A Federation Force User

[Enterprise E]

What would happen if, say after an encounter with the Star Wars Galaxy, a human born on Earth, with no known family history of ESP capabilities suddenly has Force powers. The human teenager would have some to all of the following powers: TK, battle precog, super speed, Force shield, and Force Lightning. How would the Federation treat said person, or persons if more people begin to develop/are discovered to have Force capabilities. They aren't genetically enhanced, like Doctor Bashir, or Kahn, but would definately be "superior" to normal humans.

[SailorSaturn13]

Badly. They would assume he is Genetically augmented (Khan had similar powers).

[Ted C]

Betazoids seem to have comparable issues; they can read the minds of every human they meet with little or no effort. Of course, we don't know that much about how the Feds treat the average Betazoid. They let the Betazoid ambassador wander freely, but that could just be diplomatic immunity. They let assigned a half-Betazoid to a counselor's position in Starfleet, which gives her official standing. Apart from them, we don't see many Betazoids off of Betazed itself. The Federation may limit their movements off Betazed, or they may not.

Data's situation might be another good example. Starfleet tried to control his actions and those of his daughter Lal, but Federation law ruled in Data's favor in the first instance, and Picard seemed to think it would do so again in the second. Starfleet would undoubtedly want to control a Force-sensitive for study, but they might find that impossible if the person in question had any kind of legal advocacy, at least as long as the person didn't do anything illegal.

[Who is like God arbour]

The legal initial position with an human being, which status as such is not in question only because it is force sensitive, is totally different from Datas case. Data is not a biological lifeform and Commander Bruce Maddox has compared him to the computer on the Enterprise and has regarded him as property of Starfleet.

• • • Excerpt from »STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION - The Measure of a Man«:
      • • PICARD
        Starfleet is not an organization that ignores its own regulations when they become inconvenient. Whether you like it or not, Data (separating and punctuating each word) does... have... rights.
        
        • MADDOX
          (visibly calming himself and ignoring Picard)
        Let me put it another way. Would you permit the computer on the Enterprise to refuse a refit?
        
        • PHILLIPA
          (nodding thoughtfully)
        An interesting point, but the Enterprise computer is property. Is Data?
        
        • MADDOX
        Of course.

That can't happen with an human being. Even if Starfleet would regard him as a clone or something engineered, they would respect and protect its human dignity.

• • • Excerpt from »STAR TREK: DEEP-SPACE NINE - A Man Alone«:
      • • BASHIR
        A clone. That's what Ibudan was working on. Creating a clone of himself.
        
        • ODO
          (realizing)
        And then he killed the clone... to frame me for his murder.
        
        • SISKO
        How can we be sure the victim was a clone?
        
        • DAX
        A clone has identical DNA as the donor... but certain cloning methods cause a characteristic gene-sequence degradation which can be identified...
        
        • BASHIR
          (self-congratulation)
        ... if you know to look for it. (beat) We've matched the victim's gene-sequence with the fellow in the jar here. They're definitely both clones.
        
        • ODO
          (re: the new clone)
        What happens to this one?
        
        • BASHIR
        In about two days, he becomes a living, breathing member of Bajoran society.
        
        • ODO
        Let's hope he doesn't follow in his donor's footsteps.
        
        • • • [...]
        • ODO
        Killing your own clone... is still murder.

It may be, that some of Starfleet are ready to violate the law and try to lock up and vivisect a force sensitiv human being.
But they would know, that it would be illegal according to Federation law.

And, by saying that Data may be another good example, you are rising your totally unsubstantiated speculations about the treatment of Betazoids in the Federation to an example. It's not only that we don't know, how the Federation treats Betazoids, considering the values of the Federation, we have to conclude, that your totally unsubstantiated speculations are wrong. It's not true, that only Betazoid ambassadors or half-Betazoids wander freely. Neither were Lieutenant Stadi nor Lon Suder nor Sabin Genestra nor Andrus Hagan nor Ensign Jarot Betazoid ambassadors or "only" half-Betazoids. There is not a single reason to believe that your totally unsubstantiated speculations could be true.

[Ted C]

And, by saying that Data may be another good example, you are rising your totally unsubstantiated speculations about the treatment of Betazoids in the Federation to an example. It's not only that we don't know, how the Federation treats Betazoids, considering the values of the Federation, we have to conclude, that your totally unsubstantiated speculations are wrong. It's not true, that only Betazoid ambassadors or half-Betazoids wander freely. Neither were Lieutenant Stadi nor Lon Suder nor Sabin Genestra nor Andrus Hagan nor Ensign Jarot Betazoid ambassadors or "only" half-Betazoids. There is not a single reason to believe that your totally unsubstantiated speculations could be true.

Thank you for completely misreading my statement.

I did not speculate on how the Federation treats Betazoids in general; I pointed out that we have limited information, because the only Betazoid examples I could cite were well-placed political or military figures.

What I was pointing out was that we could reasonably expect the Federation to treat Force-sensitives much as it treats telepaths like Betazoids or individuals with superhuman abilities like Data, in which case it appears that merely establishing personhood (which should be easy) is enough to protect them from exploitation. This is not to say that Starfleet wouldn't want to exploit them (as they wanted to do with Data), but that Federation law would be on their side.

[SailorSaturn13]

We know there are laws restricting the rights of GA humans. Those don't make them un-persons, BUT ban from many positions. THAT'S what I had in mind would happen to a force-user.

[Kahless]

I think a Federation Jedi could be significantly more powerful than a SW Jedi. Their ability to cut away the mysticism and analyze the mechanics in a proper scientific way would allow them to fully grasp the true potential of Midichlorians.

[Mike DiCenso]

Makes me kind of wonder why no one in the SW galaxy ever thought of using genetic engineering or other medical techniques to enhance the number of midichlorians in a person's body.

I certainly can't see the Sith worrying about moral implications of that, especially if it were to mean they get a significant increase in their Force powers.
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

Makes me kind of wonder why no one in the SW galaxy ever thought of using genetic engineering or other medical techniques to enhance the number of midichlorians in a person's body.

What about Anakin?
He had no father, the highest Midichlorian count of all, and then later on we learn that Darth Plagueis (possibly Sidious's Master) was apparently able to create life out of nothing.

What if Anakin was nothing more then a Sith experiment with Medichlorians?

[Jedi Master Spock]

I've heard that suggested before. It's actually a quite compelling reading of the films.

[Mike DiCenso]

I'am sure that it's possible that Darth Plagueis, or someone tried to increase midichlorian counts via "mystical" means. I ment using genetic engineering and other technological means to boost up the midichlorian numbers.

I mean come on, if SW tech allows for the cloning of Jango into millions apon millions of troopers, they surely might be able to create the ultimate Jedi (or Sith) by doing midiclorian cultures.

Hell, maybe there's a market for midichlorian yogurt... ;-)
-Mike

[Praeothmin]

Hell, maybe there's a market for midichlorian yogurt... ;-)

Danone's fat free, Midichlorian improved Yogurt.
Keep the weight off, bring the Force in... :)

[Ted C]

Makes me kind of wonder why no one in the SW galaxy ever thought of using genetic engineering or other medical techniques to enhance the number of midichlorians in a person's body.

Quite frankly, we don't know if people have high Force sensitivity because they have lots of midichlorians or people have lots of midichlorians because they're highly Force sensitive.

All we really have is a correlation, not causation.

[Who is like God arbour]

When an empirical relationship has been observed, but the underlying mechanism is unknown, considering Occam's razor, it usually is reasonable to infer from the lack of conflicting evidence that the observed relationship is most likely causal although correlation does not compulsory imply causation.

But you are correct insofar, that as long as the causation is not formally proven, it would be fallacious to assert that it is.

[Ted C]

When an empirical relationship has been observed, but the underlying mechanism is unknown, considering Occam's razor, it usually is reasonable to infer from the lack of conflicting evidence that the observed relationship is most likely causal although correlation does not compulsory imply causation.

The existence of a correlation is sufficient reason to look for causation, but it is not sufficient to infer/assume causation. It certainly isn't sufficient to infer which element is the cause and which is the effect.