Light Review
Posted on Mon Apr 29th, 2024 @ 12:30pm by Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier & Commander Martin Sorenson
Mission:
Shakedown Shake-Up
Location: Somewhere on Esquimalt
Timeline: After the Nelson's return
2174 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure
Njalia checked her datapad, this part of the station was quite a warren of bureaucratic activity, and very poorly marked. Luckily she had the guidance system on the datapad but it was still mildly frustrating. Ah, there it was Office of C. Wainwright. She tapped the chime, "Lieutenant Sayffier reporting as ordered for a debrief."
"Please, come in, Lieutenant." Wainwright gestured to the seat across from his desk. The man, dressed in neatly pressed grey tunic, took a moment to bring up her information on his PaDD. "I see you were Ops Chief for this shakedown cruise. I understand it was ...not typical... having been interrupted by discovery of an incursion by a Delta Quadrant entity. Though the issues that have been reported thus far for the Nelson are also quite outside the norm." His lips compressed, resisting an urge to voice the observation that some of them were hardly unforeseen. "Hence, I will be acting as an agent for both Intelligence and the Certification Commission to cover both. Do you have any questions before we begin?"
"No, sir," said Najia taking a seat in the offered chair. "I cannot speak for outside the norm on this class of ship. But I believe that many of them on the Nelson were a result of its rushed deployment by . . . non-standard contractors."
He nodded. That was certainly a large part of the impression he'd gotten from reports from the engineers. "Non-standard and separate," he remarked. "The lack of coordination among contractors to ensure proper fit up has been noted. However, it was not the only design flaw called out in reports." A brow colored nearly the grey of his tunic tipped upward. "I understand there were issues both with crew permissions for basic functions and with the holographic," his mouth twitched a moment against distaste at the designation, "crewmembers."
"It was a simple, if time-consuming, fix," Najia replied, "the permission set locked out certain lower ranks for safety reasons which made sense for the work in the shipyard but not beyond that." She tilted her head just slightly and considered for a moment. "The holographic crew performed their tasks admirably. While limited by their core programming they proved adept in that role. However, some of our primary crew found them disconcerting for various reasons, especially for our species that rely upon scent to recognize people."
"Yes..." he replied slowly, as he looked at his notes. There were numerous comments along the lines of 'creepy', that he could not at all disagree on. "The lack of scent was one issue, but I see number of others. For instance, there was an incident with the EMH that I believe you were called upon to resolve?"
"Yes, but that had nothing to do with the Inquiry-class crew holograms," said Njalia. "That was a problem as one of the admirals who visited the ship inadvertently," best to be politic, "left a copy of his personal EMH program as the sickbay's default EMH. In this case, it was not well suited for anyone apart from the Admiral having fully adapted to its primary patient's idiosyncrasies."
"I see." Yet another quality failure. He made a note. "Yet, you revised more than only that hologram's personality matrix. I know the CMO requested that those in medbay have acceptable bedside manner - not that it helped with the only real patient - but the motivation is understandable. However, the records show that a number of other holograms were modified to be more like ...real people. What was the reason for those?"
"To make them more distinguishable for the rest of the crew, unit designations and static appearance do not make for memorable crew," answered Njalai. "It also made them more relatable and put people at ease when working with the holographic crew."
"I see." It was a perfectly reasonable answer, and given the impressions of from the other crew he'd interviewed so far, undoubtedly true. Still, he couldn't help but feel a gut check; so much of the early years of his career had been spent investigating various 'holodeck gone wild' incidents, as well as various holograms inadvertently given enough enhancement parameters to achieve true AI - and all too often derail, if not outright endanger, the organic crew. But the Lieutenant was young and used to the framework that developed so much work to build in core directives to prevent anything like another Moriarity. (Of course, they'd claimed all those had been in place for the synths. Until Mars...) "What would be your recommendation for balance between a more ...relatable... holographic crew and one that will operate both safely and efficiently?"
"Well, we need to add in scent, but I think there is a solution for that," said Njalia, fishing out a datapad, "That is a purely technical fix and should not be a significant issue."
"As to the best use of holographic crew. I would recommend, one, allowing each department to choose the appearance of the holograms they work with, while they all have the same capabilities, some people like reminders of home or have an idea of who works in a department from their earlier postings. Things that make people feel comfortable which are often very idiosyncratic."
"Two, layer in a basic personality and experience protocols to make each holographic truly unique and able to gain perspective that will allow them to contribute more to the efficient running of the ship," she said looking up. "I have run the numbers, the Inquiry-class has more than sufficient processing power to maintain a bank of five hundred holographic crew members with such matrices without even starting to impact its core processes."
"Third and lastly, eliminate all holograms that do not have an Asimov-grid as their foundation. No tactical and no marine holographic crew. If you are worried about the dangers of holograms, do not allow any holograms to exist without the hardcoded Asimov-grid as their foundation. That should be universal across holodecks, emergency holograms and holographic crew, any weakening of the Asimov-grid invites danger. Therefore, we must ensure that it is impossible to generate a holograms lacking those core safety underpinnings."
She looked to the agent. "Does that answer your question?"
Wainwright nodded, impressed. He had every intention of highlighting those recommendations for safety, particularly with respect to tactical and marine crew. He was less sanguine about letting departments choose and providing uniqueness and the ability to gain perspective, and therefore potentially initiative. "Mostly. But if departments can 'customize' their holograms and those can further adapt from interaction with the sentient crew, how do you ensure that there's not another situation like with the EMH were an individual's preferences resulted in an undesirable situation?"
"Undesirable interactions are part of the sentient condition, sir," said Njalia. "I am very sorry that EMH was not restrained from verbally abusing a member of my crew but if we code in timidity to the hologram and wall off their initiative, what can we hope to have them do in a real emergency? The EMH you refer to was retrained and learned to be a better medical practitioner. Is that not what we would do with any other crew member who had a negative interaction with another crew person? If we are going to have holographic crew members, the emphasis needs to be on the crew member side of the equation and not the holographic part."
His brows at that. "Holograms are not sentients, and with few exceptions, in my experience initiative has generally proven to be an undesirable trait in them. While timidity may not be desirable, one that is overly assertive can be much worse." He tapped his stylus a moment, considering how much more to say, but this was hardly classified. "Ultimately part of this evaluation goes to the debate over relying so heavily on holograms to replace actual crew. You say there is capacity for maintaining 500 'unique personalities' but there is an unpleasant history with artificial personalities developing beyond bounds and in ways that can not only impact computing integrity but endanger mission. To negate that, the design philosophy was to provide minimal personality - simple polite interaction coupled with expertise in their assigned areas. However, many shakedown crew did complain about the 'uncanny valley' aspect of the holograms as originally configured as well as the sense that the ship had in many ways been built for the holograms rather than for the Starfleet personnel."
He leaned back, pursing his lips. "Feeling that one is meant to be replaced by a hologram is probably not helped by a philosophy that says to treat them like any other crew member."
"As long as they are clearly identified as holographic, I do not see the problem," said Njalia. "Even the best-designed holographic crew is going to remain limited by comparison to an actual member of Starfleet when it comes to complexity and innovation in thinking. But if holographic crew is to be used, we are doing Starfleet a disservice if we do not take advantage of the opportunities it provides. A crew supported by holograms that can . . . improve to work more efficiently and seamlessly beside the Starfleet personnel that are the core of the fleet; that is the promise of this new technology, the ability to enhance what Starfleet already does, bringing out the best in its people."
Whether holographic crew should be used for anything but emergency situations or short-term 'extra set of hands' was very much the question in Craig's mind, but that decision was well above his pay grade. "That argument for efficient support was once made for synths. We know how that turned out," he said flatly. Then lifted a hand to forestall objection. "In theory a hardcoded Asimov-grid should prevent that, but theory has had a history of breaking down, especially in contact with the unknowns Starfleet encounters in reality. That said, no one disputes that holograms can be useful and can enhance crew function. The issue is more the degree to which they replace real crew - it's hard to bring out the best in people when they're reduced to a minimal number that's largely tasked with supervising holograms."
Njalia closed her eyes for just a moment, letting her inner ice maiden wash over her, cooling her Andorian instinct to rise to the fight. "While on the Nelson, the ratio was higher than one to one, due to the unusual situation with the Vesta, and that was uncomfortable at times. However, a one-to-one ratio of holograms to active duty personnel would be my initial recommendation for crew balance except in a few of the more manual labor-intensive roles, even there I would not want it to be more than two to one. The holographic crew should be utilized as a way to assist the crew in their duties, not to do the duties instead of them."
His lips compressed, but he nodded. At least she wasn't one of the young ones advocating for an all hologram crew with only a handful of sentients to to direct and/or reign them in. "Noted. The decision will be made well above either of us, but your comments and recommendations will be included in the final report," he said, jotting marks on his PaDD. "Now, turning to the other issue, I understand you were involved in evaluating the First Republic shuttle and developing the virus to neutralize whatever they had salvaged of our catapult. What is your assessment of their technological level and projected advancement?"
"Their society may be blinkered by prejudice but they have some good scientists and technicians working for it," answered Njalia. "Even though the virial attacks should remove the stolen information from their systems, they now know such things are possible. It is not quite closing the lock after the water has poured out, but it has still given them a boost they would not have otherwise had. Technological advancement in a large dynamic system is impossible to predict, but I would suspect that they will be advancing quickly but not as quickly as they would if they were a properly open society. If the viral attack really slowly them down, it will more be because it has provoked infighting among their governmental factions for failure to prevent it than actual damage done to their knowledge base."
Wainwright sighed inwardly. Her analysis largely aligned with what he'd heard from a xeno-sociologist as well as by various scientifically trained personnel. He couldn't disagree; he only hoped there might be enough delay and infighting for a new regime to replace the old. And one not bent on vengeance and/or conquest. He only hoped enough similar analyses would convince Command that this wasn't an end, but a pause. "That agrees with what I've heard from others," he said, adding a highlight in his notes. "Unless you have more to add, I thank you for time."
"No, thank you, sir," she said standing. She paused for a moment and then added, "Good luck with your report."
