Star Trek Abundance

[alanjjohnstone]

We often assume that there are much older civilisations out there in in other galaxies but apparently we are the older…or younger…depending on perspective.http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/earth-was-one-of-the-universe-s-first-habitable-planets-and-we-re-likely-to-miss-chance-to-meet-a6701311.html

Quote:

Earth was one of the first habitable planets in the universe, according to a new study.We were among the first 8 per cent of worlds that could potentially support life when we came into being 4.6 billion years ago, according the astronomers behind the study. Many of the other Earth-supporting planets won’t turn be around for some time — and are likely to come about after our own sun burns out in six billion years.

[Dave B]

I think people tend to take the piss out of science fiction etc but I think as a genre it provides an excellent fictional opportunity or platform to explore ideas as what some would label as ‘intellectual’ abstraction and challenge, as regards a socio-economic analysis of, well, society and stuff. One of the better episodes of Star Trek TNG was "Who Watches the Watchers”.  Probably a play on a famous ancient Roman Bod who said ‘who watches the watchmen; which Karl changed to ‘who educates the educators’.  As regards this topical to the jokey thread so far as regards; historical materialism, uneven economic development and the possibility of free access socialism introduced into backward economies/ cultures, or not, the role and even the status of ‘women’ in society, and religion. What we have in this episode is a ‘race’ of Spock like Vulcan’s, or just Vulcans, really living in in the bronze age stage of economic development.  They are very Spock like but the older ones still logically think there must be divine being or overseer. And we have a Bronze age Vulcan daughter who likes to spend her spare time dabbling in science and looking at the stars and planets etc and is beginning to have second thoughts. Women are portrayed quite positively in general in star trek I think. The Federation historical materialist anthropologists are interested in these people and want to watch their development and set up an observation post. There is a technological glitch and our militant atheists daughter sees some magic as the anthropologists holographic observation post reveals itself etc. After one thing leads to another and a ‘Men in Black’ mind wipe fails the scientific materialist daughter thinks briefly Picard is God.      When concellor Troi (a woman) and Ryker beam down disguised as bronze age Vulcans in an attempt to retrieve the situation she advises him that they have to get into and adopt their cultural economic norm.  Whereby the women are in charge of things like that, and walk in front of the man and negotiates economic arrangements as to the value of his labour power which she sells. The Star Trek non interference of the ‘natural’ evolutionary socio economic development of societies becomes a bit of a moral paradigm I think, but a very Hegelian historical materialism non the less.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Watches_the_Watchers  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Directive

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