Are you smarter than an alien?

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

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Who would you say is smarter more often in Star Trek, aliens or us? Depending on what era it is, Starfleet either bites their tongues in the name of the Prime directive or lectures other species on why they're wrong. I suppose there are different smarts; moral, scientific, logical, etc.

 

[The Green Monster]

Definitely smarter than the Palkeds.

 

[Frontis]

Probably we are the stupiest race in the universe

 

[1001001]

Probably we are the stupiest race in the universe

So far…

 

[Ghouleddie74]

Sometimes.

Except for notable things like car maintenance. And knowing when to say no to one more round of drinks or trip to a buffet.

 

[KRAGIMUS]

Sometimes.

Except for notable things like car maintenance. And knowing when to say no to one more round of drinks or trip to a buffet.

Or car driving. I'm better at driving a manual transmission than James T. Kirk.

 

[Catboots]

Is anyone else having trouble parsing the text in that image? "way our science-fiction writers we're not conceited" ... huh? What? Wait, some of that text looks cut and pasted. Is that an AI image?

 

[Shawnster]

Spock was always depicted as the smartest person in the room. This is the pattern established in the 50s with Klaatu. Morally superior higher intelligence that can shepherd infant humanity away from the modern horrors or threats of the week.

Balok gives the impression of being smarter or, at least, more advanced. The androids in both episodes were presented as more advanced than the Federation. So if smarter means more advanced, then TOS follows this pattern. This follows the pattern that any aliens, especially ones that can travel in space, are technologically superior to humans.

Morality, though, takes some weird turns throughout all the eras of science fiction. It depends on the point of the story. Sometimes the alien is the morally superior being or the innocent victim and the humans are torch and pitchfork carrying murderers killing silicone hatchlings. Other times the aliens lack emotion or empathy as they study and torture us lower life forms in the name of science.

 

[gerritfaber]

depends on the alien species, some are more developed then others, think i am smarter then the avarage klingon, but not as business savy as a ferengi.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Is anyone else having trouble parsing the text in that image? "way our science-fiction writers we're not conceited" ... huh? What? Wait, some of that text looks cut and pasted. Is that an AI image?

The second and fourth lines are copies of each other. Printing error. Ignore the 2nd line.

 

[Maurice]

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Who would you say is smarter more often in Star Trek, aliens or us? Depending on what era it is, Starfleet either bites their tongues in the name of the Prime directive or lectures other species on why they're wrong. I suppose there are different smarts; moral, scientific, logical, etc.

Definitely smarter than the person who did that paste-up job and duplicated a line.

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

Definitely smarter than the person who did that paste-up job and duplicated a line.

 

[FredH]

Surely this depends on the particular alien in question?

 

[Mage]

Probably we are the stupiest race in the universe

For the first time in the history of this planet, a dominant species has the ability to prevent its own extinction... and instead we're doing our best to hasten it along.
It's the old.... "The biggest proof of intelligent life existing out there, is that they're smart enough to avoid us."

 

[publiusr]

Surely this depends on the particular alien in question?

A good bit of life in the universe might just be slime molds…and any aliens perhaps frozen badly…robots on the fritz after a slow-boat journey…so “yes” might be a safe answer after all.

 

[kkt]

smarter than us: vulcans, the Q, Trelane's people, the Organians..

dumber than us: pakleds. probably lots of other races who haven't figured out warp drive yet.