Starfleet's safety protocols
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In the fictional Star Trek universe, the safety protocols are a set of safeguards preprogrammed into certain Starfleet systems to prevent accidents or misuse of said systems.
In the shows, it has been established that safety protocols can be disengaged by officers, given a certain level of clearance and/or a minimum number of access codes inserted.
As it is common in the shows, however, the "needs of the plot" sometimes produces discrepancies in the description of this aspect of Starfleet's operations: in the 6th season finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Descent", we see Data trying to recreate in the Holodeck an episode which triggered unexpected human emotions in him (thanks to his emotion chip), and in order to accomplish a perfect reenactment of the event, he asks for La Forge's assistance, revealing that, in order to recreate the real danger involved he would need to disengage the safety protocols in the Holodeck, and that would require the concurrence of two senior officers (and so La Forge would be required to input his access code). Much later, in the Voyager's 5th season premiere episode, "Night", when an alien species boards Voyager and Seven of Nine is attacked by an alien while in the Holodeck, she solely tells the computer to "disengage the safety protocols", in order to be able to use a simulated phaser gun to disable the invader, and succeeds. The captured alien was a key piece to unravel the plot of the episode, which prompted the writers to subvert what had been established in earlier shows and even other Voyager episodes (Seven of Nine did not hold a Starfleet senior officer rank at the time of that episode, and even if she did, she would have needed the access code of another officer in order to disengage the protocols).
Another example of Holodeck Safety Protocols being disengaged by a single person is in Star Trek: First Contact. Being pursued by the Borg, Captain Picard goes into the Holodeck and starts one of his 1940's era detective stories. On a keypad on the exit, he "overrides the safety protocols". His only companion at this time is a pre-warp Earth woman. He manages to obtain a tommy gun from one of Nicky "The Nose". The Borg pursue him into the Holodeck, where he subsequently opens fire, effectively killing the two Borg drones, who turn out to be assimilated crewmen.
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[edit] Applications
Apart from occasional "plot licenses", however, the functions of the safety protocols can be seen in the following devices:
[edit] Holodeck
The Holograms from any given simulation have the potential to be every bit as real, and thus as dangerous, as their "real" counterparts", given the perfection of the simulations and the integration with replicator technology. In order to prevent accidents and misuse, the safety protocols are in place to prevent the accurate reproduction of dangerous events or situations.
In that line, a holographic weapon cannot kill, because the Holodeck will not simulate the real impact of a phaser discharge, or a bullet's, since simulations of the 20th century seem to be quite popular. Furthermore, poisonous substances will not be replicated accurately (meaning, if the plot of a simulation calls for a character, which might be impersonated by a real life participant, to ingest Cyanide for instance, a substance will appear, but it will be an innocuous one that may resemble the real thing). Accordingly, the safety protocols can also prevent the accurate simulation of the very laws of the natural universe, so that no one can die if during a flight simulation the vehicle crashes or decompresses in outer space, or as another example, it would be impossible to die by jumping off a holographic cliff.
[edit] Replicator
In the replicator, the only direct reference made in the shows to the safety protocols in place is the impossibility of replicating weapons or dangerous (such as poisonous) substances or medicine, without a sufficient/appropriate level of clearance (only doctors may replicate medicine or poisons, only the Chief of Security or the ship's Captain may authorize the replication of weapons).
It would, however, be logical to conclude, given the dynamics of the shows, that safety protocols would also prevent accidents such as clumsy individuals who might disintegrate their own hands while handling the replicator. Also, it would be possible that any replicator (especially those located in crew quarters) may be able to accept predefined parameters of security, such as an individual who is allergic to any edible substance (peanuts, for instance) preprogramming his replicator not to replicate that substance (peanuts, in the given example) in any of his dishes, even if the original recepe demands it (if the ingredient should be essential for the required dish, replication would be denied altogether). This could prevent an accidental food poisoning. And more generally, since the main computer is able to recognize voice patterns, this programming could be recognized ship-wide, so that any replicator on board will refuse replicating the hazardous substance for that specific person (the sake of example notwithstanding, it must be pointed out that it has been established the availability of intensive prenatal genetic treatment — notably during Star Trek: Voyager, for instance when B'Elanna corrects her baby's spinal cord before birth — so it's feasible that no one in the Star Trek universe has allergies, except for species-specific ones).
[edit] Main Computer
Safety protocols in the main computer (although usually not referred to as such) are in place to ensure the safety of a ship and crew by limiting access to some command functions to the senior staff or maybe just the ship's captain. Many examples have been given to that regard, such as the concurrence of a minimum number of senior officers to activate the self-destruction countdown (Star Trek: First Contact); access to the "Omega Directive" and its protocols is limited to a "level 10 clearance", which is exclusive to Starfleet captains and flag officers (Voyager's episode 4x21: The Omega Directive); the transference of any ship's command codes, which is necessary to change the commanding officer – the captain – of a ship is only possible by inputting successively the command codes of both the outgoing captain (first) and the incoming captain (TNG episode 6x10: Chain of Command, Part I).
In the shows, it was also revealed that some non-Federation species, such as the Klingons and the Romulans, perceive the safety protocols as "yet another sign of Starfleet's weakness".
