Star Trek: Second Generation Technical Manual: Leisure and Recreation
General Notes
As races have expanded out into space they have always made sure to find time for relaxation and leisure. The particulars between each race have varied, however with communications across the Federation and the interspecies exchange program, new options are becoming available. The following lists some of the options available across the Federation.
Padds
The ubiquitous Personal Access Display Device. Taking as its basis the tablet computers developed on 21st century Earth, these handheld computers have a variety of uses across the Federation.
Depending on its function, a padd can be used independently, or linked into other systems as a readout or control interface. Personalisation of these devices is easy and widespread, with personal preferences for desktop settings being stored on a centralised system so that any padd can be configured to the user's specifications simply by picking it up if that is so desired.
Internet/ Galnet
The internet is based on the standard models used by each species once global communications became necessary on their world. While the initial purpose differed in each case, the eventual use of mass civilian and industrial communications remained the same. On a planet's surface the internet is maintained by ODN (fibre optic) lines and high speed radio (when physical connections are not plausible to add due to distance or population levels being too low to justify it). Multiple redundant servers on each world hold copies of websites and email accounts, ensuring that data remains available at all times.
The Galnet is the equivalent of the internet, run between multiple worlds. Owing to the speed of subspace communications it is not possible to instantly access information from other worlds, meaning that requests for information from, or transmission of information to, servers on other worlds can take anything up to months depending on the priority of the communication.
Bandwidth limitations on Galnet are dictated by the capacity of the Echo satellite network: these subspace boosters have a finite limit to the amount of information that they can convey, and so they will sometimes have to drop information or store it. Starfleet command communications receive highest priority based on the security tag attached to them, followed by Starfleet Science divisions (medical data can sometimes be boosted to command priority when dealing with plagues and the like), other Starfleet communications, industrial information, emails and finally website access.
Occasionally people will try to open up alternets, normally in response to Separatist leanings of one kind or another (be they colonial, terrorist or simple ennui). Such alternets are best avoided as they are generally set up specifically for use as means of launching an attack against the Federation, or abusing those who stray onto them, and Starfleet generally works to shut them down as quickly as possible.
The system of electronic mail which was developed on the Earth was implemented on a wider scale when Starfleet started to move out into the galaxy. Expanded to include text, audio and video as standard (rather than as bolt-on components), this system is available to anyone. Though these communications tend to receive a low priority for interstellar communications they can be relied upon for reasonably rapid delivery, generally making it right across Federation space in only a few weeks (the fastest possible communication would be a Starfleet Command ultraviolet priority action order which would take approximately two days).
Games and Toys
Ongoing developments of miniaturisation of technology have resulted in the sophistication of toys increasing. Simple non-powered games are increasingly rare, with holoboards (a larger design of padd that has the ability to project pieces of a game and the accompanying board) becoming increasingly popular. Certainly aboard starships with their inherent weight restrictions on possessions, carrying around multiple sets of games is impractical, and so any physical games need to be ships on mass or produced locally on a colony world.
Physical Crafts
Hobbies and interests such as woodwork, knitting, painting, and the like still exist as they did in pre-warp eras. The spread of them is somewhat more restricted than some people might have expected; weight and space restrictions on ships mean that export of physical materials is rare, and so unless someone finds a local means to continue a craft, it will rarely be established on a new colony.
Similarly, even when the means exist to continue with a craft on a colony, the people who know about it might not be present; there have been reported cases of people having huge opportunities for a hobby, but never realising that the chance was there (for further reference see P'nem Wool, the great silk rush by Hayden and Selar, or Backwoods on Mars by William Blair).
An initiative started following the end of the war with the Klingons saw a rise in the number of such hobbies, with a deliberate effort being made to seek out places where skills and crafts could be used but were being neglected. An ongoing project, this is expected to last for hundreds of years, bringing old skills back to life and bringing new skills to the attention of other races who might not be aware of them.
Holodecks
Making use of Vulcan developed diffraction and hard-field technology, Humans put together holodecks as fully immersive environmental simulations.
Very power and processor intensive, holodecks are normally limited in number, requiring group bookings rather than being used by individuals. Under these circumstances they can be used for any kind of interactive fiction, including holonovels, training simulations and the like.
Processor requirements are generally reduced where possible by means of deliberately limiting the scripts available to certain characters and situations; while this does lead to a certain tendency towards 'mechanical' or 'cardboard' characters, it does allow the entire process to actually work.
Similarly, while holodecks might appear to be the ideal place to recreate a crime scene and re-enact crimes for investigative purposes, the limits on processing power mean that simulations are invariable inaccurate: the use of fractal equations and algorithms to mass produce landscapes (such as weathering effects, trees, etc) and for particle physics (such as splatter patterns or impact trajectories) in order to reduce processor loading makes them unreliable at best for such purposes.
As an important point, the concept of safety protocols which will prevent injury while in a holodeck program have been put forwards at various times, but never actually realised. Writing such protocols to account for the varying physical strengths of different species along makes it impossible: as an example, a Vulcan bench-pressing what they consider a reasonably heavy weight would find safety protocols designed for Humans (only a third as strong) activating because of the supposed threat that the weights represent. Similar issues of temperature, strength, pressure and other tolerance differences between species have meant that it is impossible to create anything truly viable, and the best advice remains to treat the holodeck as if it does not have anything in the way of safety protocols, where actually a number do exist which prevent definitely significant threats (such as electrocution, various kinds of burns, etc).
Virtual/ Augmented Reality
As a compromise for a holodeck, virtual reality offers an easier option in terms of power and processor usage. Relying instead on glasses or goggles and other wearable equipment to produce the illusion of an environment, these are the preferred option for individuals or small groups who wish to engage in some kind of regular activity.
Sets are available to own or hire (though they are scrupulously cleaned, some people do not want to trust public sets), and standard protocols ensure that any sets will work together. Upgrade modules allow for large groups to work together, sharing the same effective reality. Most of the realities are similar to those of the holodeck, though there is a greater option for individual stories.
Augmented Reality is a subset of virtual reality, developed to some degree in the 21st century on Earth. In this most of the environment remains visible, but additional information or images are overlaid onto it. Used more for technical purposes (as a HUD) than entertainment, it does still have some uses. The largest recorded use of this has been in Starfleet Academy during the annual counter-insurgency exercises where every member of staff and all students are equipped with AR equipment and a simulated invasion of the campus is carried out by virtual (or virtually disguised) forces.
Film and TV
With the development of holodecks, VR, and AR, the production of conventional films and TV series has been reduced somewhat. Such things are still produced though tend to be locally produced for local consumption. Only a few series make it interstellar. Films and movies tend to be more easily exported, but even these are rarely released as a simple production to watch, with the trend being more towards the interactive fiction of a role-playing game instead.
Sports
Several sports have developed from different cultures following the meeting of peoples and cultures in the Federation and the expansion of technology from these interactions. A few of these are listed here.
Anbo-jyutsu is a combat sport where two individuals are pitted against each other. Both are blindfolded and normally wear padded suits (though some consider this to be sissy). They are equipped with a pole, one end of which has a padded head for attacking and the other end of which has a sensor allowing them to track the position of their opponent by the different noises the sensor makes depending on how closely it points to the target.
Kousentou is another sport which has benefitted from advances in technology. Players (anything from two to twelve can play at once depending on the arena) wear interface suits which allow the game to track their movements and body functions. A holographic cloud takes up most of the arena and reacts to what the players do. The game (depending on the arena) can recognise most forms of martial arts, including blocks and counters, and will adjust the cloud (effectively a three dimensional score chart) according to successful attacks and defences. Victory is achieved by dominating the cloud. Variant rules include the use of melee weapons, restrictions on what forms can be used, pure kata contests, pure dance moves, realtime and slow scoring, and so forth.
Mechanoids
Though there currently exists only a single example of sapient android life in the Federation, despite a number of efforts to the contrary, the creation of scripted or less complex mechanical life is perfectly reasonable and achievable.
Primarily this is seen in two places: holodecks allow for characters to be created who will follow through the possible scripts laid out for them in the program's narrative parameters file, and mechanoids have been developed which have a greater freedom of movement, but which cannot achieve the same apparent intellectual level.
Mechanoids of this kind are normally produced in the shape of pets or as worker drones for engineers (though these are covered in other sections of the Technical Manual). The pets tend to be used primarily on colony worlds and starships where transport of a live animal or the cost of keeping one will be higher than that of the mechanical equivalent. The hazards of keeping a conventional pet aboard a ship are of course numerous, such as then getting into places that they should not, and the unpredictable element that they will add to any hazardous situation.
The dog (Human), selkath (Vulcan), vyrym (Gorn), and predost (Andorian) are the most common designs of mechanical pet available, all of which are rated not merely for shipboard life, but can be relied upon to act as guardians for their charges in an emergency. Efforts have been made to produce an eysii'spry, however since the species is now believed to be extinct and the El Aurian remnant have been unable to provide suitable models and records for behavioural programming, the project spends much of its time on hold.