Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Inside My Head

I've discovered something today.

Well, not today.  I've known it for a while.

What I've discovered is that I just don't know how to talk to people.  Like I said, I've known that for while, but what I discovered today is why.

They talk about dumb stuff.

I'm listening to people talk at work and they're talking about who got together with who, who broke up, who is cheating on who, who got into a fight, who got arrested, and who is pregnant by whom, and boring stuff like that.

Meanwhile, I'm over here having a mental debate on the validity of The Prime Directive.

I mean, OK, the Prime Directive basically says that Starfleet/Federation officers cannot interfere in the cultural and social development of other races/species on other planets, right?  But isn't the fact that they beamed down an interacted with these people change their future, even if it's in a minute way?  And how can they know the effects of their interaction on the long term development of these cultures? 

Let's put it this way, 5 months ago, my group leader Greg was moved to another line, and another person, Fernando, was named group leader over my line.  My life is different now than it would have been if Greg were still my group leader, even if only in a minute way. 

So, the if the Prime Directive were to be strictly followed, there would be no interaction between planets and cultures at all.  You can't say that you can interfere a minute amount, but not a large amount, because that would make the Prime Directive relative, and therefore invalid. 

Personally, I don't think the Prime Directive is such a good idea anyway.  Doesn't the free exchange of ideas an information make us all better?  Think back to the 16th and 17th centuries.  Why were Europe and Asia so much more technologically advanced?  Because there was travel.  There was interaction.  There were trade routes.  There was the exchange of ideas and information.  They developed ships that could sail around the world.  They had advanced (for the time) medical techniques.  They had gunpowder, and physics, and astronomy, and epic poetry and stuff.

Meanwhile, in Sub Saharan Africa and the Americas, they hadn't even figured out the wheel yet. 

It was the lack of information and communication with other cultures that kept them in a more primitive state. So, if you ask me, the Prime Directive should be scrapped, and we should all learn from each other, and help each other develop and stuff.

The good news is, I've figured out why I can't send my group leader Fernando into a parallel dimension.  It seems another of my co-workers is inadvertently tethering him into this dimension, so that every time I try to send him into a parallel dimension, she unwittingly drags him back into this one.

The bad news is, I don't know how to fix it.

Welcome to the inside of my head.  It's a scary place in there sometimes.

Isn't it?

1 comment:

Bag Blog said...

Interesting. America has always thought our ideas were better and we should spread them to poor countries. Presenting them with the wheel to make their life easier is one thing, but we never stop there. We try to change their hearts and minds. Not a bad thing, but not always a welcome thing. Sometimes, we should leave certain planets alone - if we could only keep them contained...