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While trek does have a big aversion to GE I would hope they wouldat least remove bad genes... although now I think about it I doubt they would...

Tyyr wrote:Also, you've got Kes along who knows about airponics who could move you in that direction if you have issues doing it in the dirt.

She knows enough about airponics to be able to decide which sort of soil's best to use for it.

Ehhhh, yeah. That part.

Teaos wrote:While trek does have a big aversion to GE I would hope they wouldat least remove bad genes... although now I think about it I doubt they would...

Remember Bashir? He was genetically engineered for superior inteligence and coordination. His parents were sent to prison as a result. Maybe as a result of the Eugenics wars, GE would be frowned upon.

Yeah but I'd hope that just removing bad genes wouldntreally be held to the same standard.

Teaos wrote:Yeah but I'd hope that just removing bad genes wouldntreally be held to the same standard.

Yeah, 'cause people never overreact or generalize.

Teaos wrote:Yeah but I'd hope that just removing bad genes wouldntreally be held to the same standard.

See Bashir again. Pre-modification, he was pretty thick. While his description of being unable to tell trees and houses apart may be exaggeration, it may not be, and nonetheless gets the point across that he wasn't simply not the brightest in his class. He specifically states that the only legal reason for genetic modification is "serious birth defects", without going into specifics.

Teaos wrote:While trek does have a big aversion to GE I would hope they wouldat least remove bad genes... although now I think about it I doubt they would...

They were perfectly willing to correct B'Elanna's kid's birth defect with genetic engineering in "Lineage".

Incidentally, we have seen in "Children of Time" that even after a crashlanding the Defiant crew were able to set up a successful colony with a third the numbers of Voyager and a much smaller ship. So I'd think Voyager would do pretty well.

Yeah but that was plot devise A. I was wondering if we could really assume a group that small and untrained could survive well.

Teaos wrote:Yeah but that was plot devise A. I was wondering if we could really assume a group that small and untrained could survive well.

Didn't the Defiant also intermarry with some aliens too? I remember one of the "generational" episodes where they intermarried with some alien species.

Mark wrote:Didn't the Defiant also intermarry with some aliens too? I remember one of the "generational" episodes where they intermarried with some alien species.

Depends on your definition - some of the colonists they encountered were Worf and Jadzia's descendants.

GrahamKennedy wrote:They were perfectly willing to correct B'Elanna's kid's birth defect with genetic engineering in "Lineage".

That was because it was a potentially life-threatening condition.

Another thought is the different species. There are probably a number of non-human crew members on Voyager (Tuvok) assuming they consent and it is possible for them to procreate together and with humans couldn't this add greater genetic diversity than having just humans?

Somewhat, but it's still a limited pool. Assuming, of course, the generally 'Trek idiocy of different species being able to produce non-sterile offspring.

Here's the other thing - if the human genome is purified, as Teaos suggested, and is then combined with this limited gene pool in our hypothetical settlement... wouldn't that counteract normal evolutionary processes? Mutations would be amplified, exaggerated, and forced through the population with no time given for natural selection to determine the good ones or the bad ones.

You would suspect it but you could say they eliminate those as well.

The one big thing though is how well they will adapt without their toys to help them along. Once their technology has finally died, the crew would have figure out a way to produce their own stuff from scratch again. Sort of like being pre-industrial again. Learning how to make tools and such. I doubt many has taken some of the more advanced woodworking classes or even metalworking.

I'm sure those PADDS would help them along and such.

Another would be native diseases and viruses. I forgot the name of DS9 episode about that crazy PeTA-like lady intentionally shipwrecking a colony ship on the planet where no technology works. They do well except for the diseases that keep killing them off.