Federation

This is mostly just a rant, but I just can't take it anymore! Why are Trek fans always trying to tear down the Federation these days? This subreddit and YouTube is full of fans that point out the Federation's flaws and dump on the idea that it can in any way be considered a good thing. Not only that, but the shows and comics are doing it too! The Federation is always seen as corrupt and incompetent. Yes, there were elements that were imperfect (crazy admirals, drumhead, Section 31) but those were the exceptions, not the rule. It's like people can't believe that humanity could actually be better. "Oh, it's four centuries later? Yeah, we're still petty and spiteful like we've always been. Nothing's changed."

I get modern society is a shitshow. I get it. I GET IT! Are we that far gone that we just can't imagine a future where we get ourselves mostly together? Seriously, what is it?

It's just so depressing and I can't take it anymore.

"its bubbly and happy like the Federation. Eventually you start liking it."

I cracked up when I heard this analogy. Kudos writers for that scene!

At the end of Picard's first season, we see a huge and homogenous federation fleet led by Captain Riker confront the Romulan threat. The reason why the federation had a massive fleet of combat capable vessels on hand (at least capable enough to scare off a fleet of crazed Romulan zealots) has been up for debate since the episode aired - recently this discussion has been reignited by u/ChillNigz excellent theory about the Federation already preparing for a war with the Romulans. However, I have an alternative theory that also ties directly in with overall plot of the series.

The disabled Borg Cube, under the control of the Romulans, is a major plot point in Picard that kinda...doesn't lead anywhere. The cube is just used as a vehicle to get some of our heroes to the planet Coppelius. However, in the context of the universe this Borg Cube is a major potential threat and it seems fair to assume that the Federation, the Klingons, and all the other major powers of 2399 are watching it intently, in case it reactivates. It is therefore not much of a stretch to suggest that these powers have created contingency plans in case the Borg "wake up", and this is where the fleet of Inquiry-class ships comes in.

What if this fleet is in fact a rapid-response anti-Borg task force running on skeleton crews that can be scrambled to deal with a potential reactivation of the damaged Borg Cube at a moment's notice. Perhaps the reason why the fleet was able to get to Coppelius so quickly was that it was already on high alert because of the Borg Cube's reactivation by Seven of Nine. This suggestion also explains Riker's presence over Admiral Clancy or any other of the competent Starfleet Captains of the day - why would a retired officer be in charge of a huge fleet sent only to rescue yet another retired admiral? Narratively speaking it's obvious, but in universe it could be that Riker got the message to be "drafted" into the Inquiry fleet shortly after Picard said goodbye to him, and he was called in specifically because he has experience dealing with the Borg, and at this point Starfleet assumed that there was a reactivated Borg threat.

By the time Clancy and Picard had their zoom call, the fleet was already on its way, tracking the Borg Cube under the assumption it was reactivated and about to go around assimilating in the usual fashion - and Clancy only changed the fleet's mission to scare off the Romulans after said zoom call revealed the truth about the Admonition

Doesn’t have to be something overly long or detailed or complex, just sort of mockumentary style shows based on ‘the sands of Vulcan’ or ‘the forests of Tellar Prime’ that would air for the public on the FNN.

Could allow for some creative creature/set piece design and be a fun background for some world building below the immediate ship/crew stories.

In the season 1 finale of Picard (Et in Arcadia Ego part 2) Will Riker turns up in the USS Zheng He, which is an Inquiry class ship. He then goes on to say that he is on the bridge of the toughest, fastest, most powerful ship that Starfleet has put into service. Baring in mind he also has a fleet of at least 100 of these ships with him.

The Romulans had just over 200 of their ships, baring in mind all of the Romulan warbirds are new classes. Having at least been built after Shinzon's reign and most likely after the destruction of Romulus. Why are they putting resources into military ships after a catastrophic event, is one question but the Romulans are a militaristic people.

I believe after the Dominon war and the huge losses the Federation had, they started to militarize. Which they only amped up when they failed to keep their word helping with the evacuation of Romulus. The relationship with the Romulans was already rocky, knowing full well there would be even more animosity among the Romulans now more than ever.

Commodore Oh who served as the director of Starfleet Security at a minimum of 9 years, turns out to be a Tal Shiar spy. The information she has on Starfleet and the Federation will be disastrous for them, it's highly unlikely Starfleet will be unable to change their security and tactical data efficiently before that information is used.

What are your thoughts?

One constant in that storyline was just how poorly the treaty and withdrawal from colonies were received by the Federation citizenry. Almost all of Starfleet was against it, and many had great sympathy for the Marquis, and so many resigned to join them, most of Voyager's erstwhile Marquis component consisted of ex-Starfleet types. Spock though the Cardassian Treaty shameful.

How did the Feds leadership misread it so badly? I am guessing they felt with the rise of the Borg threat they no longer could defeat the Cardassians militarily without jeopardising their defences elsewhere and were no longer inclined to keep rotating enough troops for a favourable stalemate.

The depiction of holograms in S3 Disco prompted a sigh of disappointment from me when I first saw them onscreen (at least, the first ones openly identified as holograms; if there are known characters that are actually holograms, this post is gleefully moot). The holograms did not seem sentient at all and were regarded as tools (e.g. the lie detector), summoned and dismissed without the regard one would show any being with personhood.

Despite the knee-jerk banning of artificial life research in ST: PIC, I would think that 800 years after the return of the EMH Mk1 they would have advanced holographic life to the point where it would be omnipresent. It seemed as though at the finale of PIC S1 they were insinuating (nothing said, just the theme of the episode) that perhaps AI research would no longer be banned, so I presume we'll see that technology progress (not that it would be feasible to stop with legislation anyways). I really hope that they thoroughly examine the philosophy regarding the fact that Jean-Luc (in quotations??) is now a robot.

My theory is that at some point the Federation came up with very specific laws about computer sentience since the synths of PIC and likely views it as highly unethical to create synthetic life except under the most controlled, understood circumstances. Perhaps there's a practical limitation of self preservation as well, as sufficiently advanced AIs tend to get out of hand (e.g. ST: PIC and DISCO S2). As such, they've determined that nobody should be allowed to create programs that are more than a google search with a face, for instance. If any person is allowed to program a holodeck character, make them inquisitive, give them awareness of themself (their current state, etc.), a sadistic person (e.g. the Hirogen) could program them to feel pain. They could program them to feel like they're on fire forever. Very unethical; life shouldn't be created on a whim. But where exactly are the limitations of how sentient something can be and still remain an unfeeling tool?

The Rios holograms are a strange example. I can't remember how much sentience they seemed to exhibit, but being essentially separate copied instantiations of the real Rios (but with some kind of extra, baked in drive to perform a certain function - a prickly ethical question by itself), I would assume that they too are mostly sentient (or maybe they're just very fancy looking implementations of the pilot, etc. and have no actual awareness of a "self"...what

She broke the prime directive more than a few times, but where it counted... The 37's, the Enarans, she stuck to Federation principles more than any other captain ever. Change my mind.

https://www.jpost.com/omg/former-israeli-space-security-chief-says-aliens-exist-humanity-not-ready-651405 for those not up to speed.

While I’m pleased that, as is only natural, America has stepped up to make decisions that affect humanity as a whole, I think we must use the Freedom of Information Act to make the exact wording of this agreement known to all Americans.

And I guess we can show it to the foreigners too.

So I have seen so many theories about the 'President' of the federation.

I too would love it to be the doctor or someone else from old trek, however I feel like the reveal will need to shock the disco crew as much as the audience.

I therefore predict the federation president will be....

....

Prime Lorca.

A good number of you ought to be aware of the Fermi Paradox and the idea of Great Filters as barriers to sentient, interstellar life. Star Trek, being the optimistic franchise that it is, answers the Fermi Paradox by way of saying that we both just weren't interesting enough to interstellar life until we developed warp on our own, and that we also merely forgot or didn't properly understand all the times aliens visited us in the past. So the Great Filter is squarely behind the human race in Star Trek.

But is it really? What if we take the concept of Great Filters being a barrier to interstellar civilizations, and go up a power level. Is there not similar Great Filters keeping the UFP, and all the other species in our galaxy, contained to the Milky Way? And other galaxies from ours? The Milky Way as depicted in Star Trek, is a veritable graveyard of civilizations that all died out, or were crushed, or disappeared, before they could expand beyond our Galaxy. And we have very few examples of contact from intelligent life outside of the galaxy as well, that are mostly apocalyptic in nature. And I just wanted to take a look and discuss a few examples of this, ponder the potential Great Filters that the UFP has already encountered and survived, and solicit examples from all of you that I don't quite remember.

• Vanilla Interstellar Conflict: We've seen warfare pose an existential threat to the Federation on numerous occasions. From the Xindi, to the Klingons, to the Dominion, there's been plenty of times where the UFP has been either threatened with an existential threat from a hostile force, or potentially strangled in the cradle. One of Star Trek's more common Great Filters but not exactly the most exciting one intellectually.

• The Machine-Gods: AI uprisings are commonly proposed Great Filters IRL, and Star Trek is not immune to these ideas either. The synthetic machine-gods of PIC are one example, that apparently have repeatedly ravaged and scrubbed the galaxy of sentient organic life several times as societies grow, create artificial life, turn on that life, and that life calls upon the machine-gods to save them. The evolution of Control might have ended in a similar manner, perhaps in the exact same way if Control eventually learned of the machine-gods from the Romulans. V'Ger is a permutation of this, and perhaps the Borg are too. The rogue Hirogen holos might have also evolved into such an existential threat had Voyager not created them or later i

There's no doubt in my mind that between all the empires/alliances/species we see, if I had to choose a citizenship, it would be in the Federation. I think it's safe to say they have values that most humans would like to live by... They are the lesser of evils...but still... Sometimes I wonder...

If we put ourselves in the position of a free world the decides not to join the Federation (for their own reasons/beliefs) but every single surrounding world does join it, this means that all surrounding space is now Federation territory. You now have to abide by all their laws and restrictions while moving through that space... If I was that world, I would consider myself almost "invaded" by the Federation... I would feel trapped.

Because it’s invisible, goddamnit