Like "wildlife"! As in Who Watches the Watchers...
What's your "controversial" Star Trek opinion?
- Thread starter Romulan Patriot
- Start date
Like "wildlife"! As in Who Watches the Watchers...
Military? Or money?
My thoughts on the sentience of AI are, if you can have sentience with machines made of organic goop and electrical impulses, you can possibly have it with machines made of circuits too.
The argument that 'Machines are programmed and people are not', that is false, people are programmed too. Just they were programmed by a quite inefficient genetic algorithm. They were programmed to learn and adapt to novel situations and to build skills they need to execute tasks needed for survival and reproduction. Modern AI can't truly adapt to novel situations but perhaps 24th century AI can.
But, you are certainly not Hitler, you are applying reasonable skepticism in a way that happens to contradict the show's narrative. A real life "Data" might not be sentient, but in the show's universe, I'm willing to suspend disbelief and accept him as such.
Regarding Jelico, I don't think his sterner discipline was incorrect, but I think his weird negotiation tactics with the Cardassians were poorly conceived and if Deanna actually said "So you have to be more reasonable" the Cardassians would have seen through that bush league nonsense immediately.
My controversial opinion is that the Treaty of Algernon is the dumbest thing ever. Far from keeping the Federation safe it crippled them if they ever went to war with the Romulans, and they're lucky as hell the Dominion united them through common threat.
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Now I'm wondering if AutoAdmin is sentient.... 
My "controversial" Star Trek opinion is as follows:
Genetic profiling, if you like, in STAR TREK's time will eventually see awkward unattractiveness going the way of the dodo. Medicine can do much in the 24th Century ... and beyond. Only beautiful people will define the Human Condition, thanks to selective sperm/egg sampling, amongst other breakthroughs not (directly) involving genetic engineering. You no longer have to worry if your potential spouse has a Family History of a particular illness, lets say ... even something like a likelihood of addiction, or compulsion. Nobody even needs anything as innocuous as eyeglasses, anymore. STAR TREK's Universe is the antithesis of today's where only a quarter, or so, of the Human population is healthy-looking and attractive ... indeed, they get to stay that way for a long, long time! That's a future we all could live in ...
Genetic profiling, if you like, in STAR TREK's time will eventually see awkward unattractiveness going the way of the dodo. Medicine can do much in the 24th Century ... and beyond. Only beautiful people will define the Human Condition, thanks to selective sperm/egg sampling, amongst other breakthroughs not (directly) involving genetic engineering. You no longer have to worry if your potential spouse has a Family History of a particular illness, lets say ... even something like a likelihood of addiction, or compulsion. Nobody even needs anything as innocuous as eyeglasses, anymore. STAR TREK's Universe is the antithesis of today's where only a quarter, or so, of the Human population is healthy-looking and attractive ... indeed, they get to stay that way for a long, long time! That's a future we all could live in ...
The way the Federation uses phasers is far different from the way Quark's customers were going to use them.
Worf, revenge killing Duras should've gotten him tossed out of Starfleet, not prosecuted obviously, as it's acceptable on his world, but immediately expelled. He took a weapon from his quarters, on board a Starfleet ship, aboard which he was currently serving, transported from there to a Klingon vessel, & murdered someone, (Who did deserve it) while wearing his uniform no less, & all but handed the high council to his opponent in doing so
This is why I always have to laugh when Picard down dresses him for wanting to intervene in the Klingon civil war (In Redemption) Then would've been a good time to remind everyone that no one at Starfleet seemed to have any problem with him executing one of the candidates for the high council, which led to all this mess in the 1st place. News flash buttheads. It's no time to fall back on the "Prime directive" if you've already crapped all over it.
Also, Picard should've just ordered him to give his ribosomes to the Romulan in The Enemy. Tolerance of other cultures is one thing, & wanting to practice the principles of democracy is as well, but the guy is a uniformed officer, during a time of crisis, whose decision could lead to many deaths of comrades & fellow Federation citizens. You don't get the luxury of refusing out of spite
This is why I always have to laugh when Picard down dresses him for wanting to intervene in the Klingon civil war (In Redemption) Then would've been a good time to remind everyone that no one at Starfleet seemed to have any problem with him executing one of the candidates for the high council, which led to all this mess in the 1st place. News flash buttheads. It's no time to fall back on the "Prime directive" if you've already crapped all over it.
Also, Picard should've just ordered him to give his ribosomes to the Romulan in The Enemy. Tolerance of other cultures is one thing, & wanting to practice the principles of democracy is as well, but the guy is a uniformed officer, during a time of crisis, whose decision could lead to many deaths of comrades & fellow Federation citizens. You don't get the luxury of refusing out of spite
Riker's legendary sausage was actually a gherkin. 
Something everyone forgets about this episode is that Worf did talk to the Romulan who said he didn't want Klingon blood polluting his veins anyway. At this point, it wouldn't have mattered if Worf agreed to the transfusion, the Hippocratic Oath and medical ethics prevent Dr. Crusher from operating on a patient without his/her consent.
He should've just been ordered to do it, right off. Crusher could've done it, right when he said he had a problem with it. They were under no obligation to inform the Romulan of who would be aiding in his medical care, nor were they required to have Worf speak to the patient 1st, & all indications pointed to the Romulans that were inquiring about him, not only desiring he be healed & not die, upon which no terms or conditions were placed (Like Klingon donor exceptions etc...), but even more than that, they implied that were harm or death to come to him it would be taken badly by them. He shouldn't have been allowed to refuse at all, least of all, dragging it out so as to not hurt his feelings & try to win him over to their personal moral views. Handled badly by all, & were it not for Geordi, probably catastrophically so
Edit: You know, you could even argue that the Romulan is an officer too, & his superiors had demanded he be healed & kept alive, upon which no conditions were placed. His right to object could be considered fairly moot as well. I'm not as sure on that point though, but Hippocratic oath takes a backseat to Starfleet oath, imho, an opinion I'm sure Crusher has never shared. There's other lives to safeguard beyond just the patient
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From my perspective, you're wrong on both counts. You have to respect what your people believe, Worf shouldn't have been dressed down by Picard at all. He handled justice the way Klingons handle justice. If Picard had better security on his ship, there may have been no need for revenge to begin with.
At best, Picard should have reprimanded Worf for being AWOL (absent without leave).
The Federation is no utopia if it forces its citizens to give up their customs for some alleged greater good. Same goes for forcing its citizens to give up one's blood to save another. If the Romulan needed a kidney and Worf was a match, should Picard have forced him to give up his kidney?
@Mojochi, I'm curious: If you believe Worf should be court-martialed out of Starfleet simply for following his own people's customs (entirely on Klingon territory, no less), do you believe the same should apply to Kirk and Spock in "Amok Time"?
You can't have it both ways. Either the Vulcan practice of kunat kalifee AND Worf killing Duras are both legal, or neither are. So which is it?
As for the Romulan patient: His wish to die (rather than have a Klingon transfusion be forced on him) should be respected. Indeed, his superiors might consider it an honorable act - that a Romulan patient, on an enemy vessel, was treated according to HIS desires and customs, rather than forcing him to accept treatment he clearly did not want. It shows that the Federation respects Romulan culture, as opposed to blatantly discarding it.
You can't have it both ways. Either the Vulcan practice of kunat kalifee AND Worf killing Duras are both legal, or neither are. So which is it?
As for the Romulan patient: His wish to die (rather than have a Klingon transfusion be forced on him) should be respected. Indeed, his superiors might consider it an honorable act - that a Romulan patient, on an enemy vessel, was treated according to HIS desires and customs, rather than forcing him to accept treatment he clearly did not want. It shows that the Federation respects Romulan culture, as opposed to blatantly discarding it.
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Vulcans are a Federation member state and still practice some pretty barbaric things. Not sure why the Klingons get singled out for any other reason than they are the enemy.
Talking of Picard, you know what's bullshit? His outrage in Insurrection. Why? Because by the time he gives his "how many does it take admiral?" speech, he's already aware that the Baku are invading colonists themselves. He bangs on about the Prime Directive, but it's irrelevant.
You're basically making the case that Starfleet should accept ceremonial, revenge driven murder as compatible with it's values.
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