Stark wrote:Are you aware they use convicts to do unproductive work as a punishment y/n?
Yes, I would just think it's analogous to having them remake a road, picking up garbage, or printing license plates. A service that's needed, only they're finding a use for a bunch of things they already have.
With the EMHs, while they aren't incarcerated, they aren't people by Federation standards. To them, it's just a tool to use since they've bought it. The biggest problem is the holo-emitters, which I now concede would have been a burden to install.
Batman wrote:
Without the associated hardware the EMH is nothing but a lot of computer code, which costs nothing to duplicate, so wether or not there was one or 14,000 or twelve million of him is irrelevant. Do you know where that associated hardware is? Medical facilities. To enable the Mk1 to work in mines, far from recouping losses you throw even more resources at the project by installing holoemitters at the mining sites. The VOY Holodocs ability to function outside sickbay wasn't an inherent part of the setup, it was a one-off modification made possible by 29th century technology.
Yes, it would have been far more sensible to simply delete the Mk1s.
Yeah, that would be a logistics problem. That makes sense. So either some bureaucrat didn't realize that it would cost more, and put this plan in place, thinking like I did that it would be a prudent measure. Or they already had the holographic emitters in place in the dilithium mines for some reason, and just added the EMHs, and decided this would be a good way to solve the outdated programs. Or thirdly, someone in Starfleet had a REALLY bad experience with a Mark I EMH and as soon as they were replaced, used his pull to imprison them in an asteroid, and cackled with glee at his revenge.