anti-science fiction

[miriam_e]

Unevolved Arrogance

A particularly stupid episode of Enterprise screened here recently. I am not much of a fan of the Star Trek series, but this particular one struck me as terrible. It was about Enterprise coming to the rescue of a race of people who are dying, with Dr Flox working hard to produce a cure. Much is made of the human capability for charity, while neglecting our penchant also for racism and cruelty through ignorance. Unfortunately, this show displays those latter talents by reinforcing a sadly common belief in evolution as a god-like, invisible hand that continually builds toward the "right" result.

I always find it sad when people succumb to religion. I find it especially so when they feel compelled to make science into a religion. And I find it infuriating when the writer of a major science fiction show so lacks basic understanding of science that they spread myths that are the basis for racist intolerance, homophobia, and so many other poisons of the human mind.

The writer had the good doctor speak the most absurd tripe I have heard in a long time, straight after saying, "Evolution is a fact, Captain." Yes, it is, but what a pity that the writer has no understanding of that fact. What an abysmal farce that such incredibly broken science managed to get through the script process at Paramount! In the story two races have managed to co-evolve on a world. However the "more evolved" race is dying because of a problem with its genes. This is spoken of as being a natural process of evolution -- the god-like hand has designated this race to die out. This presents the Enterprise with a fake quandry: to save a race of people would interfere in a natural process that would let the other race become the dominant one.

Can you see the dangerously flawed thinking? It all grows out of the tendency of many people to pat themselves on the back, thinking that humans (often white, male, heterosexual humans) are the "peak" of evolution. In order to maintain this illusion evolution must be made into a directed force that does things for a reason, just as the gods of superstious belief created man for a purpose. But evolution doesn't work that way -- can't work that way. It is an essentially random effect that operates entirely without goals. The most fit creatures can be wiped out by a climatic accident or an asteroid. Absurdly unfit ones can suddenly be winners when conditions change. Over the long run creatures do evolve to fit their environment remarkably well, but this is not the result of some mystical effect; any creatures that have variable genes will always have some members of their population that fit better than others, and the ones that fit less well tend to die earlier or don't reproduce as effectively. It is not really a difficult concept to understand. Why do people have such difficulty with it? Why do they feel the need to attribute purpose to such a blind process?

The writer of the story saw genetic instability as a flaw and used this as the way that the unseen hand of evolution was deselecting that race. But genetic instability is actually the key to things evolving. In his eyes racial purity was important. (Now, where have I heard that before?) Insanely he had the "lower" race magically evolving higher intelligence while their genes remained stable and unchanging... but evolution (the way he sees it) is all about genes (oh, the inconsistencies). [In actual fact evolution is not all about genes -- it is about passing on information. But I won't go into that here.] The genetically unstable race should really have been evolving faster than the other, but the writer asserted his misconceptions again and had the instability expressed the same way in all the members.

In the end the Enterprise crew fobbed off the sick people, suppressing the cure and witholding help. They consoled themselves with the paradoxically non-existent prime directive, that they shouldn't interfere in natural events.

One of the few sensible things said in the episode was when the Captain was supposedly being illogical and emotional and pointed out that whenever a doctor performs their work they interfere with nature. But sadly, the statement was left hanging there... lost.

Helping others is one of the major factors in the amazing ability of humans to survive. Curing ill and lending a hand are very much a part of evolution.

The terribly warped thinking represented by that episode of Enterprise is the same kind that allows people to believe in racial superiority as an excuse for pushing some arbitrary group into oblivion. It is scandalous that this is done in the name of science and promoted as science fiction.

Those who arrogantly produced this piece of exceptionally sloppy thinking are clearly not as "evolved" as they think they are.

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[rpeate.livejournal.com]

"Landru must die."--Kirk

Picard would (did) never utter such a sentiment. That sums up my complaint right there. Landru's society was not only stagnant but harmful, and Kirk saw it as his duty to help.

Is the duty of later series to do nothing?