The Barrier —What exactly is it?

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LadyTevar
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Post by LadyTevar »

Enola Straight wrote:The gravitational field of the galaxy drops off past the edge of the rim.
The same can be said of electromagnetic fields.
Presumably, something similar occurs with naturally occurring subspace fields.

The three phenomena drop off at uneven rates, resulting in spatial and energy flux
Weel... that would explain why Low-Warp ships have trouble moving through it, yes.
And Elecromagnetic fields do have a noticeable effect on human brains, which might 'jumpstart' latent psionics if the field is powerful enough. So this is a plausable theory.
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Post by SirNitram »

The sensor readings are odd. Though, Negative Radiation might be technobabble for a field or region of space which is sucking up energy, not putting it out.

Final theory, I promise. The Barrier isn't a Barrier. It's a massive power-collection system. Think a Dyson Sphere(NOT the kind from Relics. A real one) done a truly insane scale, for energy collection. Some time in the last 20,000 years, some race erects a massive power-collector around the Galaxy to capture all that radiation expelled from it constantly and provide power until the Heat Death of the Universe. This would jive with the potential guess at what Negative Radiation means.. It's a massive suction effect, drawing all radiation nearly into itself. The psi-effects may be from it being psionic in nature, like Mike's idea, or a 'kickstart' effect from EM fields, like Tevar suggested.
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Post by Patrick Degan »

SirNitram wrote:The sensor readings are odd. Though, Negative Radiation might be technobabble for a field or region of space which is sucking up energy, not putting it out.

Final theory, I promise. The Barrier isn't a Barrier. It's a massive power-collection system. Think a Dyson Sphere(NOT the kind from Relics. A real one) done a truly insane scale, for energy collection. Some time in the last 20,000 years, some race erects a massive power-collector around the Galaxy to capture all that radiation expelled from it constantly and provide power until the Heat Death of the Universe. This would jive with the potential guess at what Negative Radiation means.. It's a massive suction effect, drawing all radiation nearly into itself. The psi-effects may be from it being psionic in nature, like Mike's idea, or a 'kickstart' effect from EM fields, like Tevar suggested.
Sounds like you've read Contact recently. 8)
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SirNitram
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Post by SirNitram »

Patrick Degan wrote:
SirNitram wrote:The sensor readings are odd. Though, Negative Radiation might be technobabble for a field or region of space which is sucking up energy, not putting it out.

Final theory, I promise. The Barrier isn't a Barrier. It's a massive power-collection system. Think a Dyson Sphere(NOT the kind from Relics. A real one) done a truly insane scale, for energy collection. Some time in the last 20,000 years, some race erects a massive power-collector around the Galaxy to capture all that radiation expelled from it constantly and provide power until the Heat Death of the Universe. This would jive with the potential guess at what Negative Radiation means.. It's a massive suction effect, drawing all radiation nearly into itself. The psi-effects may be from it being psionic in nature, like Mike's idea, or a 'kickstart' effect from EM fields, like Tevar suggested.
Sounds like you've read Contact recently. 8)
Never got around to reading the novel. Read A Step Farther Out by Niven, though, where he suggests a solid-shell one around a Galaxy, supply those living on the outside with a truly bizarre realm.
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Post by Grand Admiral Thrawn »

How effective are the Barrier at the 'center" and the outside of the galaxy anymore? I mean, the E-A and the BoP were both able to enter the former and the Enterprise was able to pass through the later with only the God-Gary and some system damage, and later with no effects. The Traveler was able to bypass in completely.

A possible theory is that the Tkon Empire could have built at least the galaxy's edge one as a defense, and the Sha'Ka'Ree one when they encountered "God" and he possibly wrecked havoc until he was trapped.
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Post by LadyTevar »

There's always the possibility of the Organians.

Why they'd do it, I've not figured out yet, but they would have the power needed for a 'psionic' Barrier.
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Post by Grand Admiral Thrawn »

LadyTevar wrote:There's always the possibility of the Organians.

Why they'd do it, I've not figured out yet, but they would have the power needed for a 'psionic' Barrier.

Since they want to enforce the peace but non-violently, a race attacking the Milky Way (perhaps the Doomsday Machine one) could be stopped non-violently. Another possibilty with this is the race stopped and left, causing the Organians to stop maintening the Barirer, which is why it is now penetrable.
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Post by Alyeska »

I must say I am rather disapointed this plot concept was NEVER used in TNG+ trek. It would have been rather interesting to look into to see how the Federation and other governments have tried to explore this mystery.
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Post by Uraniun235 »

Maybe the barrier at the edge of the galaxy has been deteriorating, which would permit the E-nil to survive crossing it? If this were so, it could be that it's all but gone by the 24th century.
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Post by JodoForce »

Yeah but if they really wanted to explore this plot point there's nothing stopping them from making TNG ships have a tough time crossing it again--B&B have committed much worse continuity violations before :roll:
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Post by Death from the Sea »

Can't the theory of the barrier being meant to stop the TOS Doomsday machine be discarded, because the Ent-Nil crossed the Barrier so couldn't the Doomsday Machine?
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Post by Uraniun235 »

Death from the Sea wrote:Can't the theory of the barrier being meant to stop the TOS Doomsday machine be discarded, because the Ent-Nil crossed the Barrier so couldn't the Doomsday Machine?
But if it was set up a long time ago, it could be that it's been deteriorating since then (and is why it was never mentioned in TNG) and that this deterioration was what allowed the E-nil to penetrate the barrier (and later allowed the Doomsday Machine to penetrate).

Also, the Barrier had pretty bizarre effects on the E-nil's equipment on the first go-round... half the bridge consoles seemed to be fried when all was said and done, and it could be that while it didn't outright destroy the Doomsday Machines, it did screw their internal workings up pretty badly.
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Post by RedImperator »

It could be also (and now we're in the realm of pure speculation) that the only reason the Doomsday Machine couldn't destroy the Constellation and the Enterprise outright, and the only reason Kirk could kill the DM with a 97 megaton explosion, was because the Machine had been damaged by the barrier.
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Post by LadyTevar »

RedImperator wrote:It could be also (and now we're in the realm of pure speculation) that the only reason the Doomsday Machine couldn't destroy the Constellation and the Enterprise outright, and the only reason Kirk could kill the DM with a 97 megaton explosion, was because the Machine had been damaged by the barrier.
Now there's a thought....

Although I thought the explosion was to destroy vunerable control circuits inside the Doomsday Device?
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