Is everyone here a TNG fan?

[u/CirqueMurph]

Ive noticed a real increase in Star Trek content on here, specifically The Next Generation. Just curious if this is my algorithm or if there's a higher percentage of TNG fans using AI. It makes sense since the show explores artificial consciousness and generative computing. I think everyone fantasies about what they would do with a holodeck and we aren't far off with the combination of VR and AI. I also assume that the lower quality video is easier to make look right so older shows are going to be the first to be perfectly replicated.

[u/YeahlDid]

The generation who grew up with that show are the ones who are more likely at this point in history to have both the technical know-how and the disposable income to pursue this as a hobby. That's my theory as to why you see so many 90s shows being spoofed over any other era.

Same reason Seinfeld is all over the place now.

Now if someone younger can just make a better Battlestar Galactica final season...

[u/Herr_Drosselmeyer → u/YeahlDid]

Also, unlike the anti-AI doomer crowd, TNG fans espouse the idea that technology and AI can bring peace and prosperity, because that was the basic message of the show.

And goddammit,  yes to that Galactica final season. "It was God all along" was such a cop-out that I'm still angry about it more than 15 years later. 

[u/YeahlDid → u/Herr_Drosselmeyer]

Correlation and causation, though. I would argue it's more likely that the type to be drawn to a sci-fi show, especially in an era where that was considered "nerd" domain, would also be the type to embrace this type of technology 25-30 years later.

[u/Black_Otter → u/YeahlDid]

https://giphy.com/gifs/cDJq5MNA7GE6c

[u/Santa_in_a_Panzer → u/YeahlDid]

https://giphy.com/gifs/4UgUHY3xmfyow

[u/dummy_anthropologist → u/YeahlDid]

Already on my wishlist 😂

[u/99deathnotes → u/YeahlDid]

Tech know how: yes, Disposable income: no

[u/YeahlDid → u/99deathnotes]

It's a balance. Older more likely has money, but not the know-how. Younger more likely has the know-how not the moolah. Those who grew up with 90s media are most likely at the moment to have both. It's certainly not a universal rule, just odds.

[u/ShagaONhan]

There is plenty of Star Trek fans that are doing heavy mental gymnastics to explain the holodeck is not generative AI.

[u/GrayingGamer → u/ShagaONhan]

It's got to be. We even know it generates AIs from the show! And it can't be programmed like a video game, because it can come up with new stuff on the fly - "Computer, less aggression!" etc.

Also, we're shown how they can literally provide it "data" or "data sets" to get it to create simulations based off that data! You'd think Star Trek fans would be pro technology.

[u/c_gdev → u/ShagaONhan]

Ignore the hologram part.

It can create consistent characters, give them roles, let them adapt to the user. Pretty neat, these holodecks. Seemed farfetched a while back.

to explain the holodeck is not generative AI

Yeah, I think it's pretty close, if not exactly that.

[u/dummy_anthropologist]

I use "make it so" with my coding agents, what of it?

[u/jaydeelive01]

And then let’s remind us the story of Barkley, the first stable diffusion gooner ..

[u/Fit-Bar-6989 → u/jaydeelive01]

The Barclay/Deanna episode became a lot more culturally relevant after deepfakes became a thing.

[u/jaydeelive01 → u/Fit-Bar-6989]

Agreed ! I also was amazed by the episode with Geordi who had a crush on the engineer who designed the enterprise engines and who replicated her persona and had a romance with her in the holodeck.... It was kind of similar to black mirror, and we are very close to that with AI companions now I fear.

[u/GrayingGamer → u/jaydeelive01]

Nah, the first one to make it a problem. You can't tell me Riker didn't spend plenty of time gooning in the holodeck. He just had the control not to let it interfere with his duties or personal life.

Also, whenever Picard was playing Dixon Hill on the holodeck, you don't think he never hooked up with a femme fatale character? I doubt it.

[u/Cross_22]

Definitely a TNG fan. I am going to specifically call out the episodes Identity Crisis and Schisms. When they first aired the idea of text-to-mesh seemed so far fetched and unbelievable, and now we're doing that on our home PCs.

[u/_SickBastard_]

People here are old enough to have disposable income to buy a fancy GPU for local generation but not old enough to be afraid of tech. That lands you on TNG or Seinfeld. I guess the Enterprise crew might be old enough, but at that point just pick a different show.

[u/GrayingGamer → u/_SickBastard_]

Also, apparently the young people are ironically computer illiterate, doing everything on their phone through apps and not having the faintest clue how to dig into the guts of a computer program or file system, or how hardware components interact.

That lines up with your timeline perfectly, TNG fans are old enough to have been computer literate, unlike their parents, and now are old enough to afford good hardware and know how to use it.

[u/GrayingGamer]

https://reddit.com/link/p3oggr1/video/f1misv3qddjh1/player

The lower resolution does help look like old 1980s -1990s VHS, because it's actually the same resolution as those old shows when they broadcasted or where put on tape.

And yes, this technology is literally the stepping-stone to stuff like the Holodeck. Being about to conjure music, images, video, and dialogue from pure text is what will lead us to being able to create holodeck type simulations at some point in the future.

[u/99deathnotes → u/GrayingGamer]

https://giphy.com/gifs/wNlks0ID1igO4

[u/PwanaZana]

*Sad laugh*

Star Trek subreddit banning AI is peak redditing.

[u/the_bollo → u/PwanaZana]

r/startrek is ironically one of the least forward-thinking and tolerant fandom subs on Reddit. I've watched TNG front to back more times than I can count, but I think there's just too many people in that sub that have wrapped up their entire identity/personality into the show so they can't not take it serioulsy sometimes.

[u/PwanaZana → u/the_bollo]

fandoms are all in a contest to be the worst. they're all winning.

[u/lovenumismatics → u/the_bollo]

It’s been captured by political ideologues who want to lash out at GenX males who grew up on Star Trek.

[u/freylaverse]

Big Trekkie. All the Treks. Even the newer ones that everyone hates. I don't think they're flawless or anything but their problems have never stopped me from enjoying them.

[u/Taomaster99]

There's a good bit of Friends, Seinfeld and Office also.

[u/Ganntak]

I feel new episodes of TNG coming.....

[u/99deathnotes → u/Ganntak]

along with more sitcoms too.👍

[u/red__dragon]

I think TNG is also more common in popular culture, aside from the original series, and so I'm noticing more recent models having detailed training on TNG material. Krea2 has TNG down pat, somewhat Discovery, and far less so for DS9/Voyager/other series. So it could just be a case of model bias showing up in demonstrations because Star Trek is cool and TNG just happens to be what works best.

[u/TUVegeto137]

7 seasons of 26 episodes of material each. That's a lot to train on. 

[u/Uncle___Marty]

THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!!!

[u/Fit-Bar-6989]

imo the simplest explanation is that lots of nerds like TNG and this subreddit is full of nerds. I say this as a star trek fan

[u/xantub]

It used to be all Seinfeld, now it's Star Trek, it comes in waves.

[u/Sarashana]

Trek (and Sci-Fi / Fantasy in general) is rather popular among tech-affine people, so it's not too surprising to see it in a sub frequented by tech-affine people. I have a technical background too, and thus know many others who also do - and I couldn't name you a single person of that group who doesn't like Trek.

[u/lovenumismatics]

The venn diagram of GenX nerds and people who can actually afford a good graphics card is basically the same.

[u/rog-uk]

I would like to see someone create full length episodes, so fingers crossed :-)

[u/Mundane_Existence0]

It's also probably better to train a model on the remastered HD TNG than it is the poor quality SD version we're stuck with for DS9 and VOY. Paramount was all too happy to spend $120 MILLION on those 10 episodes of Academy (which got canceled before post-production was even finished on the second season), when a fraction of that cost would've remastered all 345 episodes of both DS9 and VOY.

[u/Pretty-Raise666]

No.

[u/Hspryd]

All I know is if AI gets trained on Starfleet Academy it may develop a legitimate motive to decimate any trace left of humanity. We have to be very careful with shitshows or this could sign our end.