resonant | Best uses for a holodeck

Canonical Trek characters use the holodecks for sports you can't do on a starship (Klingon martial arts, skiing), going to bars, and that kind of amateur-theater-type entertainments that this introvert cannot fathom enjoying. Fanfictional Trek characters also use them to have sex with unavailable co-workers. All perfectly plausible.

But holy crap, you could have a holomassage twice a week.

Other things I would use a holodeck for if I had one:

"Computer, create some models with my same body measurements, but not my same face, because that's creepy. Now let's try a range of clothing suitable for this interior climate, six outfits at a time. Prioritize freedom of movement. I don't look good in yellow."

In a similar vein, trying out hairstyles. ~~Glasses.~~ No, wait, in the Trek future there are no glasses.

Physical therapy.

Dancing lessons.

A personal trainer. (In my case, dancing lessons and a personal trainer would probably look pretty similar. "No, your left foot. Left. Left.")

Music rehearsal. Multiple overlapping metronomes and scrolling sheet music. The best accompanist in the sector. A rhythm guide for tricky syncopations. One soprano, one tenor, and one bass. A few carefully selected instruments that you need to time yours to. A whole entire choir and/or orchestra. An ensemble with such sophisticated AI that it could improvise with you.

Language lessons with someone whose lips you could read. Assuming the speakers of that language had lips. And someone who would converse with you.

If you have a long, physically tedious computer task to perform, you could holocreate yourself an input device that required you to move your whole body so you wouldn't get repetitive motion injuries. Trackpad? No, I'm using this rowboat.

And think of the things you and your friends could do together other than solve mysteries! Contradancing. Karaoke. D&D. Hell, you could be circus acrobats.

I can't promise that I would never use the holodeck to summon up a fictional character to hug me.

(This line of thought inspired by

AxeMeAboutAxinomancy, who is charming me by writing Paris/Kim in 20-for real-21.)

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*Wow.* This is amazing. It's sort of a weird futuristic cousin of ASMR.

Like have you seen those photos taken inside cellos and such? You could holo yourself down to the size of a tuning peg and just wander around in them.

Or like "high-speed trains pass harmlessly over your head. 45 minutes."

When I was a kid I liked to daydream about what it would be like if all the surfaces of the world were made of trampoline and you could bounce everywhere you went. And nearly everyone I've ever talked to had a kid experience of lying down looking at the ceiling and imagining the room turned upside down, how you'd have to step over the wall at each doorway, how the shower water would flow upward ...

Edited (html fail) 2021-09-08 00:51 (UTC)

Oh wow those photos. Yes! Or even smaller, wander around in microscope-forests. And yeah, trains, trampoline everything, gravity is weird, so may things (that seem relatively easy in the holodeck, honestly)!