• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

The Worst Decision by a Starfleet Cpt/Cdr.

Perhaps it's more accurate to say people value their children over other adults, or other peoples' children?
 
Nope, you are engaging in the flawed reasoning by dressing this up as some highfalutin logic-chopping argument. You are completely wrong. It is perfectly reasonable to extrapolate sentiment from behavior--many people do it all the time. Google it.

:guffaw:

You earlier accused me of inflexible thinking. This is too good to be true.

I've explained how the "correlation does not imply causation argument" is flawed and your response is.. No it isn't.

:lol:

Or would you like examples? Here's one. If I go out of my way to make something easier and better for someone, we would often conclude that I favor that someone and value that someone more than someone I don't do that for. Crazy talk, huh?

There go those goalposts again :lol:

Now give me an example of how a world geared towards adults proves that children are less valued. And remember, A and B exist therefore B exists because of A... is a fallacy. We've established that.

But thank you for making my point. What is the purpose of influence, if not to make things easier and better for oneself? I am fairly certain it isn't merely to satisfy some chilly and abstract notion of influence for influence's sake. Adults use their influence to shape their world comfortably for them, and not for children, and it is because they value themselves more, not "just because."

Adults use their influence to shape their world for them and not their children :lol::lol:

This is the most fun I've had in days. And I had sex today.
 
:guffaw:

You earlier accused me of inflexible thinking. This is too good to be true.

I've explained how the "correlation does not imply causation argument" is flawed and your response is.. No it isn't.

:lol:



There go those goalposts again :lol:

Now give me an example of how a world geared towards adults proves that children are less valued. And remember, A and B exist therefore B exists because of A... is a fallacy. We've established that.



Adults use their influence to shape their world for them and not their children :lol::lol:

This is the most fun I've had in days. And I had sex today.

You showed me absolutely nothing. It is I who showed you your errors. If you really are laughing at the notion that behavior betrays sentiment, then you can't be talked to, as that is what I would label common adult knowledge. No, I won't do this by your "remember" rules. You don't get to direct how I shape my thoughts, especially with this erroneously applied notion. We know, and I do NOT have to conclude, that behavior is deeply and identifiably connected to sentiment. Your additional fallacy here is in thinking I was concluding that. We KNOW that already. It is reality. I am applying that KNOWN rule about reality to the world we see around us.

I can give you many examples that prove out B exists because of A. It is no fallacy in the real world. Lack of heat exists with Ice, and produces ice--ice, B, exists because (at least as a necessary condition, if not sufficient) of A. Holes in people exist simultaneously with bullets, and are caused by those self-same bullets. I give you a snow cone, not to show my influence, but because I like you. Value you more than the person I didn't give the snow cone to.

This is really complicated stuff, isn't it?

I won't say this is too good to be true. It's sad that this has to be explained. That you're laughing because of your own self-perceived and unshakable belief in your own cleverness is just sad.

There's not much point in continuing this if you really are going to stand by the pretty outre notion that sentiment and behavior aren't directly correlated. That's the position you're left defending, and you can do that all you want, but it's too basic a denial of consensus reality to go on with.
 
Last edited:
I am absolutely certain that if asked whether to save a life of an unknown child or an unknown adult, overwhelming majority of people would say the child. If you don't believe me, make a poll about it.
 
I am absolutely certain that if asked whether to save a life of an unknown child or an unknown adult, overwhelming majority of people would say the child. If you don't believe me, make a poll about it.
Yes. They would say it.

But, again, notice that in the one instance where this actually happens in the real world with enough lag time between being informed of the problem and the action it produces to allow for thought, we enshrine in law that the adult's life matters more. And even if there isn't lag time--in an emergency situation, a doctor MUST act to save the mother and not even the latest-term unborn if it conflicts with saving the mother.

I have no problem with that. But it IS reality that we choose the adult.
 
Whenever I hear things like this, I am reminded of a quote from Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" about human behavior vs. the Bugs. In the book it asks the question about how many times do you read a story about two people drown trying to save a child? As the book goes, not very logical, but very human.

I'm sure for every instance of the adult being chosen, I can find similar number of children being chosen over the adult. It isn't a simple numbers game, or a logic problem to solve. There are many factors connected to the essence of the people involved that impact the decision.
 
You showed me absolutely nothing. It is I who showed you your errors.

:lol: I'm just gonna keep repeating until it stops being funny (which is never)

A (society is geared to adults) does not therefore prove B (children are less valued than adults). This is a... Fallacy (see link). You have seen A and concluded B because logic has failed you. To counter this, you must provide evidence that confirms your conclusion but which isn't just repeating the same fallacy over and over again in the hope that no-one will notice

Can B be caused by A? Of course, but that doesn’t mean it is. Believing so (which is your position) is the fallacy. Either provide evidence to back that claim (which isn’t merely another reiteration of correlation implies cause) or you have no meaningful argument.

Your argument is that society values adults over children because, look...society is geared towards adults. That is fallacious reasoning.
 
Last edited:
Yes. They would say it.
They would do it too. In emergencies people tend to save children first. Emergency workers definitely save the children first.

But, again, notice that in the one instance where this actually happens in the real world with enough lag time between being informed of the problem and the action it produces to allow for thought, we enshrine in law that the adult's life matters more. And even if there isn't lag time--in an emergency situation, a doctor MUST act to save the mother and not even the latest-term unborn if it conflicts with saving the mother.

I have no problem with that. But it IS reality that we choose the adult.
Foetuses are not children.
 
They would do it too. In emergencies people tend to save children first. Emergency workers definitely save the children first.


Foetuses are not children.
A late-term fetus, one ready to be born, is as much a child as one out of the womb 5 minutes later. I am all for a woman's right to choose--or rather, in this case, protecting the adult ahead of the child--but I am not going to lie to myself about what we are doing. Late term, it is infanticide protected under color of law. The child could breathe and live on its own were it delivered, and that's all I need to consider it a child.

If you are wondering about religion: I am an atheist. Just thought I'd put that out--I know many people have a religious agenda on this. I don't.

And we're going to have to disagree on what people would actually do. Emergency workers are not a representative sample of the public at large, any more than police are. EMTs are trained--I assume--to save children first. Police are trained to run toward danger--quite contrary to the usual human impulse. On that model, I might guess that EMTs are trained to do something that, in fact, conflicts with their basic, human nature.
 
Last edited:
Most of Trek's most famous quandaries are all over-thought, convoluted derivatives of the trolley car dilemma. The problem is, none of them are written very well.

"Tuvix," is a good example. In this case, the person on the side track and the person at the switch were one in the same. And Tuvix was absolutely right. In no free society should a person ever be forced to sacrifice his life to save others. Call it selfish, weak, whatever, but the minute someone forced death upon him (especially if that someone is a member of the armed force) the free society is dead.

But, like true Star Trek miss-the-mark fashion, the issue gets weighed down in silly magical what-ifs that only obfuscate. So the initial issue is lost.

Same goes for "Dear Doctor." If Phlox's option was ultimately to forsake one species to save another, then he took the most ethical and fair option by taking himself out of the equation.

Insurrection is another one. It plays strictly to the numbers game and completely ignores the ramifications of the unique culture they'd be destroying. Why? Because the Ba'Ku were affluent white-bread yuppies from Santa Monica hanging out at the Renaissance fair. There was nothing about them that showed they were a uniquely evolved species with their own culture other than they were really good at hacky sack.

This is why I hate it when Star Trek tries to wax philosophical. It's so fucking bad at it.
What is wrong with the numbers game in Insurrection?

@PhaserLightShow
 
A late-term fetus, one ready to be born, is as much a child as one out of the womb 5 minutes later. I am all for a woman's right to choose--or rather, in this case, protecting the adult ahead of the child--but I am not going to lie to myself about what we are doing. Late term, it is infanticide protected under color of law. The child could breathe and live on its own were it delivered, and that's all I need to consider it a child

Then please explain why this child (which could apparently live without the mother) is being murdered to save the mother?

Where exactly are these child killings occurring? Have you considered reporting them?
 
What is wrong with the numbers game in Insurrection?

@PhaserLightShow

Starfleet and/or Dougherty decided to relocate the Bak'u from their home without their consent because their population was relatively small, especially in comparison to the billions of Federation citizens who would benefit from the planet's resources.

Kor
 
Janeway's decisions in Course: Oblivion were monumentally terrible (but technically that wasn't her so she gets a pass... but it was exactly the kinda decisions the real Janeway would have made so... no, she does't).
 
Starfleet and/or Dougherty decided to relocate the Bak'u from their home without their consent because their population was relatively small, especially in comparison to the billions of Federation citizens who would benefit from the planet's resources.

Kor
And...?
Billions of people matter more than 600. Its just logic.

@PhaserLightShow
 
What is wrong with the numbers game in Insurrection?

@PhaserLightShow
It was so bad that a Paramount executive brought it up O_o
From a memo to the Star Trek Team:
We would like to better establish why the future of six hundred Ba’Ku is so
important. Currently it is unclear why Picard is so passionate about the future of
this particular race. The “blood feud” between a few hundred Son’A and six
hundred Ba’Ku seems like nothing more than a gang fight. Numerous
civilizations have been eliminated by previous Star Trek megalomaniacs, so what
makes the Ba’Ku special? To be blunt, with only six hundred people in the gene
pool, the Ba’Ku would inbreed themselves into extinction in a few generations.
Perhaps, their settlement is larger. Or maybe, the normally passive
Ba’Ku provide Picard with a fantastic new battle technology in the third act. This
would make them a more active participant in the finale and more important to
the story. However we proceed, the future of the Ba’Ku needs to be crucial to the
big picture in a fundamental way. Let’s discuss.

And...?
Billions of people matter more than 600. Its just logic.

@PhaserLightShow
The point is that we are supposed to fall on the side of the 600. That is the "moral" choice our heroes make, and we "should" agree.
 
It was so bad that a Paramount executive brought it up O_o
From a memo to the Star Trek Team:



The point is that we are supposed to fall on the side of the 600. That is the "moral" choice our heroes make, and we "should" agree.
Why should we fall on the side of the 600 and agree with the Star Trek heroes? Logic matters more than morals. If we have no reason to agree with a decision, we should not.

@PhaserLightShow
 
Last edited:
And...?
Billions of people matter more than 600. Its just logic.

@PhaserLightShow

The point of Picard's "how many does it take" speech was supposed to be that the value of lives shouldn't be reduced to mere numbers, and that the destruction of a culture should not be justified in such a manner.

To me, his speech sounded like an angry Tootsie Pops commercial. "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many licks does it take, Admiral?" :vulcan:

Kor
 
The point of Picard's "how many does it take" speech was supposed to be that the value of lives shouldn't be reduced to mere numbers.

To me, his speech sounded like an angry Tootsie Pops commercial. "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, Admiral, before it becomes wrong? A thousand? Fifty thousand? A million? How many licks does it take, Admiral?" :vulcan:

Kor
But each life has the same value. So more lives means more important.

@PhaserLightShow
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top