Think about it: this assumes that there is an innate connection between your consciousness and physical brain. It’s a machine that works like this: you step aboard the transporter deck and your body’s matter gets converted into energy, with your atomic blueprint saved in a computer then the transporter converts that energy into new atoms in a distant place, reconstructing your body according to the computerised schematics. Yes, it’s not just a plot idea that conveniently allowed fan favourite Spock to be resurrected in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock or allowed Sarek to communicate with Michael in first ever episode of Star Trek: Discovery, but a nod to a major philosophical paradigm.īut a tad confusingly, the franchise also advocates an opposing idea with its most iconic invention, the transporter bay. Vulcans possess a Katra, a soul that can be divorced from the body and inserted into another person or, if they’re really unlucky, a receptacle. This mind-body dualism has a parallel in Star Trek. They can’t tell how humans can entertain a mental image or ‘experience’ an emotion. And before you ask, no, science doesn’t have the answer for this – neuroscientists haven’t yet solved the “hard problem” of how your consciousness is related to your brain. In other words, Descartes proposed that you – yes, YOU – exist outside your body and just happen to be operating your body. Or, to put it a bit more clearly, do your awareness, personality and memories come from your physical brain or a non-material soul? It’s a debate that was sparked by René Descartes, who believed that the body is merely a machine-like object which is controlled by a non-material mind, soul or consciousness. Yet, if Starfleet was in the same position as the Vulcans, would they have landed on Earth and lent a hand? Would The Prime Directive have saved Earth – a future cornerstone of the UFP – from destruction? We’re guessing not. And after the first contact, The Vulcans shared their technological knowledge, thus helping Earth to rise from its post-atomic horror to become a founding member of the UFP. In the show, the Vulcans reached out to our planet when they realised humans (specifically one of them, Zefram Cochrane) had invented the warp drive. This issue gets more complicated if you consider the spirit in which the show’s United Federation of Planets (UFP) was first formed. Is it right that he sacrificed this Star Fleet value to save one child? Like most philosophers, the crew are divided. The child must die.įortunately, Picard reverses his decision in time for Data to save the girl, but at the cost of the Prime Directive. Captain Picard’s response? The Prime Directive must stand. For instance, in The New Generation episode Pen Pals, android Lt Commander Data receives messages from a little girl whose planet will soon be destroyed by volcanic eruptions. Star Trek has handled such sticky non-interventionist predicaments head-on during the show, often with heart-breaking consequences. Or, to take a less politically-charged example, if a wildlife filmmaker comes across a dying zebra, do they have a moral obligation to help it? Would they be responsible for its death by walking away? And what if aiding the animal inadvertently starves a pride of lions that would otherwise have fed on the carcass? Would non-action be the right line to face when threatened by Nazi Germany? Iraq? North Korea? Syria? After all, taken to its extreme, the Directive is a barely-compromising non-interventionist policy, a stance never going to please everyone in every circumstance. But, as you might have noticed from a couple of near-apocalyptic world wars since then, such a simple idea rarely leads to peace in our intricate universe.Īnd as with every strategy that walks the line between war and peace, the thinking behind the Prime Directive provokes a lot of debate. History has proven again and again that whenever mankind interferes with a less developed civilisation, no matter how well intentioned that interference may be, the results are invariably disastrous."Īt its inception, this philosophy appeared to have led to peace: the Westphalia treaty halted 80 years of war in Europe. Such thinking is clearly laid out by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in The Next Generation: "The Prime Directive is not just a set of rules it is a philosophy. Born out of the Peace of Westphalia treaties of 1648, this paradigm not only established modern thinking on nation states and boundaries, but also that intervening across borders would only cause conflict. Not according to the concept of Westphalian sovereignty, a key political paradigm embodied by Starfleet.
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