• @GraniteM
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    6 months ago

    There’s two points that I look at when I think of how much the Star Trek future is driven by people just doing what they enjoy.

    The first is when Captain Jellico takes over the Enterprise and everyone gets all grumpy and Riker gets relieved of duty. Things aren’t going well and Jellico goes to Riker’s quarters to talk, and after asking for permission to speak freely, Riker tells him “You’ve taken all the joy out of everything.” In this ship of hundreds of hyperqualified people working with bleeding edge technology, literally hours away from possibly facing their deaths and the start of a galactic war, Riker is correctly pointing out the the commanding officer isn’t letting them have fun anymore. People in Star Trek don’t get paid, they do what they do for the love of the game.

    The second point is when Eddington goes rogue and Sisko realizes that he was fan of Les Miserables, and that Eddington is essentially cosplaying as Jean Valjean and wants Sisko to be Javert. Sisko points out that Eddington didn’t have to become a terrorist or betray his uniform. He could have resigned any time he wanted. But he loved his role play so damn much that he was willing, even eager, to get the most determined man in the quadrant pissed off enough to hunt him down at all costs, and Sisko was able to use the implied script of this role play to capture Eddington. In this case, Eddington was having so much fun with his version of living his best life, he was literally willing to get captured and sent to prison because it was how he wanted to play the game.

    People in Star Trek can choose to stay on any number of paradise planets, and quite a lot do, but they will also will face death and worse than death, all in the name of self-actualization, and that’s pretty fantastic.

    • Neato
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      6 months ago

      It reminds me, or vice versa, of the Culture series. It’s a universe that’s so post scarcity it makes Star Trek look a bit mercantile.

      One of the most coveted and sought after things in The Culture are jobs. Because AI Minds do pretty much all the necessary labor, only jobs that organic brains and bodies are required for still exist and they are seen as prestigious. Everyone has everything they could desire and the only thing left to work for is purpose.

    • @basdiljhs
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      146 months ago

      I think this here is the reason why I, as a young boy watching startrek with my dad back in the 90’s, felt like I had to pursue self actualization and other higher leveled Maslow hierarchial needs even though the environment around me was and still is just looking to satisfy base needs,

      Now that I’m thinking about this out loud I guess this could also be applied to 1st world countries as well , their base need being money/food/resources/safety i.e. first level of Maslow’s needs. For context as a child I moved from a 1st world country to a 2nd or 3rd world country depending on how you look at it.

    • fadingembers
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      86 months ago

      I just watched the episode where he becomes a spy and it was so stressful. The whole time I was wondering why he’d put himself through all that

    • HobbitFoot
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      15 months ago

      Eddington was having so much fun with his version of living his best life, he was literally willing to get captured and sent to prison because it was how he wanted to play the game.

      And Sisko was having so much fun with his version of living his best life, committing was crimes.

  • Flying SquidM
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    456 months ago

    But he will be remembered forever for his microwave fixing abilities.

    • @model_tar_gz
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      25 months ago

      Emptying and cleaning the biofilter is his favorite part.

      • NegativeNullM
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        25 months ago

        I thought that was Mariner and Boimler?

        • @model_tar_gz
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          25 months ago

          They served on the Cerritos. Rom was on DS9.

          • NegativeNullM
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            25 months ago

            Correct. I’ve never heard of Rom dealing with Biofilter cleaning, but if anyone had to do it on DS9, it likely would have been him I supposed.

            • @model_tar_gz
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              5 months ago

              Sure as heck not gonna be O’Brien. He got a lot of shit jobs but one does not simply order a Chief/Warrant Officer to go clean a cumrag and not face some interesting fallout.

  • Transporter Room 3
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    346 months ago

    Starfleet doesn’t deserve O’brien.

    He is, without a doubt, the most important person in starfleet history.

    Sorry, zephram, you gotta take second. I think he would be okay with being second. First is too much work.

    • @profdc9
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      126 months ago

      O’Brien is certainly one of the most abused, weathered Starfleet officers. He ended up on DS9 fighting an insurgency, and spent 20 years in a mind prison. This description could go on for hours.

      • Transporter Room 3
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        16 months ago

        Ơ̸̡̯̺̣̘͉̭̌̍͐͐̏͊́̽̂’̷̱͗͒̈́̀̒͑B̵̧̡̪̘̙̗̗͕̩͖̱̞̓͊̏͐̏̔͜r̶̜͉̂̍̍̌̈́͋̚̚ȋ̷̛̠͔͚͚̰̼̱̹͇̳̘̥͙͋̅̓̆̃͜e̶͎̤͑͆̎̇̈̓͊̎̓̈́͋̂̋̆̎̔̕n̸͇̻̦͈̏͛͋͑̅ ̷̖̊͐̈́̀̎̉͂̍̎̽́̍̍͘̚͝m̶͔͌́͘u̶͚͖̗͐̅s̸̗̗͚͂̈́t̴̢̙̩̻͎̖̰͋͐͂̿̃̆̕ͅ ̵͖͛̒̊̿͌͋̎s̶̨͖̮̈́̈́̈́̾̅u̶̡̡̠͚̹̮͙͕̤̱̦̻͆̍̉̄͐̈̾̌̌̿͠f̴̛̝͈̣̪̲͎͙͍̀̓̇͛̋̿̏̀̇̾͋̕̕͘͠f̷͍̽̍́̀̍̈́͗ẽ̸͚̮͖͔̺̟̭̺͛̇́̈́͐̃͊̓͋̐̍͆̾͝r̷͙͖̝̓͛̑̈́̏̾̑̌̾̀̾̍͝͝

  • Nougat
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    126 months ago

    I tried to repair a microwave once. I was unsuccessful.

    • @[email protected]
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      96 months ago

      Good thing you survived. They are seriously dangerous. The capacitor usually retains enough energy to kill you for days after it was unplugged.

      • @marcos
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        56 months ago

        Hum… The stuff I’m finding on the internet should keep enough energy to harm a person for an hour or two. Not several days.

        Did microwave design change after it popularized?

      • Nougat
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        46 months ago

        That’s exactly the part I was changing. The terminals on it were plenty recessed, and I was careful not to stick my finger directly into the socket.

        • @[email protected]
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          36 months ago

          Diode and magnetron are also frequent failure causes. The magnetron is easy to test with a resistance meter. Should be low ohms through and infinity to its casing. (all cables removed of course)

          • Nougat
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            26 months ago

            I believe a new magnetron was fairly expensive, and I’m not by any means good with electricity (beyond some very simple car stuff), so I didn’t even bother trying to check it. We kind of hated that microwave anyway, its beeps were so annoying.

      • Nougat
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        6 months ago

        It just stopped heating things up. A bit of research suggested that the most common failure was the capacitor, which was like $10, so I figured why not? I was going to have to take the broken microwave off the wall whether I could fix it or not.

        Didn’t work, bought a new microwave.

        • @[email protected]
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          76 months ago

          Microwave repair can actually be quite dangerous if I understand correctly, as they can hold a residual charge which can be very harmful if you short it.

    • The Picard ManeuverOPM
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      206 months ago

      Lifelong learning. I would’ve stayed in school forever if I could have.

      • NegativeNullM
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        66 months ago

        I’d totally be an Archaeologist or Paleontologist

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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      76 months ago

      I’d do what I’m doing now, but it would be helping out schools and libraries and not companies.

    • @marcos
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      46 months ago

      I’d work on my profession, but build actually useful stuff.

    • @marlowe221
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      36 months ago

      What I do now - software developer/DevOps guy

    • @[email protected]
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      16 months ago

      I would love to just find a house with some good workspace, get a few old lathes and mills and such, and just fiddle around making cool shit.

    • @[email protected]
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      6 months ago

      Wetland or ocean ecologist. If the world is also Star Trek, probably the same honestly, I’d just be en exo-evologist lol

      Tom’s ocean planet is my dream

  • pewter
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    86 months ago

    Now I’m wondering how many days a week they work and how many hours a normal shift is.

    Since they’re not depending on the sunlight to mark their days, the “graveyard shift” might not even be a real distinction for them.

    • ✺roguetrick✺
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      6 months ago

      Depends if you’re working under Jellico or not.

      Space dad

      • @Ensign_Crab
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        56 months ago

        Just realized the Cerritos runs on a 4-shift rotation. Or they skipped gamma when naming shifts.

        • pewter
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          36 months ago

          I don’t know how I forgot the delta shift stuff from lower decks. That was a while plot point.

      • Match!!
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        16 months ago

        Why was everyone opposed to going to 4 shifts from 3 shifts? That’s less work per day.

        • ✺roguetrick✺
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          26 months ago

          Hell if I know. Less days off because you need to staff all stations for those four shifts?

  • @profdc9
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    26 months ago

    I just collect microwave oven transformers, diodes, and capacitors. Weird, huh?

    • ✺roguetrick✺
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      6 months ago

      You don’t like the magnetrons though? They’re the closest you can get to handy dandy home particle accelerators ever since we got rid of CRTs.