It led vast numbers of people to be so fascinated that they ended up in careers in space studies. NASA concluded in a study that a host of astronauts first developed an interest in space as children watching Star Trek and it led to their careers.
Scientists saw fictional technologies on the show, asked themselves "would that actually be possible?" So the fake technology inspired the reality. In the Star Trek series, a rule like the Prime Directive, about not interfering in the development of another world but instead allowing it to develop its own way, mirrors debates on the activities of imperial powers in Africa in the 19th century, or the behaviour of the US, and previously Spain and Portugal, in the Americas.
In STTNS a fascinating debate took place that got to the heart of the right to life. An android (artificial life form similar to humans), called Data, had developed self-awareness, ethics and human traits. Only one android had been made. A scientist wanted to completely dismantle Data, effectively killing him, to study how worked, so he could create vast numbers of androids to benefit humanity.
A trial took place to analyse Data to judge did his human characteristics, self-awareness, ethical self-awareness and personality mean that he had a right to life? Was his right to life equal to humans? Did the potential benefit to humanity from creating many androids outweigh his individual human rights, or were his human rights superior? It is a core issue in ethics.
I was in UCD at the time. I remember a lot of academics and post-grads sitting in UCD restaurant for hours discussing the whole issue, the episodes, the writings of many great philosophers on the issue, etc. They all agreed that the tribunal ruling that Data may not be physically human but had all the ethical characteristics of humanity - plus full self-awareness and a desire to live, so could not have his existence terminated even to benefit society - was correct and reflected the conclusions of many ethicists and philosophers throughout centuries, as well as many theories in major religions.
I remember one philosopher commenting that it was striking that a major programme like Star Trek: The Next Generation could build an entire episode around a core issue in ethics and have millions of people worldwide debating the issues of human rights, what is a human, and does the rights of the individual outweigh the rights of society? Or does the right of society outweigh the rights of the individual?
⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.
Rights for robots? I don’t think this is as far fetched as it seems. People are already developing “relationships” with AI partners some including a Japanese woman have “married” them. We are extremely close to AI becoming self aware (The Terminator movies taught us nothing) then what? Of course I’d be a hypocrite to say we should ban all AI as I use Gemini for looking things up - meaning behind songs or movie recommendations mostly - but we’re almost certainly on a very slippery downhill path here and soon we’ll be having these conversations not in the hypothetical world of a tv show but in this mad sh*t show we call real life. That said I spent my entire childhood waiting to be nuked and that didn’t happen so perhaps I’m a little too clingy to the conspiracy theorists & scare mongerers.
ReplyDeleteLoved Star Trek TNG. Still good to watch now. Deep Space Nine was basically the UN in space too.
ReplyDeleteWas just thinking how in the 80's and 90's you'd be ridiculed if you mentioned you thought aliens were 'real' and yet we happily watched these programmes.
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
ReplyDeleteJim - I remember the episode well, Riker's crisis of conscience, Picard's defence, one of the many excellent episodes of TNG and especially those involving Data. What I found went in Data's favour, was the fact he was currently benevolent, had it been Lore, the outcome might have been different. A similar theme is explored in other episodes, again with Data involved, but this time with the appearance of Moriarty.
The Prime Directive is an interesting concept, and ST also explores the ethics with the Prime Directive and the occasions when and where it might be necessary to break it.
TOS and TNG explored so many different themes and did so very well, as did DS9 and STV I suppose. From race (in the true sense), to ethnicity, sexuality, morality, ethics, you name it, Star Trek explored it. However, what I find interesting is, would TOS and TNG had it been made and released today been considered in a derogatory sense as "woke"?
Indeed the latest Star Trek series that have been released are described as such by some critics, yet any theme explored in TOS and TNG was never thought of in this way, either at the time of release or in retrospect. Some critics have tried to compare and reason what sets them apart.
Regardless, I can't seem to warm to any of the new series personally, although Picard was a nice nostalgic run.