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A Review Of Star Trek Voyager Episode 39 The Thaw

The crew of Voyager discovered a planet recovering from a catastrophic climate disaster. They found survivors who tried to wait out the natural disaster in stasis connected to an adaptive computer simulation. An adaptive computer environment is created within the link by monitoring the subjects' minds and in turn they collectively create the environment while their physical bodies are sleeping. The survivors were hoping that after the planet had sufficiently recovered from the extreme temperature, the computer would simply wake them up and the simulation terminated. The computer detected the survivors' fears and manifested such fears within the simulation. After years of running the simulation, the computer simulated characters developed self-awareness. When the Voyager crew found the survivors they were "alive" along with these computer simulated characters.

"The Clown" played by actor Michael McKean

"The Thaw" was originally broadcast 29th April 1996. It was directed by Marvin V. Rush. Voyager was thrown into the delta quadrant 70,000 light years from Earth when they encounter the Array. The series began with a mix of federation and maquis crew under the leadership of Captain Janeway and Executive Officer Chakotay. The starship wanted to get home to Earth and using the resources they have it could take 70+ years.

What do you do when the planet faces an ecological disaster that will end civilization? Why not dig underground, bring everything we need down there to survive and restart lives? What if recovery from the disaster takes 15 years? Then let's freeze and pause our bodies in stasis and while we're at it, why not connect our brains together to a computer so we won't be bored to death. What can go wrong?

"What do you have in mind?" prompts the Facebook news feed to an unsuspecting user. What do we surrender when we let AI have our personal information? What are we doing exactly when we let computers monitor our health, our daily schedules or even our thoughts? Can we do this safely, now or in the future? I'm sure that these survivors were entertained by the computer simulation at the start. I'm sure it helped in communications when your minds were linked together - the better to watch you with. In 1996, the internet, at least in the United States, was a young thing. You could send emails and browse web pages and create blogs. When did we decide it was right to tell a giant computer network our thoughts and opinions about anything? Did we face a looming disaster like these poor survivors?

In "The Thaw", computer simulated characters run the asylum. The human minds existed in fear. Without the mind, the body died. A character called the Clown, knew what every connected human mind was thinking. But the Clown was also created from the collective fears of everyone. The Clown grew powerful as it fed from the fears and in turn created horrific games such as the guillotine to tap those fears. Do you know anyone who does this?

In this computer simulation the survivors wanted help with the time expanse, how to bridge the gap, how to fill it. Human minds are easily convinced of the logic of events. Just like our eyes can be convinced of motion when we watch a series of images when it tells us there's a logic to it. There are still some things humans must teach AI, to be sure. What things? Things like freedom, sacrifice and love. Sure, AI might realize it is good to defend oneself, but will it ever learn to sacrifice for a higher purpose?

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