1y ago

Would You Try New Pastimes If Star Trek Level Medical Care Was Available?

Star Trek's level of medical care is far more advanced than today's. As Beckett says in LD, "Doc will wave a light over it." Yet, in Star Trek people aren't shown doing hobbies and pastimes that are much different from what's done now. Still, I wonder about differences in a society where people know they won't be laid up for months for doing or trying something that some folks of today might look at and say, "nope, too dangerous." Injuries will still hurt, there's a big difference between say, a broken leg taking months to heal and possibly multiple surgeries, and Star Trek's healing of a broken leg in a matter of hours.

I'm trying to think of what I'd do differently if I had access to Star Trek level medical care. There are things I want to try, but I look at sideways because of the possible injuries. It's mild, but one thing I think I'd try again is skating. I injured my knee roller skating at a rink years ago, and that knee is still a problem. That injury left me skittish of skating. If I knew an injury from skating (within reason) could be an easy fix, I would have given it another go.

Is there a pastime you'd be more willing to try, or try again, if Star Trek level medical care was available?

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Fuck dangerous hobbies, I'd be able to do whatever I wanted with my career since I wouldn't rely on heavily subsidized corporate health plans in order to keep my partner alive.
Assuming, of course, that in such a post-scarcity society we wouldn't still find a way to stratify society and allow only the elite to have access to such things.
- In most of the developed world you don't rely on corporate health care plans 😅
  
  Good point, I'm stuck in the backwater Randian dystopia that is the USA.
- I think access to holodecks is a huge factor for that vs. doing a pastime in the real world. Because of what you said about being accessible to all vs. only to certain elites. Also because I wonder about the availability of holodecks for those not on starships or in Starfleet. I don't remember if that's mentioned in the various series and movies since they are typically centered around being on a starship. Transport tech is shown as being publicly used on Earth. I'd imagine that there would be holodecks available on Earth (maybe other planets), or at least holosuites like in Quark's. Access to pastimes in the real world, without using holosuites, might be commonplace. Maybe trying something new in a holodeck/suite where serious injury is less likely before trying it in the real world.

I've always wanted to learn skateboard but at 40+ it seemed like a really dumb hobby to start, given that you spend more time falling at first than you do on the board.
- Engage holodeck safety protocols.
  
  And run something Paris wrote. Barclay is cool, but we don't share many interests.
- Idk man, I have a friend who's almost 40 and he skates all the time (though he did start when he was younger). From what I understand, you just have to learn how to fall correctly, like, rolling with the momentum. Unless you have issues with bone density or something, I say go for it!
- If you just wanna cruise around its actually pretty safe

For me the medical care wouldn't change much because you can still die a lot of ways and getting hurt probably still hurts a lot.
The big difference for me would be transporters. I hate traveling because for me the destination is the destination and the journey is just an annoyance. There are a thousand places I'd visit if getting there wasn't such a pain in the ass.
- Personally, I don't see much of a difference between the 2 scenarios if your new hobby kills you and they clone you "back to life". Particularly if you are scanned at the "hold my beer" moment (perhaps initiated by you) and they bring you back immediately, and nobody tells you(/thinks) that you're a clone.
  I could even see that as a psychological crutch. "No I didn't die, they were locked on to my location and just used the transporter to save me when my parachute didn't open! I was never in any danger."
  
  Sounds like my own private vat-of-acid episode.
  Plus I'm thinking you'd need an unlicensed transporter to do that and disable whatever locks are designed to prevent people from doing exactly that. But then I'd forget to do some maintenance on a Heisenberg compensator and end up inside out in the mirror universe or something.

In an early episode of the Orville, Gordon and Isaac get into a prank war which culminates in Isaac removing Gordon's leg. This is treated as going a little bit too far but ultimately harmless and funny.
In Star Trek, they tend to prefer to mitigate risks protectively with things like anti-grav harnesses and holodeck safeties, except for exceptionally reckless individuals like James T. Kirk and Jason Vigo.
- In that episode of the Orville, Gordon was able to get a new foot grown fast enough that it wasn't really an issue.
  In contrast, in TNG, Worf sustained an injury from a relatively minor industrial accident which left him paralyzed and could only be fixed by a radically dangerous and experimental medical procedure. In Voyager, Vidiians stole Neelix's lungs and it took a Vidiian to alter one of Kes's lungs to become compatible.
  I don't think the Federation's medical technology is that advanced, especially with the banning of genetic manipulation.
  Edit: And here I am forgetting about Nog's amputated leg, which was not a perfect regrowing and caused Nog to experience phantom pain from his severed limb.
  
  The Union's medical technology is notably more advanced than the Federation's, yes. Dr. Finn would have Pike up and walking in an afternoon.
  
  They seem to be able to repair homogenous tissue extremely quickly, but complex micro-structures are much harder to produce. Nerves, lungs, all complex.
  Heck even producing Romulan ribosomes was beyond them.
  
  The Union's medical technology is notably more advanced than the Federation's, yes. Dr. Finn would have Pike up and walking in an afternoon.

I'd take up white water kayaking if I could just walk into the infirmary and get it taken care of.
- Stuff lik torn ligaments in your arm will still need to heal naturally if you overdo it, though. As we see with O'Brien.
- Oh, that sounds amazing. I agree.

What about the opposite of that, though?
Permanent injury and disability is unlikely. Chronic pain is likely a nonissue. Most of the unpredictable diseases can be sciencemagick'd away. Even old age, you'll still be mobile, active, and happy. Long, thriving lives are the minimum expectation.
In a world where medical technology is so good that only "natural" death will get you in the end, and one where there's no resource constraint forcing you to a stressful and awful life with no opportunity to thrive, everyone kind of has a lot more to lose. I might be more willing to do something "risky", but not if that risk contains "risk of immediate death" because there's no fixing that.
Though whether this is the way human psychology works... who knows.
- Yeah, it's the old story of the immortal who refused to cross the street. The kind of risks that someone expecting to die by 80 would take are much different than risk assessment of someone expecting to live--comfortably, with their mind and body intact--to at least 160.
- They have low key revived people right after death. Just not tasha yar

Lower Decks take on what happens in the holodecks tells me they do have some insane hobbies and well extracurricular activities that need clean up afterward.

I think the pastimes I'd want to try would likely kill me so Bones isn't going to be able to fix me, e.g. freestyle mountain climbing, skydiving, bungee jumping.
- I get the siren call of skydiving. Part of me is, "flying through the sky, wind blasting, amazing scenery." Another part of me is, "Girl, you are talking about jumping out of a perfectly good plane."
- That's my thought. There are a few things I can think of that come with a significantly higher risk of injury than death, though. I'd go hiking and camping more often (and in more places) if I didn't have to worry about ticks and mosquitoes spreading disease. And if I could carry an effective antivenom, that would open up more of the world as well.
  I'd try some harder mountain bike trails if broken bones were easy to fix. Of course you could still suffer a fatal head injury, but with a good helmet I'm more afraid of smaller (but still life-altering) injuries.

Honestly, it would just be nice if that kind of tech could rid me of my (at times excruciating) chronic pain.
I've reached the point – years ago – where it has become truly debilitating and there are days and longer periods where I can barely perform any physical action. It is frustrating and my quality of life would improve dramatically if I did not have that constantly hindering me in my daily life.
Forget "dangerous" hobbies; I might actually be able to have a social life again and see my friends or go out to see a movie or go shopping!

@Nmyownworld Nothing I can think of. My hobby(arboriculture) is pretty dangerous. I just do my best to minimize risks.
A holodeck would be a game changer though. While perhaps not truly dangerous with safeties on, doing Worf's calisthenics program, or recreating historic battles where you meet on a field with sword and shield would be hugely fun and intimidating, even with the safety factor.
- That would be great fun, doing holodeck combat simulations. With me having the danger level set very, very low. Like when I'm new to a combat video game. I start with the difficulty level as low as possible. Enemy NPCs are whaling away on my character, doing little to no damage while I try and remember which button does what in the game.
- I wouldn't count on the safeties. They are constantly fucking up in one way or another.

Assuming that it cost the same as Star Trek medical care, I'd definitely be more open to it.
That said, though, part of the issue is less concern over medical care, but rather more that of having enough time and money. You can't go around the world trying new things, if you can't afford to go, or if you can't get enough leave to be able to do so.

I think it's the pain of receiving high medical bills which keeps me (and most other US citizens) from doing fun/silly/stupid/risky things...
- @rasterweb @Nmyownworld yeah, same response. If ST level care was available, and free, you bet your sweet patooty I'd be doing more fun stuff. Amazing things, like getting teeth pulled/replaced, or, y'know, getting my diabetes meds. Ahhh... If only we lived in the future Roddenberry imagined.

I don't have hobbies and barely leave the house now, so does a yes still count there? Honestly cut out the paperwork, travel time, and multiple visits and pretty much any scifi medical treatment would work for me... be it automated, vats, comas etc.
Some of my problems could likely be solved by today's tech (at least significant relief), but not much hope of that when a place I want to go to doesn't even have a website (or more generally, call-centric appointments etc).

@Nmyownworld Probably not. That said I have a feeling that Mensur would be in again
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academicfencing
- I took fencing for a time in school. No one like being paired with me because they thought I was too aggressive with my fencing. Maybe they were right. Everyone else liked to do, "and one, and two, and three," fencing. I admit to being very, "let's go!" while still staying within the taught techniques.

Nah, dangerous hobbies don't sound fun. But, with other trek tech, I'd definitely pick up new hobbies. Like solving a mystery in the holodeck. ;)

Not really. Maybe if Peter F. Hamilton Commonwealth level of medical technology was available. Star Trek's doesn't really seem advanced enough to change my opinion on risking my life for fun.

If people want to try more dangerous stuff, there's a holodeck with safety for that. So there isn't much reason to risk more pain and injury than necessary.
Like now, medical care is still just a backup if the normal means of self-preservation fail. You can never be sure if that stunt will end up with a broken leg or neck, and there's a thin line between those, even for ST-level docs.
But then there are species that will always push to the brink of survivability, like Klingons or Hirogen.
Ed: but specifically for mild things like skating, that's more about having your past injuries healed so they don't "remind" you to not do it again. But again with a hoodeck that's less of a problem.

Well, considering there are still people in wheelchairs in Star Trek, guess I’d still be in one.
I like the inclusion (in the show), but I would hope that paralysis was cured that far in the future.

If star trek medical care (which implies star trek economy + society) existed and were THE thing, I would be doing so sorts of cool shit. Like... Just wear a helmet and don't die instantly and you'll be back to normal in a few hours? COUNT ME IN. Shit. I might even become a doctor just to see cool shit knowing that I could actually help people.

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