Star Trek Thought Experiments

Smart people love Star Trek. And smart people love thought experiments.

It seems a pretty natural thing, then, to bring the two together. Trek offers up a number of thought-provoking problems all its own, from the questions of identity emanating from the Transporter to the question of Data's sentience; but thought experiments emanating from classical philosophy also resonate in Trek, from the causality issues of time travel to the timeless tension between reason and emotion. Along the way, a few more modern problems emerge, including the possibility that we are living in a computer simulation - which naturally brings holodecks to mind.

Here, then, is a collection of 22 puzzles that will hopefully be both entertaining and thought-provoking for the dedicated philosophical Trekker:

Can History Be Changed? * Are We Alone in the Universe? * Does the Transporter Kill You? * The Fate of Dr. Moriarty *
Stretching Time * The Bootstrap Paradox * Can Time Travel Not Change History? * Can a Machine Be Conscious? * Can a Mind Move Between Bodies? * Can a Mind Download Into a Computer? * The Needs of the Many * Alien Rights * Interstellar Justice * Are We Better Off Without Emotions? * Is Perfect Happiness Possible? * and more!