Starfleet also seems to have an unofficial policy that other universes are of no consequence.
Poll Does helping Mirror Universe Terrans violate the Prime Directive?
- Thread starter marsh8472
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Yeah I've thought of that too. There's the temporal prime directive that forbids them from altering the history of their own universe.
There's this dialogue from Discovery episode "The War Without, The War Within"
Because parallel universes does not come up due to it being classified there probably is not a need to make laws regulating interference behavior while in other universes. Just like the Prime Directive did not exist in Star Trek Enterprise but the need to create one was there and the Temporal Prime Directive did not seem to exist in Star Trek The Next Generation based on this dialogue from TNG "A Matter of Time" : "PICARD: Of course, you know of the Prime Directive, which tells us that we have no right to interfere with the natural evolution of alien worlds. Now I have sworn to uphold it, but nevertheless I have disregarded that directive on more than one occasion because I thought it was the right thing to do. Now, if you are holding on to some temporal equivalent of that directive, then isn't it possible that you have an occasion here to make an exception, to help me to choose, because it's the right thing to do? " but they make reference to the Temporal Prime Directive in Star Trek Voyager. Laws on the matter probably haven't caught up yet.
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See, that's exactly the kind of philosophy that I'm convinced the PD is not about. There's no aspect of Starfleet or the Federation to make us think they have some philosophical devotion to Fate or the notion that anything is "meant to" be, and certainly not that nature is some force beyond human control. On the contrary, they have deep convictions that reality is what thinking beings make it.
The PD is about making sure they have the opportunity to make it for themselves, rather than having it made for them. A fascist state (as with the MU, among other examples) precludes that, and surely that's one reason Kirk feels free to "interfere" with such societies without violating the PD.
It's not a homo sapiens only club. Other species with far more experience may have encountered situations where they thought they could play god and only made things far worse for the planet they though they were helping or others. Its the same as with messing in timelines, you have no idea what the results will be or how much more terrible things will turn out. It's sort of the basis of evolution, survival of the fittest, those that can't adapt perish, is Starfleet going to start going to every planet where life is starting and direct their development from day one?
It may sound harsh, but that's life and it's a bitch.
For human, feel free to read "sapient." There was an interesting recent discussion in the TrekLit subforum about Diane Duane's use of the term "humanity" in reference to intelligent species, but for the purposes at hand I don't want to get caught up in semantics.
I fully agree that the Federation is not in the business of "playing god." But that's not what we're talking about; it's an extreme case. The Prime Directive is merely about avoiding imperialism and exploitation of less-technologically-advanced species. Nothing about it precludes helping those in need, nor political engagement with technological peers.
And the underlying philosophy of the UFP is definitely not "that's life and it's a bitch."
I fully agree that the Federation is not in the business of "playing god." But that's not what we're talking about; it's an extreme case. The Prime Directive is merely about avoiding imperialism and exploitation of less-technologically-advanced species. Nothing about it precludes helping those in need, nor political engagement with technological peers.
And the underlying philosophy of the UFP is definitely not "that's life and it's a bitch."
Makes you wonder why it was easier for the Federation to cross into the Mirror Universe than it was vice versa! And if they had found a way to cross over with their fleets of ships and slave races would they try to destroy Starfleet and the Federation? If so then you might have an Alternative Factor scenario but instead of just two Lazari, you'd be fighting untold billions of the same people and races throughout the multi-verse!
JB
JB
Actually, by DS9 it seemed easier for the Terran Rebels to go switch universes, as all they had to do was wave a device over the transporter, and there, interversal transporter.
The part about non-interference in wars makes perfect sense.
The interpretation of some writers to mean you can't prevent apocalypse or protect victims of slaughter is absurd.
We don't even know what the prime directive is supposed to be, exactly. For all we know the 'don't meddle with pre-warp cultures' is just given as a standard example/subclause of it that has been worked out in detail, but the actual scope of the Directive could be much broader. So without knowing its exact contents, how are we to know if the Prime Directive would apply or not ?
It's clear that for non-warp species, the prime directive dictates non-interference. When alien races are of equivalent technology/development, it becomes less clear. With the whole premise of DS9, the federation is willing to have its representative "guide" the Bajorans into the federation. Yet this courting does not violate the prime directive? The interaction and relationship building towards that end seems like interference to me. Meddling in their internal politics of other species seems to be the modus operandi by DS9 at the very minimum. It makes the whole prime directive as applied to advanced races pretty inconsistent in my view. Especially given the whole Klingon/Duras arc in TNG. Either the federation are hypocrites, or there are levels of acceptable interference for space faring species.
Sounds about right.
There's obviously a point with space-faring cultures where the PD ends and normal two-way relations begin. If the concept of the PD were taken to the extreme, there wouldn't even be a Federation, because everybody would be too busy not interfering with each other to form an alliance.
I think it was the provisional Bajoran government that invited the Federation via Starfleet to guide them, so there was no violation of the PD.
^ I concede the points above, mostly, but it seems like (in TNG at least) the federation still has rules pertaining to the inner politics of advanced non-federation species/societies. To me they seem to be an extension of the Prime Directive, but don't really make any sense.
Pulling from memory alpha:
"Gowron again comes to Picard, asking for the Federation to intervene with the rebellion per the Treaty of Alliance. Worf even pleads with Picard to help, citing that they both know the Duras family has conspired with Romulans in the past and if they should be victorious in the war, they will surely form a new Klingon-Romulan alliance, causing a fundamental shift of power in the quadrant. Picard says it's an internal matter and interference would be against the Prime Directive."
It would seem logical that once a race is on parity with the federation, that they would treat things differently since it's more like dealing with a peer than a "child" race.
Later in DS9 you have the feds pursuing all manner of relationships with other species to combat the dominion. Which by definition is getting involved with their internal politics and changing the course of their race's history. It just seems like madness that the whole premise of not getting involved in the aforementioned episode is the PD.
Really anywhere the PD is used outside of the protection of under-developed species drives me nuts!
Pulling from memory alpha:
"Gowron again comes to Picard, asking for the Federation to intervene with the rebellion per the Treaty of Alliance. Worf even pleads with Picard to help, citing that they both know the Duras family has conspired with Romulans in the past and if they should be victorious in the war, they will surely form a new Klingon-Romulan alliance, causing a fundamental shift of power in the quadrant. Picard says it's an internal matter and interference would be against the Prime Directive."
It would seem logical that once a race is on parity with the federation, that they would treat things differently since it's more like dealing with a peer than a "child" race.
Later in DS9 you have the feds pursuing all manner of relationships with other species to combat the dominion. Which by definition is getting involved with their internal politics and changing the course of their race's history. It just seems like madness that the whole premise of not getting involved in the aforementioned episode is the PD.
Really anywhere the PD is used outside of the protection of under-developed species drives me nuts!
In DS9 when the bajoran uprising at the start of season 2 happened, Sisko and co were ordered to stay out of it, as it was an internal affair (even with cardassians suppplying the weapons).
I can't think of any purely internal situations that DS9 got involved in. Rescuing the dutapa council wasn't internal - it was Klingons vs Cardassians.
However this interference only seems to apply to civil unrest. The federation does help out with things like natural disasters throughout tng when asked to do so.
I can't think of any purely internal situations that DS9 got involved in. Rescuing the dutapa council wasn't internal - it was Klingons vs Cardassians.
However this interference only seems to apply to civil unrest. The federation does help out with things like natural disasters throughout tng when asked to do so.
Which had to just be a future-Bluetooth thingie downloading a patch.
Which is the same level of alteration as Old Spock used to unlock transwarp beaming.
Damn that's the most amazing piece of technology ever created.
