Holographic Economy

[Tyyr]

Ok, here's an odd thought. Anyone who read any of my non-Trek works of fiction can probably tell you I enjoy world building. I especially like taking the broad strokes, like what we've got to work with in Trek, and building a logical working society in the framework provided.

*For starters I'm assuming the socialistic model of the Federation. Specifically that the basics are guaranteed to all citizens, a house/apartment, clothes, food, education, medical care, some internet-like connection to the world. Everything over and above that has to be earned by doing useful work for society. That seems to work fairly well at accommodating both the "We have no money," idea we hear from time to time with the actual evidence that they do have money and buy things.

So I've been pondering my holographic crewman and how she might relate to other holograms. Now most we see are rather... dumb. They can handle most interactions when you behave on script but if you go off it they tend to go rather blank and just zone out on you. You do have a few holographic characters though that seem to be able to handle random human interactions pretty well. The Doctor for one, but there are others who seem to either be that intelligent or just programmed that well that they can interact fluidly with humans without having to have a script.

So I got to thinking, what kind of system would there be for holograms and holographic programs out there? I don't mean to run them, but more of a distribution/development set up. We know that holographic novels have publishers but from what we've seen of holodeck use in Trek holonovels are only a small part of holodeck use. Picard liked his Dixon Hill stuff but aside from that many situations seem to have been custom made. So I got to thinking, what kind of holographic... stuff, might people trade? Well, taking a look at some existing simulated environments (Second Life, Online Games, 3D modeling, Game Design) I can think of some general broad categories.

First, terrain. This would be the actual environment. Say 1980's biker bar, the Tomed Plains, Roman Palace, Victorian Home, environment/location files that some modelers might create for others to use.
Second, widgets. Everything from customized lamps, to period rifles, etc.
Third, clothes.
Forth, characters. Custom tweaked character models instead of "generic human male #3".
Fifth, and the big one for this, AI. I think one of the biggest markets would be for customized intelligent AI's. Unlike the stock characters that stare at you dumbly if you don't say something they can immediately put into their limited script these would be AI's capable of handling many different situations, learning, growing, etc. Proto-Doctor's if you will. They wouldn't be sapient, but they'd be pointing the way towards the doctor.

What we see in most Trek encounters is the generic stuff. After all walking up to a computer and saying, Jazz bar, brunette in the audience, is going to allow for a huge amount of customization. For some people that might be enough, or people in a hurry, but others might want more tweaking.

The holographic "economy" would run the gamut. For instance there would be stuff some people would put up for free, just because they enjoy making it. Others might charge for things. Companies would exist that develop and sell these kinds of things. So you'd have what you see today in digital entertainment, everything from free stuff on up to premium pay for it type things. Heck, I can even see artists doing commission work to make customized whatever for people.

So I guess my question is, does it make sense? For this kind of system to have sprung up around holographic technology? I ask because I'm pondering making the difference between a generic character/AI and a highly customized/advanced one sort of an important point in the story.

[Tyyr]

Nothing? Damn.

[Tsukiyumi]

Yeah, I think you pretty much covered it. People trade better programs they create for stuff you don't normally get for free.

[Tyyr]

While I don't mind being right I do like discussion.

[Teaos]

Honestly thats a bit long winded for a straight up question. Sum it up and I'll give it a shot.

[Tyyr]

The long windedness is part of the question, specifically do my thoughts make sense and do you have alternatives.

However if you still think TLDR then my cliff notes version is what kind of sub-culture would have grown up around the holodeck seeing as it's kind of a synthesis between the gaming, writing, movie, and porn industries.

[Teaos]

You mentioned porn so I read the whole thing...

Basically the idea sort of works, but even nowadays copywrite is almost nonexistant, people downloading a swaping other people works. And this is in a society that activly promotes a capatilist economy.

So in a society like the UFP where everyone has a pretty good standard of life provided to them free of charge, I cant see this holographic trading thing working to well. If you create something you either keep it totally to yourself, or you make it free for all. I can't really se much room for middle ground.

Just like someone once said in TNG people make and create stuff to better themselves and society. There would be no trading so much as you just do it for the honour. And maybe once you get a bit famous for writting a rather good holo-orgy program, maybe people will start sending you interesting stuff, or you'll become known as a expert and be invite places.

I can't see any actual trade network really working though.

[Mikey]

I honestly think your ideas make sense, but that the underlying premise is a little off. With the advancement of computers, and the detail that they can create in the holodecks, I don't see a lot of reason for a person to give up any commodities for a hand-written (as it were) holo-program... at least, not a lot of commodities. Why would I give up something of value for a holoprog written based on someone else's motivations, rather than a "free" one which is catered to mine?

[Tyyr]

Because you lack the skill/ability/time to precisely create what you're looking for. A generic jazz bar might not be what you want but you also don't want to spend hours finely crafting what you're after. Instead you can search some holoprogram site and find a lot of variations on the idea of a bar and be able to use what they created for yourself. If holodeck time is at a premium, and in this proposal it is, you might not want to spend all your time in the holodeck hand crafting whatever it is you're looking for when you can get something almost exactly what you're after off the internet (or whatever the Federation equivalent is). Heck, it can just give you ideas to browse what other people have done.

This is also getting based a lot off of how many modern games work. Half-Life. Great game, awesome game, but it would have died within a year or so EXCEPT for the mod scene. People spent a great deal of free time creating an incredible amount of work for it. Everything from maps to character skins to new AI to just little items you could put into the game all the way to stripping the game to the rails and doing a total conversion of it.

In the case of holodecks you'd have much the same thing going on. Some people like making environments, others create items, others characters, and some even get into the details and write AI's. You've still got other people making amateur holonovels, movies, whatever. Just like today there would be tiers, some people just do it for fun and post their stuff up for free. Some sucks, some is art (the Adeptas Sororitas mod for Dawn of War is jaw dropping) but it's all up for free. Other places make it kind of a trade thing. You have to create content and share it to partake of what's up. Some stuff is so good that you have to pay to get it. I'm not suggesting a completely pay for play system but instead one that is like what exists today.

[Tsukiyumi]

...Half-Life. Great game, awesome game, but it would have died within a year or so EXCEPT for the mod scene. People spent a great deal of free time creating an incredible amount of work for it. Everything from maps to character skins to new AI to just little items you could put into the game all the way to stripping the game to the rails and doing a total conversion of it...

Like Firearms, or Action HL. 8)

You make a good point Tyyr, and I'm inclined to agree. Some people would be willing to pay some latinum for custom programs... which we saw on DS9.

[Teaos]

No they paid to use the holodecks, they choose any programe they wanted. You could speculate Quark paid for them... but I wouldnt bet on it.

[Tyyr]

Why not? Quark could have them to help attract business to the holosuites. He could have bought them then he charges to use one if you want it if you don't use your own. He's a miser but also a businessman.

[Mikey]

Again - why would Quark add overhead (the cost of proprietary holoprograms) when he could charge the same amount and use "free" programs? By doing the latter, he both reduces a vendor connection and increases his margin.

I'd have to be convinced that creating a holoprogram toone's own tastes is so time-intensive that it's wortwhile to pay for one that's customized to someone else's tastes.

Barclay was a working Starfleet engineer, yet seemed to be able to create a very specific and exacting personal program, as did Worf.

[Teaos]

And Tom.

[Tyyr]

Again - why would Quark add overhead (the cost of proprietary holoprograms) when he could charge the same amount and use "free" programs? By doing the latter, he both reduces a vendor connection and increases his margin.

Perhapse because that's what people want. If you built a movie theater to get people to come but then all you had to show them was Youtube clips unless they brought their own how well would that do against someone who let you bring your own but also had the latest block busters on tap? Hell, we know he had programs available but that's it.

I'd have to be convinced that creating a holoprogram toone's own tastes is so time-intensive that it's wortwhile to pay for one that's customized to someone else's tastes.

Again, it's not all about paying. Some things will charge, but many will not. That said it's all about how you want to spend your time. Do you want to spend your time on the holodeck mucking around with the program and getting it just right or would you rather use someone else's stuff?

To be perfectly honest we have no real way to know how much time was spent on creating a program like you want. We know that a couple of lines can create an environment. Take a look at 01101011011, Riker made a jazz bar and got his brunette with only a couple of lines. However he stuck completely with what the computer first offered up. Even that took a minute or two. What if you wanted to customize everything? It took him a couple swings to get a girl he found acceptable. Imagine doing that with the band, the bar, the music, most of the scenario. Now imagine you don't just flip through the choices the computer offers but insist on getting something exactly right. I don't have a problem seeing that taking a good bit of time and in this set up you're paying for that holodeck time.

Barclay was a working Starfleet engineer, yet seemed to be able to create a very specific and exacting personal program, as did Worf.

Barclay could have spent all his non-holodeck free time making his programs. Frankly I wouldn't find that hard to believe. Worf might have decided to spend a few hours getting his program just right, as a Klingon he probably had to as his idea of a workout is not what I'd expect the Federation standard to be. Neither of them was occupied 24/7 with their job, and we have no real idea how they spent their down time, which on a Starfleet vessel I'm guessing your options are more limited than in other places.