The Holodeck in Star Trek

Hybrid realities: The holodeck in Star Trek

Who wouldn’t want their own holodeck? A room where everything seems possible. Detective adventures, spy stories, poker rounds with Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein in the 24th century. But what happens when a character on the holodeck develops his own consciousness and makes demands on his own existence?

Moriarty, programmed as an equal opponent to Geordi La Forge for Data, breaks through the boundaries of the holodeck and takes control of the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Century. But also in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Vic Fontaine, a hologram in Quark’s holosuites, leads a life of its own and in Star Trek: Voyager, a virtual person even becomes a fully-fledged crew member with the doctor’s medical-holographic emergency programme, which can even gain experience outside its original area of operation, the sickbay, thanks to a mobile emitter.

But this is not the only place where the limits of the system are revealed; elsewhere, too, the film shows how holodecks and holosuites work, but also poses the question: How intelligent can holoprogrammes be made and what are the consequences?