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this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Janeway: "Hold my beer"
The only downside is living in a universe that has the Borg. They are existential terror incarnate.
That said, they seem to always get defeated one way or another. Just make sure you live in a major federation star system and you're golden.
One thing they never really get into in Star Trek is how the body modification scene evolved in a future with medical replicators and "Doc will shine a light on it" levels of medical technology. I'm sure they could easily perform a gender transition, including changing reproductive organs to whatever combo a person wanted, in an afternoon, to say nothing of the possibility of cosmetic and functional structural changes. We see them perform highly complex and detailed biological modifications so crew members can pass as aliens like it's nothing, so why not make people taller/shorter, wider/narrower hips, bigger/smaller boobs, more feminine/masculine face, horns, pointed or alien ears, new sense organs, extra arms, etc. What kind of wild piercings are people getting? What new methods and styles of tattoos have they come up with? The possibilities are incredible. That would be a fun world to explore, even within the Federation's taboo against genetic alteration.
There was a kerfuffle about Patrick Stewart being bald in the beginning production of TNG but they eventually realized that in their utopian future, no one would care if he was bald or not. Same with gender, body shape, sexual orientation, etc. Everyone is accepted in Star Trek just as they are so there's not much need for changes
Its not really about external acceptance. Being trans is partly about being accepted for who I am, but a large part is also wanting to see the real me in the mirror. If everyone just magically accepted me as a woman I would still transition because I want to actually be feminine. I would still transition if I was the last person on earth. Likewise with body mods. I want to be accepted for who I really am, but people can't really do that if they aren't seeing the real me, the me with extra jewelry holes and (eventual) ink. It would be a slap in the face and an invalidation of my feelings if people told me they accept me as I am so there's no need to change the things I want to change about myself.
I think playing with the body and especially the mind (through eugenics, genetic engineering, or any other means) is as big of a nono in the Star Trek universe as fascism, due to trauma from the eugenic wars (you know, when Khan and his ilk fought baseline humanity).
Body modification enthusiasts, transhumanists, furries, and anything like that are probably treated with fear, loathing, and disgust.
Heck, they won't even treat baldness despite being perfectly able to fix it if they wanted to, and they don't seem to have made any effort to cure aging, despite being able to cure almost everything else; their life expectancy isn't much higher than ours, when it should be much higher.
You want that kind of thing try Iain M. Banks' Culture series. Even more freedom to live your life however you want, the only limits to body modification are your imagination and some of the laws of physics (much less than in Start Trek, though), and people live to a healthy 300 or so, throw a party, and die in their own terms because they're done, or curious. Or do not, no one is forcing them, they can keep on living if they want to.
Heck, one character used to have about sixty penises all over his body, just for fun. No more, though, even with four hearts at that point it was starting to get difficult to maintain an erection at the same time in all of them.
Human life spans do increase substantially (although not to 300) in the Star Trek universe. From Memory Alpha:
Quark gets a gender transition on Deep Space Nine
Oh yeah that's right I forgot about that. He got a full gender transition in a couple hours.
Everyone would request the ability to suck their own dicks, and never leave the home anymore.
Hm... Maybe ... but I'm also shopping around for a universe that includes immortality.
The Culture has all that, plus furries.
And loads of sex IIRC
Edit: I was thinking a different Culture, from the book "remember Phlebas".
Use of Weapons, Look to Windward, Surface Detail, and Hydrogen Sonata are all reasonably sex-filled (if not entirely sex-positive) too.
Definitely hits all the points of Luxury Gay Space Communism.
Nah, same Culture. Consider Phlebas is the first book.
Ok now I need to watch culture, what is this show?!?
It's a book series. It's a semi utopia based sci-fi. The culture is an amalgam of species (including human). It's run by "minds" hyper powerful AIs. Humanity is akin to pet dogs. A mix of pampered and useful.
Basically, humans live in a life of luxury and choice. Changing genders, or even species is very common. Immortality is mostly a logistics and boredom issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series
Discovery ruined that for us, you could end up in the shitty future after the Burn
Maybe, if this includes traveling to the future where the shoes mostly take place. Right now, in their universe, things aren't exactly going too well.