Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Don’t worry about it, it was my own fault for being a sarcastic bastard with

“Allow me to introduce you to:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor”

that set the wrong tone for this entire comment thread to begin with.

I agree that the Prime Directive of Star Trek is dependent on primitive species. I think that the Prime Directive of Life is to not interfere in other people’s business without good reason. In the case of Iran right now, if I had the skills (which I don’t) I’d be tempted to break the Prime Directive of Life because I think there are people there being killed and tortured for no reason other than it aids the men in power maintain their status and that doesn’t sit right with me. Obviously if you kill one monster you can’t be sure an even worse one won’t take its place but for me, I’d rather take my chances. I’ve got to have hope in humanity, that we can come together, that we can banish evil when we see it even if it takes us many attempts and that we can build better things in its place. I believe people should be free to live their lives however they wish so long as they are not hurting others.

Sadly, I feel you may be right on the “might is right” thing. In my opinion, Star Trek only works as a series due to the “universal replicator”. As a device, it allows for the creation of anything, thus there is no scarcity of resources and the entire planet is free to adopt an “abundancy mindset” rather than a “scarcity mindset”. With people no longer worried about survival or material possessions, people are free to pursue their passions and curiosities and focus on bettering themselves rather than competing to survive.

The Star Trek universe also only works because the federation have more technologically advanced weaponry than their ideological adversaries allowing them security and peace of mind. Of course, it is possible to achieve an abundance mindset without any replicator as many happy people alive today will demonstrate. But in what is an increasingly materialistic world, it may be the quickest way to achieve it globally. I don’t think this is going to look like a box that just makes things as in Star Trek. Instead it will be AI controlling many different machines and abundant renewable energy to power them. Maybe it will all go wrong with the singularity. Who knows!

Sadly, we know through the ancients that the “gods are eternal” so it is likely that, if we were able to create a similar utopia to that of Star Trek, we will still produce damaged people who seek war, power over others etc just as the advanced worlds of Star Trek have their own villainous characters. We would thus need to also have other systems well developed simultaneously, good health care systems, good education systems, good political systems etc. Maybe then we will have ascended to a place where we deal with our inner world in a manner that is non destructive to our external world and will be able to go to space as explorers rather than conquerors. If we go to space before this self mastery is achieved then it will be likely be the same old tragic self interested story.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: