I believe people can be conscious but can exist for a very extended period in the buffer. Does this imply that the body continues to function at a very slow rate or that while a person can be conscious, the body itself is not generating this consciousness? Or if slowed down, does that mean eventually a human would age visibly, even have need to eat and breathe?
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4What leads you to believe that people can be conscious while stored in the pattern buffer? Your question may be based on a false premise here.– LogicDictatesCommented Aug 3, 2023 at 23:06
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@LogicDictates: did not a character have experiences while being transported?– releseabeCommented Aug 3, 2023 at 23:07
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2We saw things from Reg Barclay's POV during transport in "Realm Of Fear," but that was while he was still on the transporter pad. Also, the transports in that episode were indicated to take a few seconds longer than normal, due to the Enterprise's close proximity to a plasma streamer at the time. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have seen as much from Barclay's POV as we did.– LogicDictatesCommented Aug 3, 2023 at 23:29
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2Whoever is being transported is converted from matter into pure energy and stored in the pattern buffer, almost like a file. There is literally no reason they would age because there are no physical processes going on.– Sovereign InquiryCommented Aug 4, 2023 at 4:38
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3 Answers
The person who is being transported isn't aware of anything while in the buffer and no biological processes occur. This is seen in The Next Generation episode Relics
In this episode, the Enterprise (Picard's Enterprise) finds a Dyson sphere with a crashed ship on the surface. While investigating the ship, Lt Cmdr La Forge finds a human who is actually (intentionally) stuck in the pattern buffer.
Upon rematerializing the the person in the buffer, they find it was Captain Scott (from the TOS era) who had barely aged a day since he went into the transporter buffer 75 year prior. Scotty had no awareness of the passage of time and was surprised to find that many years had past (upon hearing that the away team was from the Enterprise, he assumed it was Kirk's Enterprise from his era).
answered Aug 3, 2023 at 23:24
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1does "barely a day" imply that scotty had some sort of aging occurred or do you mean that he had not aged at all? that is, no changes in his body or mind would be detectable vs his body/mind when he entered the transporter? Commented Aug 3, 2023 at 23:55
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1@releseabe - The episode didn't say anything specifically about Scotty aging or not, but it doesn't make sense on paper to think that he would've aged in the biological sense while stored in the buffer, since he didn't have human biology (cells, organs, etc) in that state. Starfleet transportation involves matter being converted to energy and back again, and people or objects are in energy form when stored in the buffer. Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 1:32
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@LogicDictates: it could be argued that it transports not just the matter but also processes. If a nerve impulse was being transmitted to open one's hand then when one materialized, that impulse shd continue on its way. Therefore much more than the collection of atoms has to be transmitted and how things like nerve impulses are dealt with in the transporter is over my pay grade. Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 2:19
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1@releseabe - I don't see how any of that speculation supports the idea that a person would age in a biological sense while stored as pure energy. What you just described sounds wholly consistent with a person's aging being altogether suspended. Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 2:31
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1@releseabe - Something, something, Heisenberg compensator. If you want to know how Heisenberg compensators work, according to Michael Okuda: "They work just fine, thank you." Commented Aug 4, 2023 at 2:46
In the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the absence of biological activity—including consciousness—are part of the major story arc for Chief Medical Officer Joseph M'Benga, who uses this fact to sustain the life of his daughter, who has a fatal degenerative disease untreatable with existing Federation technology, by storing her in the backup pattern buffer of the medical transporter system.
Being stored in a pattern buffer is, in effect, a 'pause button' or a 'time stop' for the things stored, including for biological organisms. Dr. M'Benga's daughter Rukiya only ages when he periodically rematerializes her for quality time, and to conduct further tests and measurements related to her condition.
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3In season 2, Episode 8, the same thing is also brought up as a means to stop a fatally wounded soldier from dying while waiting for equipment.– PhilippCommented Aug 4, 2023 at 15:33
Not much normally, but occasionally:
In Vanishing Point (Enterprise, Season 2 episode 10), Hoshi Sato is transported up from an away mission during a "diamagnetic storm".
After materialising on the Enterprise, she goes about her business, then suddenly discovers she is starting to become transparent and immaterial.
She undergoes a series of vivid frightening experiences involving alien saboteurs, her own apparent existence as an insubstantial ghost unable to warn the crew or stop the aliens. She finds she can minimally manipulate objects around her and uses this to communicate with Archer by flickering the lamp in his quarters in old Morse code.
The resolution is, she gets materialised on the transporter-pad and is finally able to directly speak to the crew, telling them about the aliens. They calm her down explaining that she's only just come from the away mission and spent 8 seconds in the transporter buffer - during which time she experienced her adventure.
That she was under these special circumstances - transport during a diamagnetic storm - apparently meant she was able to accumulate many hours of these clearly life-like and alarming events indicates that some (abnormal) brain-function was able to continue during her time in the buffer - and perhaps during the process of materialisation itself. This implies that there was passage of time for her neural tissues to hallucinate and lay-down memories of these events.
The subject is not further explained.
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Then there's the strange incident involving Lt. Reginald Barclay (TNG. 6th season, episode 2: Realm of Fear).
Some crew members of a sister-vessel have disappeared, Barclay seems to hallucinate being attacked in the transporter stream - then is found to have an alien virus and that his arm (bitten) is slightly out of phase.
It turns out that the worm-like creatures that are moving and attacking in the stream are the lost crew members.
This apparently happens during the re-materialisation part of the process, but is never explained.
answered Aug 4, 2023 at 18:41
