I was younger than most when I entered university. Through friends of my parents I ended up in an apartment with a flatmate named Mina. Mina was a few years older, studious like myself. Smart and quiet. She was like a big sister. Kind, encouraging, gentle yet assertive. She had (she still does) a bubbly reverse laughter that made me laugh even when the joke wasn't funny.
We were young idealists; we were going to save the world, people and the environment. Mina had gotten into a competitive program so we rarely saw eachother. Both of us spent time in the library, and we were very considerate of eachothers space. Every weekend she went home to be with her boyfriend, a physician in training.
Startrek was in syndication and was my dinner study break every evening. Mina didn't think much of scifi and couldn't understand why I watched it. One evening our disciplined lifestyles overlapped and she joined me on the couch while we were munching our salads.
I explained that each species was not a representation of "race", but an extrapolated and stereotypical extreme of human personality and behavior; the Ferengi greedy businessmen, whose intentions could not even be read by an empath, the Klingons; the proud warrior race, the Vulcans who were logical and suppressed emotions, the Borg a totalitarian hivemind and so on. The show explored many ethical and moral themes including Data's struggle to be recognized as a person. Mina was passionate about women's and human rights.
When i told her that the first Startrek was a product of the 60s, where Kirk "engaged" with animal, mineral or vegetable with some papermache aliens thrown in, and that TNG had changed the famous slogan: "To boldly go where no man has gone before" to "To boldly go where no one has gone before" as early as 1987, in order to be more inclusive, Mina became interested. Mina wasn't hooked per se, but she joined me frequently afterwards to watch and discuss.
Ionescu's play The bald soprano about the failure of communication did not resonate as much as TNGs episode Darmok. (The episode is free on youtube). An alien species whose brains have evolved to only speak in metaphors. AIs LLM feels that way. Our own communication is more anti-social. Even on these blogs I've witnessed adults imitate juvenile behavior and resort to bullying. The othering of anyone who is perceived as other.
Maybe Startrek should be mandatory viewing at an early age.
To this day when I encounter situations that are crazy because people aren't listening and talking at eachother rather than to eachother followed by the insincere "I hear you", there is hopefully a geek nearby who understands my "at Tenagra".
There's been recent talk about aliens again. I don't need a Drake equation to convince me that there's sentient life in the universe other than ourselves. However it has likely evolved so differently. that I doubt we'd have anything in common. We might not be able to perceive eachothers form of communication. (Take that egocentric Fermi paradox). There is probably nothing that we could trade. "We're a Foufna based lifeform and ecosystem, wth are we going to do with your coal, oil, plants or water???"
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| Gary Larson |
Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra.
Sokath, his eyes open.
Update: Google AI gives a decent summary of the meaning of these sentences. Basically the first is about cooperation, the second about understanding.
I just finished reading Max Porter's novel, Shy. It's a stream-of-conscious journey through a troubled and violent 16-year-old's mind...it reads like short films stitched together loosely... fascinating...and at the core of his trauma? Shy has internalized the bullying and cruel statements from other boys who think they are just jokes (?) ffs...powerful toxic social systems based on othering endure. Sigh. Yes yes yes to art as an antidote agent.
ReplyDeleteCodex: Thanks for the recommendation but I'm not sure what this has to do with this post.
DeleteCodex: @dbThanks for letting me know. I'll have to think about your comment and see if I can reply above. This post is about our increasing inability to communicate with and to eachother. A product of internet culture.
ReplyDeleteI haven't watched any Star Trek in decades, and certainly not TNG. I have the episodes on a hard drive, but not a lot of time to be watching much more than the news each night.
ReplyDeleteCodex: It's a good episode showing the limitations of translation if a language existed that was only metaphors and allegories.
DeleteInteresting post. I didn't watch much past the original series. Life got too busy though I have seen some episodes from the others. I never really thought too deeply about what the different alien species represented and wonder if it was intentional by the writers or just your perception of the show.
ReplyDeleteHave you read Andy Weir's book Project Hail Mary? One core of the book is two entirely different but sentient and intelligent life forms must learn to communicate and cooperate to save their respective planets. It's been made into a movie to be released this summer I think. As for humans, I don't know that we used to be better at communicating before the internet having lived before and now during. I do think it has emboldened some people to be their worst selves through anonymity, bullies who never grew up or out of it, that face to face they would check themselves. They might think it but wouldn't say it.
Codex: very intentional by the show by the time tng came along. These are questions that physicists and astrophysicist have been asking themselves for decades.
DeleteThe last couple of paragraphs are my opinion. But yes. All we know is us. Aliens? If they evolved on a gas planet they'd have completely different senses. And no i don't think anything ever visited us. Too far. Not worth it.
Haven't read it sounds interesting. In cities that behavior is out in the open now.