Quote of the Week...from Jonathan Frakes

I always enjoyed going into the holodeck.                             ---Jonathan Frakes

You may recognize Jonathan Frakes...who just turned 70 today...by his most famous role as Commander William Riker on the sci-fi classic series Star Trek: The Next Generation.  I checked out his quotes and settled on the above one because...well...it was intriguing.  I wonder if Frakes says he likes going into the "holodeck", which is just a part of the filming set, because it stimulates his imagination, or does he really regard it as a holodeck, in which just about any kind of setting or environment programmable into the ship's computer system can be reproduced.  I like the concept of holodeck myself, although I do remember an episode of the series in which the programming went haywire and the supposedly harmless gangsters it generated suddenly became lethal.  Imagination is a great thing, but I'd like a device that more vividly portrays different exotic environments and approximates various kinds of experiences.  I had expected that virtual reality with its funny helmet/masks would be more developed than it is right now...God knows that the demand for something like this among the population has to be very high.  One of my all-time favorite book series is the four-volume science fiction classic Otherland by Tad Williams...it takes virtual reality technology to its proper ends.  What I'd like from a holodeck or sophisticated VR device is to simply be able to travel to different places and walk around...no game or role playing here, just approximating the travel experience without the burdens of expense, danger and red tape.  Of course, sitting at a French café this way I wouldn't expect to be able to savor my drink or meal.  And how does one reproduce effects like temperature, wind, touch or smell without intrusively applying probes to one's body?  Still, I think it would be awesome to reproduce a surround-experience even with some of the more problematic areas omitted.  I think Frakes' meaning about liking the holodeck was that it was a little like going down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland...you're never quite sure what's going to happen next...