could use it like a mine and take out the persuing ship.
Hey, it worked. Didn’t it?
Yes and now we have no engine power and 1 hour of life support left before we suffocate. Everyone except the EMH who doesn’t require oxygen.
How can they still run the EMH if they don’t have power for running a few fans?
They can’t but it doesn’t die either. If you think about it, more than a few crew could survive on a crippled starship. Maybe some go into a protective stasis or an Android officer like Data could be retrievable.
The warp core isn’t the only source of power on the whole ship; it’s just the biggest and electroplasmiest. Starships also have fusion power plants. Y’know, those old-fashioned atom-smashing machines? They’re crude, like the power-plant equivalent of two cavemen swinging wooden clubs at each other, but they power the impulse drives, and nobody’s going to complain about at least being able to go somewhere when the anomaly of the week turns the warp core into a flower pot or something.
For some reason, nothing bad ever seems to happen to the fusion reactors. I guess it’s because the reaction fizzling out and shutting down quietly isn’t very dramatic. Fusion reactors aren’t all explodey like antimatter is.
Of course it did. It’s an antimatter reactor. It goes boom like a giant photon torpedo. Trouble is, warp cores don’t exactly grow on trees, neither does the antimatter fuel, and you have to somehow get clear of the huge explosion without a working warp drive.
Not a problem, divert power from everything, backwards facing shields to maximum then surf the wave.
Then you just gotta’ deal with wherever the fuck you end up in the middle of space without a warp core.
One wonders how exactly a shield generator, generally portrayed as one of the most power-intensive components of a starship after the warp drive, still has enough power to function with only the fusion reactors and no warp core.
The shields are powered by plot armour in an emergency. It’s an incredibly powerful force.
It’s a common mistake that the warp core is the primary power plant for the whole ship. That’d be wasteful, as they use fusion plants to make antimatter in the first place.
TNG tech manual states that starbase antimatter production is around 25% efficient. Starships can make their own, but it implies that it’s even less efficient than a starbase.
Most of the ship gets power from fusion. Those can’t dump enough energy at once to power higher warp factors (limit is maybe warp 3), though, so you use energy while not at warp to make antimatter, which can then be dumped into the warp core later.
Shields will work fine with just the fusion plants.
And ride the explody wavey thing, hang ten, bro!
Bajorans and humans fist bumping in front of an exploding warp core
You got this, Shaxs!
I’m afraid to see interpretations of “cannonball” now
I’m excited! 👀 👀
Absolutely no clue about star trek but this sounds fun :)
Well why not join us on the journey? We got 57 years worth of content to choose from and a fanbase that is usually pretty accepting and open. Of course there are outliers, same with everything, but be hard pressed to find people on this instance who are negative as hell and actively supported by everyone else.
This is as negative as I get:
That looks like it could be something from the new Warhammer show.
She is Her Most Imperial Majesty, Mother of the Fatherland, Overlord of Vulcan, Dominus of Qo’noS, Regina Andor, Philippa Georgiou Augustus Iaponius Centarius.
Pray she never learns of your existence.
Or pray that she does… Slightly NSFW.
If there is any woman who could turn me straight…
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And there’s the reason for the focus.
Vulcan scientific monitoring devices intended to capture the outcomes of the various things humans have done.
For later analysis and then proper controlled studies to validate the findings. Which explains why Vulcans have adapted some of the warp tech identified by the federation and not others.
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The Original Series is technicolor sci-fi horror dressed as episodic space exploration. It’s campy and melodramatic and by god does it know it. Some episodes were blatantly “what’s available on the back-lot next month?” and are a coin toss between stupid and incredible.
TOS had some movies (roman numerals) and they range from “what if an episode was three hours long” to “modern-day San Francisco zoo heist.” At their best they’re fun and at their worst they’re even more fun.
The Next Generation is high-concept ethical debate framed as the experiences of naval officers. The cast is seriously talented and the writing is usually excellent.
TNG had some movies (bald guy on the poster) and they were written by people who didn’t like the show for people who didn’t watch the show. You have to turn your brain off, but they’re well-directed.
TNG had some movies (bald guy on the poster) and they were written by people who didn’t like the show for people who didn’t watch the show.
So many of my undefined feelings of sadness about TNG movies just snapped into focus.
I HATE how true this is.That’s a pretty fair assessment of the JJverse movies as well.
Very much a “humans are space orcs” type story. Actual space orcs like the ones from wh40k are even more space orcs with their waaagh supported shenanigans
Wasn’t this the catalyst for the “humans are space orcs” meme?
Earth is the Florida of the federation and humans are the Star Trek equivalent of gnomes.
And now I’m picturing the Misadventures of Florida Gnome.
Sisko be like: oh yea those genocidal shape shifting freaks that have contempt for everything that isn’t them and can ruin any government from within, have a billion-strong army of generically engineered suicidal supersoldiers armed to the teeth with resources of an entire quadrant. Aight brb, lemme grab our mortal enemies to work for us, and then I’ll talk to my multidimensional gods pals for assistance.
Wait, wasn’t this the official canon of Enterprise?
“The Federation is functionally the Human empire” has always been a far less interesting view than “The Federation is functionally the Vulcan empire”
Humans created the federation. The Vulcans had been around for hundreds of years just wondering around the quadrant not really doing anything other than antagonising the Andorians. Who, Humans managed to form an alliance with by not antagonising them, and claiming to be superior.
But why did the Vulcan join when their old antagonists are part of it? A pretty good answer is that they need to make sure humans don’t ruin everything.
This isn’t quite as cynical as it looks at first glance. They saw that humans could go either way. Keep them from turning too many stars into touruses, and they’ll be capable of greatness.
Humans: beating the laws of physics into submission since 2061.
This is a surprisingly logical argument
Humanity is God’s collective nepo-fail-upwards-son.
“Warp Cores are like Voltron; the more you connect, the cooler it is!”
Same with D&D, humans are like this because OMG we have short ass lifespans and I already hit middle age by 19 gotta go go go!!! Press the red button!
Shorter lived species than humans should be even more widespread and rapidly developing. Skaven should invade 40k before 40k is 40k! 🐀
Shorter lived species than humans should be even more widespread and rapidly developing
Great, now I have “I am the very model of a scientist Salarian” stuck in my head
DON’T swallow.
I think that you still need to live long enough to at least be able to learn stuff and explore that knowledge. Too short a life and all you have time for is eat fuck breed kill someone else on your way out.
I don’t know much about Skaven though other than a dozen hours in Vermintide 2 and the player characters werent saying much other than “fuck rats” 😂
Is there a Goldilocks lifespan that humans conveniently meet between too short and too long?
I suppose the alternative would be a fiction setting where humans are actually an outlier for inferiority and pretty much everyone else is more developed and has a more advanced civilization.
Humans being the new kids on the block with inferior technology is a pretty common thing. Babylon 5 had humans buy, trade, and negotiate for most of their tech and are barely more advanced than the average small independent world at the start of the show. Farscape had Earth as a backwater, uncontacted, pre-interstellar world and made humans unusually frail with poor eyesight compared to the other species. Even in Trek, humans are physiologically inferior to most everyone and ENT depicted our tech as being far behind everyone else.
The real advantage humanity is consistently depicted as having, regardless of setting, franchise, or even sci-fi vs fantasy, is that we develop new technology faster than just about anyone else. In sci-fi settings, we’ll go from barely getting to Mars to colonizing the entire Orion Arm in a couple decades. In fantasy settings, we’ll be first to develop firearms and rudimentary industrialization.
I credit Stargate for one novelty: it showed humans being mostly primitive compared to the greys, but the greys never thought about firing projectiles out of gas-powered cylinders, so they said that was interesting and effective.
“You blow up one sun, and everybody thinks you can walk on water.”
Most of the time scrappy underdog humans pull ahead and look more awesome in fiction with their inferior tech.
“Fuck rats? That sounds heretical.”
