[extropy-chat] Prime Directive

George Dvorsky george at betterhumans.com
Thu Oct 26 16:18:54 UTC 2006


This thread reminds me of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode, 'Dear Doctor.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dear_Doctor

The episode takes place prior to the establishment of a formal 'prime
directive.' As Archer noted during the episode, "Someday my people are
going to come up with some sort of a doctrine, something that tells us
what we can and can't do out here, should and shouldn't do. But until
somebody tells me that they've drafted that directive, I'm going to
have to remind myself every day that we didn't come out here to play
God."

The long-and-the-short of this episode is that the Enterprise crew
could have given a species a cure for an epidemic (an illness that
would guarantee the extinction of the species within 200 years), but
chose not to interfere with the 'natural' evolution of the planet
(there was a secondary advanced species on the planet that complicated
the situation) .

I was so outraged after watching this episode that I literally yelled
at the TV. This fixation with naturalism resulted in a reckless
indifference that imo was grossly unethical and irresponsible.

For the record, I think discussions of 'prime directives' are way too
speculative and sociological. It's also non-exclusive; a civ can't
assume that other civs would follow suit.

Cheers,
George



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