Mots' Sci-fi Sideblog

It opens with the Enterprise being voluntold that they're testing out a revolutionary breakthrough in computing science, and 95% of the crew is put on leave because this new computer is going to do all of the work for them

(Little side note here that Bones expresses concern about sailing with a skeleton crew because the limited numbers will make manning the ship difficult if the computer doesn't work; his concern is barely acknowledged before being brushed aside)

Kirk doesn't like the new computer system from the beginning, but is struggling to figure out whether his gut-instinct concern is valid, or if he's allowing his fear of being replaced to stand in the way of genuinely helpful technological progress

The scientist who created the computer explicitly brings up the argument that by replacing people, the computer will save time and resources, freeing people to do undefined other things

Instead of saving resources it turns out the computer is actually drawing massive amounts of power from the ship

Obviously, the computer ends up making bad decisions, but now it's too intertwined with the Enterprise and they can't shut it down

Then the computer starts killing people in its efforts to carry out its objectives (at this point I am forcibly reminded of the AI-assisted suicide cases)

As Spock points out, this is not the 'logical' behavior that would be expected from a computer

Turns out, the only way to make a computer complex enough to replace human decision making is to map it to a human mind

Which means that it also includes all the logical and personality flaws that are intrinsic to being human

Therefore there is no way to create an infallible or perfectly logical computer that is meaningfully capable of replacing humans

The computer scientist ends the episode in pitiable disgrace, having caused the problems in the first place with his desperate attempts to prove that he's still making relevant and groundbreaking advancements

And Janeway is such a great role model because she was fully in acceptance and in love with her feminine side (even though she insisted on that whole no love and martyrdom theme but whatever). She was never trying to me more masculine. She embraced her femininity and led with it, not despite of it. And there is so much Kathryn Janeway still has to offer that I desperately want to see it.

What I'm imagining is something like what The Expanse did with Avasarala. Give me Janeway as a heavyweight galactic diplomat in a room full of admirals and ambassadors.

I want her to tell some raging, male politician "oh I'm sorry, it was not my intention to offend your tender sensibilities, Jeffrie," deliberately forgoing whatever title he holds

Hollywood is terrified of women over 60. Over 70 is basically uncharted territory unless you're Judi Dench or whatever. I want Star Trek, a franchise literally built on the premise that the future is better, to have the guts to put a woman in her seventies at the center of a political thriller and let her be the most formidable person in every single scene.

Don't give me pew pew pew starship exploding pew pew pew the world is ending pew pew pew borg borg pew pew pew

Give me Admirals Janeway with grey hair and and absolutely zero patience for bullshit diplomacy.

She only wasn't textually a trans woman because they didn't cast a trans woman (a little cowardly, but it *was* the 90's) and the tech the SFX they were trying to do in order to make her "male" for the first season just didn't work on their budget. So, instead, they wrote her dealing with transmisogyny in effect during the show, the subtext is that she's an intentional trans allegory.

She is also, in the show, one of the most important characters, she commands respect, affection, love, and authority among those who don't hate her for her transition, and she eventually overcomes that as well.

I love her and I love the way she's treated by the show. It's one of my favourite shows for a reason. It's a detriment that she's not textually a trans woman, but she *is* a trans woman in all the ways that matter.

I mean, I get why it’s not as popular here on Tumblr dot com, given it’s kinda a jock/military adjacent thing, but like. Our ability to just. Pick up a small, firm object, judge its internal inertia and mass by holding it for a bit, and then flinging it with the kind of accuracy and speed Humans are capable of is.

Like there’s another post about how Humans in an alien zoo would probably be breaking out constantly, since we consider escape rooms to be a fun courtship ritual, but

T'Pel asking with pure Vulcan sarcasm if they had fun and in the middle of Tuvok replying that Vulcans only do their duty not have Fun, Janeway (still slightly hungover and wearing sunglasses) slings an arm around his shoulders and says, "SO MUCH fun. You should've been there, T'Pel. You should've seen the way your man risked it all to save my sorry ass from a sentient liquid people. We almost died again."

T'Pel: "Again?"

Tuvok: "....we meditated after."

The Euphoria Of Seventh Heaven.

“Of course.”

“It’s horseshit. We made it up. If the public thinks government agents go around in suits and sunglasses, we can go around in our actual uniforms and nobody will think twice about it.”

“I mean, I get it, but it’s a lot less classy.”

“Classy schmassy. I once had to smuggle an entire Neptunian armada out of Beaverlodge, Alberta. I had 20,000 warships in the back of a pickup truck, I wore the suit and nobody even asked me for a license.”

There was a furious silence as she grappled with this. Then: “Fine. Fine, I’ll wear the stupid vest.”

In contrast, Eridians had to discover fire in a lab since their atmosphere doesnt have O2 like ours. So they dont have, like, an entire culture normalizing fire.

> Be me. Rocky the Eridian cosmonaut

> Tell Grace about Eridian space elevator design made out of Xenonite. Grace very impressed, says humans only dream about making space elevator.

> Odd? Ask Human friend Grace how humans got into space. Expecting some high tech solution since science humans clearly know more physics.

Outer Landscape.

Surreal Mixed Media Collage Art by Ayham Jabr.