No limits fallacy

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The no limits fallacy is the illogical idea that a poorly understood phenomenon can be extrapolated to infinity or assumed not to have any maximum value or threshold. For a gross example, observing that a shield can easily withstand an attack from a particular weapon, one might illogically conclude that the shield could withstand fire from an unlimited number of those weapons at the same time, or that it could withstand fire from a similar weapon that was much more powerful.

Trekkie Examples

  • The no laser fallacy: if a small, technologically inferior ship cannot hurt the Enterprise with its lasers, then NO laser can hurt a Federation starship.
  • Reverse engineering: if the Federation can obtain a sample of alien technology, they can rapidly reproduce it, no matter how much more advanced it is than their own.
  • Borg adaptation: if a Borg cube can negate the weapons of one Federation starship after adapting, it can negate ANY weapon via adaptation.
  • Borg invasion of other dimensions: since the Borg attempted to invade the home dimension of Species 8472, they must have already invaded and successfully assimilated multiple other dimensions.