this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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Risa
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Come on'n get your jamaharon on! There are no real rules—just don't break the weather control network.
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Honestly his character really freaks me out.
With the EMH you have the argument of multiple persons put into him and meticulously crafted, just like Data.
With Moriarity you have a computer glitch combined with a unique phrasing/situation.
With Vic Fontaine... that's just the basic operations of the system.
If he's that sentient/self-aware then Starfleet is arguably creating lower intelligent lifeforms, who are basically months away from developing full sentience and sapience, and then deleting them or putting them into storage. They're just slaves.
IMO Vic is likely like the EMH and based on a real person.
Bashir mentioned that Vic was created by a programmer called "Felix" - we don't specifically know how he created him, but in a mirror universe episode, "Vic" is there, except he's not a hologram, he's a real guy (who gets killed), and he doesn't respond to being called Vic.
My headcanon is that that was Mirror Felix, and Vic is modelled after his creater a la EMH.
I really like that theory!
That's kinda the point of that one Voyager episode where the EMH writes a holonovel. Starfleet is super callous with holograms.
Vic Fontaine runs on holosuites owned by Quark and presumably regulated by the Bajorans and/or the Ferengi. Starfleet has nothing to do with it.
Nothing to do with him specifically, sure, but my point is that it shows a trend. The other two could be waved away as just something extreme but if they're working on those holodecks then the reasoning still applies that all holograms are essentially living individual beings.
"Seek out new life..." Check your holodeck, buddy.
Yeah Vic has so many worldbuilding implications that they don't ever get into.
Vic Fontaine also experienced the ‘left running constantly with no shutdowns’ that the EMH did, and his actual behaviour didn’t really go that far off base programming.