But the Federation has no history with the Illyrians. The Illyrians weren’t forced to live in Federation society. Their ancestors weren’t enslaved by the Federation. Their planets weren’t conquered by the Federation. As far as we know, they’re not refugees who had to flee into Federation space.

It would be different if Illyrians had always been a group within the Federation. But they chose to go to the Federation with full knowledge of the Federation’s laws. They have the choice to reject Federation membership if they wanted.

I don’t know how well that metaphor works since Illyrians are aliens. The Federation is already full of aliens with biology and abilities different than humans. So what if Illyrians have modifications that make them different than humans? Vulcans have two sets of eyelids and are adapted to live in harsh deserts humans can’t survive in. They’re also telepathic, three times stronger, and have perfect memory.

Does that mean the Federation is a segregated society between all different races? If they split cities between Illyrians and non-Illyrians, wouldn’t they also be splitting cities between Andorians, Vulcans, Tellarties, etc.?

Which actually contradicts a TNG episode where the Federation had an entire research facility dedicated to creating genetically enhanced children with super powers like immunity to disease, telekinesis, and rapid maturity.

That colony wasn’t a member of the Federation, though.

But they have discussions about it in the episode and no one brought up any laws about it. Picard even says he disapproves of it personally but says nothing about it being banned.

One could argue that’s not an augmentation.

From Dr. Bashir, I Presume: “DNA resequencing for any reason other than repairing serious birth defects is illegal.”

The Doctor specifically said that many of the modifications Torres wanted to make had nothing to do with the baby’s health.

TNG overall never said anything about the Federation or Starfleet being against genetic modification. It wasn’t just Darwin Research Station. They didn’t say anything about it in “Masterpiece Society” either.

Dr. Bashir I Presume was the first episode that any kind of ban was ever brought up. They didn’t even say anything about a ban in “Space Seed” or “Wrath of Khan.”

Also, when Torres was pregnant in Voyager, she wanted the Doctor to modify her baby to remove Klingon traits and no one said it was illegal.

I always thought the genetic modification ban was pretty flimsy. It wasn’t even established until DS9 since TNG had the Darwin Research Station.

I really don’t like how strict they made it in SNW. Why should humans dictate the laws for all races in the Federation? What happened to the Denobulans? Phlox said that they genetically modify themselves.

DS9 said that genetic modification was still allowed for the treatment of serious illnesses. So it doesn’t make sense for all permanent genetic modification to be banned.

Also, in DS9, genetic modification was more like performance enhancing drugs. Bashir’s modifications gave him an unfair advantage over other people. It’s kind of like someone cheating to get into a good school. But that argument also has problems since there are aliens with naturally superior abilities compared to humans. Vulcans have perfect memory, superior physical abilities, and telepathy, they would have a big advantage over humans in a lot of things. But Vulcans aren’t banned from Starfleet.

Gabe Newell, yes the owner of Valve/Steam, has an ocean research organization that owns a submarine designed to dive down to 10km, to some of the deepest parts of the ocean.

I think Patrick Stewart might be more like Director Bullock from American Dad than Captain Picard.

But warp speed isn’t the same as impulse. Warp doesn’t accelerate based on Newtonian principles. It’s bending space in a bubble around the ship. That’s how it’s able to go faster than the speed of light.

Changing directions at warp has other issues. From what we’ve seen, they actually have to drop out of warp in order to make large course corrections.

Starships are fast but they really shouldn’t be that maneuverable. You do still have to worry about the inertial dampeners. If you’re constantly changing directions, the inertial dampeners have to compensate for the acceleration. Keep in mind that starships can accelerate at rates that would flatten anyone into bloody goo without inertial dampeners.

Even if they’re always using a warp bubble to change the ship’s mass, it would not be easy to compensate for quickly accelerating to 0.1c, going down to 0, and then immediately accelerating to 0.1c to another direction.

We’re Babylon 5. Steve Huffman is President Clark.