The Mobile Emitter Paradox(es)

The Mobile Emitter Paradox(es)

In 2373 USS Voyager acquired the mobile holoemitter, a piece of 29th century technology, from Henry Starling, a 20th-century human who had salvaged it from the wreckage of Captain Braxton’s 29th century timeship, the Aeon. Voyager’s EMH continued to use the mobile emitter, eventually bringing it back to earth when Voyager returned home in 2378. Like all the other new technology aboard Voyager Starfleet would study it in detail and ultimately attempt to duplicate it. In Star Trek Picard season 3 ep 5 "Imposters" we see that the Federation/Starfleet has developed a mobile emitter, as evidenced by Worf and Raffi’s holo-duplicates using mobile emitters in their first meeting with the Vulcan gangster Krimm. Krimm even recognizes the mobile emitters as such (meaning that by the early 25th century the technology has not only been developed but is in common use).

Krimm: (after shooting holo-Raffi) “Were you under the impression I would not recognize a mobile emitter?”

These mobile emitters would no doubt be much more primitive and less sophisticated versions of the Doctor’s mobile emitter from 400 years hence. Starfleet/the Federation would logically continue to develop and refine and improve the technology, until some 400 years later, a generation of mobile emitters would be constructed one of which would end up on the UTS Aeon, Captain Braxton’s timeship. The same exact mobile emitter that would be found by Henry Starling in the 20th century after Braxton and the Aeon crashed there, the same mobile emitter that USS Voyager would acquire and their EMH would use and bring back to the Alpha quadrant where it would be studied and duplicated.

An ontological paradox. Also predestination.

Ontological Paradox:

If the mobile emitter’s travel back in time ultimately resulted in its own creation, the question becomes when was it first created? In this scenario, since it caused its own creation it wasn’t created-it always existed, which is of course impossible.


Predestination Paradox:

Had the mobile emitter from the 29th century not traveled to the 20th century and then been taken to the 24th century by the crew of Voyager, it would not have been reverse engineered by Starfleet/Federation Science and duplicated in a more primitive form, one that ultimately evolved into the technology that created it. This would also explain why the “time police” from the 29th century made no attempt to travel back in time to USS Voyager in the 2370s and retrieve the device. In a predestination paradox, the mobile emitter was supposed to travel back in time, be acquired by the crew of USS Voyager, then make its way back to the alpha quadrant and be duplicated.