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Spoilers Star Trek: Picard 1x09 - "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"

Rate Star Trek: Picard 1x09 - "Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1"


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That was actually the one thing that I found ridiculous... an android performing a mind meld.

That implies she has some kind of telepathic ability, but androids have never been shown to have telepathy.
These are are very different from what we've seen before and clearly more organic. What they can and can not do isn't limited by what came before.
 
Was it supposed to "unstable"? No? Then that's a malfunction.
Until Daystrom started to agree with it, which makes me question is that a malfunction? :vulcan:
No, unstable engrams from a human are used to justify horrible decisions. No logic involved. Just like there's no logic in defending bad story choices. By your reasoning Slobodan Milosevic used logic to slaughter Muslims and the Hutus used logic to slaughter the Tutsi. That writers and fans would try to convince me that that's a possible, blank-faced logical outcome instead of one caused by human emotional barbarism is disturbing. Do you really believe that?
Logic only works based upon information inputted.

Yes, it is possible to justify those horrible things based upon logic. Logical fallacies exist, and can lead to horrible outcomes.
Logic is not some protective perfect decision making process. It is based upon information and can be just a fallible as emotional reasoning. It concerns me that there is a view logic is somehow some safe haven that is completely perfect. :vulcan:
 
Until Daystrom started to agree with it, which makes me question is that a malfunction? :vulcan:
You made a mistake trying to gotcha me with semantics. Don't try to rationalize it.

Logic only works based upon information inputted.
What info are the Soong robots/Robot Gods missing? They seem to be pretty well educated.

Yes, it is possible to justify those horrible things based upon logic. Logical fallacies exist, and can lead to horrible outcomes.
Fallacies are the opposite of logic usually made without any logic at all but rather with emotion and/or in an attempt to illicit an emotional response that feels true but isn't. "In reasoning to argue a claim, a fallacy is reasoning that is evaluated as logically incorrect and that undermines the logical validity of the argument and permits its recognition as unsound."
Again, you've made a mistake. What's the point in pushing it to a conclusion that I'm sure you don't believe?
 
I am going with it being an amazingly dumb idea. They are all supposed to find this one system, and stumble across a message? What about synths in the Delta Quadrant or Gamma Quadrant? They could spend centuries living 10,000s of light years from the system where they implanted a secret message? Is that a joke?

If they are still around and they are this uber, why not just make contact directly with any synths that arise? Instead they live in another dimension and wait for them to accidently stumble across this message, even knowing that biologics could find it also?

Even the whales had a better plan than that.
 
You made a mistake trying to gotcha me with semantics. Don't try to rationalize it.


What info are the Soong robots/Robot Gods missing? They seem to be pretty well educated.


Fallacies are the opposite of logic usually made without any logic at all. "In reasoning to argue a claim, a fallacy is reasoning that is evaluated as logically incorrect and that undermines the logical validity of the argument and permits its recognition as unsound."
Again, you've made a mistake. What's the point in pushing it to a conclusion that I'm sure you don't believe?
I don't believe that logic cannot be used to justify horrible things? O_o

Yeah, I made a mistake with the M5. But, I know that logic can cause problems for thinking. Logic alone is not the solution.
 
I'm trying to free my thoughts from the fact that this one ended on a cliffhanger. So yes, obviously, things will go horribly wrong at the last hour before the finale resolves everything, so I don't think it will just conclude with the Zhat Vash proven right and Picard joining forces with Oh to carpet-bomb Coppelius or something. Still, I'm quite anxious to see how it will all end, but I'm confident that Chabon is a good enough writer not to undermine his own message.

Given what the series argued for in previous episodes, I feel the synths will turn out to be misguided, not villainous, and most of the blame will be put on Sutra for drawing the wrong conclusions from the Admonition... not at all unlike the Zhat Vash, how ironic. She had no reason to believe the ancient synths, and I think we might be headed for something like the Berserker Probe from Babylon 5 (A Day in the Strife, Season 3) that sought out civilizations to assess their level of technological development and eliminated any that was advanced enough to be a threat to its creators. Thinking of how the crew floated the warp drive as a convenient benchmark, maybe the development of sapient synthetic life is just another indicator of an advanced civilization, and there's no synthetic Federation at all, maybe it's just a rogue AI that doesn't really care about the synths it reaches out to, and that realization will convince them to refuse its offer. Alright, I'm not really talking about what happened in the episode, but I think after such a cliffhanger it's just natural, after all it really felt like it was just Act I of a whole story. Maybe seen together with Part 2 and with the whole picture, the ratings would be far different.

Right now, the situation feels like the beginning of The Battle of the Five Armies, with the synths, especially Sutra and Soong Jr. basically standing in for Thorin suffering from the Dragon Sickness, only looking out for themselves and not caring if Morgoth's allies consume everything outside... the free races of Middle-Earth staring each other down anxiously until it all erupts in a free-for-all, then in the end it will coalesce around two clear sides fighting for good and evil. So right now, we have the remainder of Picard's crew, the Borg, the Synths, the Romulans, Starfleet cavalry which is obviously coming to the rescue at the climax next week and of course the creators of the Admonition if they're actually summoned. Six armies to narrow down, but who is Smaug? (It's Khan, naturally).

Coppelius Station reminded me of those secluded utopian communes from TNG with an aesthetics straight out of Voyager (or maybe just 90s television with its tendency to film everything on location in the LA area), so ultimately I shouldn't have been surprised that it turned out to be not at all perfect. Especially now that we met Sutra who's basically the Lore to Soji's Data, even killing one of her own just to get what she wants. At least they don't look the same.

Observations:
  • The whole opening sequence was just HOLY SHIT. No words. The Borg transwarp corridor, the battle against Narek, the orchids, everything.
  • Btw, the transwarp corridor's aperture looked really like the red matter wormhole from ST09. It's probably just a coincidence.
  • "Puta madre!" - finally we hear a curse whose literal translation is also used in my native Hungarian! Seriously though, we need an Emergency Hungarian Hologram yelling constant streams of cifrakáromkodás ("flashy swearing") while drinking home-made pálinka.
  • "What just happened?" - I always love when you directly quote my goddess Sylvia Tilly, Jean-Luc.
  • I'm glad the La Sirena has different phasers than Starfleet. I always love worldbuilding with random props.
  • I was wondering at first if Soong Jr. is actually a Tainer-type synth, given that his name is literally A.I. Soong. Given that he's convinced he's dying of old age, he probably isn't... which means Soong really was a monomaniac.
  • The emotional scenes with Picard meeting and saying goodbye to Elnor as well as his last scene with Raffi were beautiful. Seriously, Elnor is so cute, I can't help but adore him.
  • And as an extension of what he said, seeing Seven casually toss Romulan corpses to the floor fills me with joy :lol:.
  • Speaking of adorable, Spot II :adore::adore::adore:
 
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Eeeeeeh..... I did not like this episode. Because I don't like the overall arc.

Really. Someone has been playing "Mass Effect" too much, and thinks the Reapers are a really good idea for a drama show insted of... you know, for a video game.

Really, this whole arc has turned out to be majorly stupid. It's still written and acted very well. But it has the same problem all Star Trek since ST09 (hell, Nemesis) has - it tries to be high stakes action-schlock.


Make no mistakes - there is still good Star Trek around - actual Star Trek - Short Treks!
Star Trek is really more about exploring different ideas with a steady cast. I really don't care about how many more times they have to save civilisation/Earth/the Multiverse. That shit gets boooooooring.

Seems like a BIG theme these days....Westworld, ST, X-Men comics....

I still enjoy it. But maybe 'evil Sahj' should be played more sympatheticly...unless we find she was made with Lore's engrams maybe?? And the rest were made with B4?? I dunno. Again, i want to say it would be better if she were played with sympathy (her sister murdered and all). And as i realize fully she MURDERED that one girl just to convince her people organics are evil....im more convinced she was made with Lore.

As for Short Treks....ugh...that tribble episode. Am i supposed to believe the captain there was supposed to be the good guy?
 
I don't believe that logic cannot be used to justify horrible things? O_o
Yeah, I made a mistake with the M5. But, I know that logic can cause problems for thinking. Logic alone is not the solution.

No, you also made a mistake in what a "logical fallacy" is. In the end no machine has ever slaughtered millions of people of its own will. People do that with their selfishness, emotionality, and fallacious arguments. Speculating that robots with pure logic would just go on a murder spree is a complete passing of the buck when we all know who the real problem is. Even from an appeal to Trek tradition it doesn't float. The logical teachings of Surak don't even allow animals to be slaughtered for food. You don't really believe that genocide can be a rational, logical action. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt on that.
 
Starfleet did not murder either Jana or Maddox. Commodore Oh, who is a Zhat Vash infiltrator, manipulated Agnes and Captain Vandermeer respectively to carry out the murders on her behalf. She made Vandermeer believe that the order came from Starfleet, but it did not, it came from her and her alone.

Oh's not a Changeling who replaced an existing admiral. She rose in the ranks and commands an official position in the Starfleet hierarchy. She ordered a Starfleet captain to murder two synths, and a Federation citizen to kill one of their creators, and both obeyed. Starfleet's hands are bloody here, and at best you're arguing negligence.
 
I'm trying to free my thoughts from the fact that this one ended on a cliffhanger. So yes, obviously, things will go horribly wrong at the last hour before the finale resolves everything, so I don't think it will just conclude with the Zhat Vash proven right and Picard joining forces with Oh to carpet-bomb Coppelius or something. Still, I'm quite anxious to see how it will all end, but I'm confident that Chabon is a good enough writer not to undermine his own message.

Given what the series argued for in previous episodes, I feel the synths will turn out to be misguided, not villainous, and most of the blame will be put on Sutra for drawing the wrong conclusions from the Admonition... not at all unlike the Zhat Vash, how ironic. She had no reason to believe the ancient synths, and I think we might be headed for something like the Berserker Probe from Babylon 5 (A Day in the Strife, Season 3) that sook out civilizations to assess their level of technological development and eliminated any that was advanced enough to be a threat to its creators. Thinking of how the crew floated the warp drive as a convenient benchmark, maybe the development of sapient synthetic life is just another indicator of an advanced civilization, and there's no synthetic Federation at all, maybe it's just a rogue AI that doesn't really care about the synths it reaches out to, and that realization will convince them to refuse its offer. Alright, I'm not really talking about what happened in the episode, but I think after such a cliffhanger it's just natural, after all it really felt like it was just Act I of a whole story. Maybe seen together with Part 2 and with the whole picture, the ratings would be far different.

Right now, the situation feels like the beginning of The Battle of the Five Armies, with the synths, especially Sutra and Soong Jr. basically standing in for Thorin suffering from the Dragon Sickness, only looking out for themselves and not caring if Morgoth's allies consume everything outside... the free races of Middle-Earth staring each other down anxiously until it all erupts in a free-for-all, then in the end it will coalesce around two clear sides fighting for good and evil. So right now, we have the remainder of Picard's crew, the Borg, the Synths, the Romulans, Starfleet cavalry which is obviously coming to the rescue at the climax next week and of course the creators of the Admonition if they're actually summoned. Six armies to narrow down, but who is Smaug? (It's Khan, naturally).

Coppelius Station reminded me of those secluded utopian communes from TNG with an aesthetics straight out of Voyager (or maybe just 90s television with its tendency to film everything on location in the LA area), so ultimately I shouldn't have been surprised that it turned out to be not at all perfect. Especially now that we met Sutra who's basically the Lore to Soji's Data, even killing one of her own just to get what she wants. At least they don't look the same.

Observations:
  • The whole opening sequence was just HOLY SHIT. No words. The Borg transwarp corridor, the battle against Narek, the orchids, everything.
  • Btw, the transwarp corridor's aperture looked really like the red matter wormhole from ST09. It's probably just a coincidence.
  • "Puta madre!" - finally we hear a curse whose literal translation is also used in my native Hungarian! Seriously though, we need an Emergency Hungarian Hologram yelling constant streams of cifrakáromkodás ("flashy swearing") while drinking home-made pálinka.
  • "What just happened?" - I always love when you directly quote my goddess Sylvia Tilly, Jean-Luc.
  • I'm glad the La Sirena has different phasers than Starfleet. I always love worldbuilding with random props.
  • I was wondering at first if Soong Jr. is actually a Tainer-type synth, given that his name is literally A.I. Soong. Given that he's convinced he's dying of old age, he probably isn't... which means Soong really was a monomaniac.
  • The emotional scenes with Picard meeting and saying goodbye to Elnor as well as his last scene with Raffi were beautiful. Seriously, Elnor is so cute, I can't help but adore him.
  • And as an extension of what he said, seeing Seven casually toss Romulan corpses to the floor fills me with joy :lol:.
  • Speaking of adorable, Spot II :adore::adore::adore:

I just want to say it’s positively wild how I was just reading random pages about that particular Babylon 5 episode as well as The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies last night before bed and now here you are cleverly referencing both!
 
No, you also made a mistake in what a "logical fallacy" is. In the end no machine has ever slaughtered millions of people of its own will. People do that with their selfishness, emotionality, and fallacious arguments. Speculating that robots with pure logic would just go on a murder spree is a complete passing of the buck when we all know who the real problem is. Even from an appeal to Trek tradition it doesn't float. The logical teachings of Surak don't even allow animals to be slaughtered for food. You don't really believe that genocide can be a rational, logical action. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt on that.
Ok.
 
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