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Star Trek Amish?

Kevman7987

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this subject, but does anyone else wonder if there would be Amish people in the Star Trek universe? After watching that one TNG episode with the Irish farmers being relocated to the clone planet for sexytimes, I got this weird image in my head of Amish buggies being driven out of the back of landed shuttlecraft; The Alpha Centauri Pennsylvania Dutch.

Those farmers weren't Amish though, they had no issue with using or having advanced technology.
 
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this subject, but does anyone else wonder if there would be Amish people in the Star Trek universe? After watching that one TNG episode with the Irish farmers being relocated to the clone planet for sexytimes, I got this weird image in my head of Amish buggies being driven out of the back of landed shuttlecraft; The Alpha Centauri Pennsylvania Dutch.

Those farmers weren't Amish though, they had no issue with using or having advanced technology.

My guess is, just like the First Nations tribes in that Season 7 episode of TNG, they left Earth to settle elsewhere where they could conduct themselves in the manner they wanted. Or, the United Earth Government let them be and protected them from the outside world as much as possible (assuming any of them survived WW III.)
 
That'd be one huge shuttlecraft! :lol:

There was a short-lived TV series a long while back called Aaron's Way. It starred Merlin Olson (who formerly played a recurring character on Little House on the Prairie) as the patriarch of an Amish family who relocated to California to visit the family of the woman who married his son (the son had left the Amish community and later died). It was a nice "fish out of water" series in which an Amish family tries to fit in with secular 1980s Northern California.

So an Amish presence in Star Trek could be rather interesting.
 
That colony in "This Side of Paradise" could pass for Amish, minus he beards and simple clothes. ;)
 
I actually live in Amish country, so, yeah, I've flirted with doing an "Amish planet" book someday.
 
Okay, now I've got a silly mental image of an Amish horse and buggy, with a warp nacelle on the buggy... :p
 
As long as the future observes religious freedoms, then the Amish church fellowships could still exist.

:)
 
Weren't the Picards Amish? Or were they just Luddites?

Luddites.

With the Amish, it's not a rejection of technology for technology's sake. It's a rejection of all things they deem "English."

I live just outside the largest Amish community in the United States, so this piqued my interest. Amish are rather hypocritical about their rejection of technology. If the wife, for example, isn't Amish, then it's OK to have electricity and modern conveniences in the home for the benefit of everyone. Many Amish around here have computers, smartphones and modern conveniences in their businesses. Some have recently started to secretly wire their homes for electricity, but ask the contractors to bury the lines so the neighbors don't notice.

Amish, or Simple Folk, thrive financially on tourism and selling hand made goods and furniture. We go to Amish Country about 3 or 4 times a year to buy food, particularly cheese and candy.

There are Amish colonies in South America. My step-son visited one when he was in Bolivia. The Amish aren't about proselytizing, but are about living separate and independent of mainstream society. They want to be left alone to mind their own business. At the same time, they want outsiders to come and buy their goods and services.

I could see 23rd or 24th century Amish scattered about on colony worlds, especially on worlds similar to Tyree's planet or maybe Capella. Not necessarily those worlds particularly, but worlds with a primitive (by Federation standards) technology level that would enjoy trading food and goods with Federation citizens. Worlds that would leave them alone yet appreciate their services.

The colony from DS9's "Paradise" could have been Amish with a few minor adjustments. Of course, the episode then wouldn't work because the entire colony would have rejected technology by choice, not out of trickery.
 
Those farmers weren't Amish though, they had no issue with using or having advanced technology.

Well, strictly speaking, the Amish themselves don't always have a problem with using advanced technology... within reason. It's how they use it which is important. They're stricter about the application and the proper use of such things, but they aren't quite as strict as popular culture might have one believe. ;)
 
No, the Ba'ku weren't Amish, they were just stupid.

"Oh hai. We abandoned technology centuries ago yet we can perform diagnostics on a positronic net! Without using technology!"
 
Let's clear this up - are we talking about actual, actual Amish IN SPACE, or utopian luddites in general? If we're talking about actual Amish, we might as well close the thread right now.
 
If we're talking about actual Amish, we might as well close the thread right now.

Why?

Actual Amish IN SPACE is a great idea. It's completely believable in the Star Trek universe.

And, visiting an Amish colony in a Star Trek story offers lots of interesting possibilities.
 
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