Star Trek and the Future State of Health Care

Space ships are like submarines in space. A typical nuclear submarine has a crew of over 80. Okay, in Star Trek's optimistic vision of the future, space ships have their luxuries and aren't the cramp, pressure capsules that submarines are. Since, these starfarers are not just explorers but military, one forgets the nature of medicine in the field. Submarines don't typically have room on board for medical centers and doctors and resort to using super-medics (this is a bit of an assumption as my limited research on the matter turned up no actually compelling statistics). But as stated Star Trek presents an optimistic vision of the future, and while getting in the occasional skirmish, there is typically always a doctor stationed.

Now one of the defining statistics for a high quality of life is the ratio of doctors to patients. According to the WHO, Cuba has a doctor for every 170 residents. Data as recent as 1999, suggested Cuba has a doctor to patient ratio of 58.2 to 10 000. Of course, Cuba's ratio is exceptionally high, but is a fair point of comparison because an optimistic future should have an exceptionally high ratio of something positive.


So I propose to look at the ratio of Doctors/Crew Members:

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (a constitution-class ship) of The Original Series had a crew of 430. This Enterprise had a one Dr. Leonard McCoy (as well as at least two nurses, however rarely seen/mentioned).

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) (a galaxy-class ship) of The Next Generation had a crew of 1014, not including dolphins. This Enterprise had Dr. Crusher as its Chief Medical Officer which implies subordinates although the size of her sickbay is unclear.

The USS Voyager (NC-74656) (an intrepid-class ship) of Voyager has a crew of 150-200. To be fair, any doctors seemed to die when the ship became lost in space and they had to resort to a single emergency hologram doctor.


I'm not exactly sure what conclusions can be drawn from this. Will a doctor-to-patient ratio be important in the future or will its influence on the quality of life be superseded by the advance of technology. Can technology ever truly replace doctors? Or does the fact that it could make a doctor's job easier increase the number of patients that doctor could effectively serve?

These are the questions I think good/interesting sci-fi asks and I'd be more interested in people exploring those answers than how Kirk is going to avoid the giant styrofoam rock thrown by that giant lizard man. Sure, that's an important moral question, but let's not forget the more sociological questions too.

(Space Ship Data Source: Memory Alpha)

Star Trek and Race Relations

Star Trek has an interesting place in the history of race relations. It gave prominent roles to minorities-- Lt. Uhura, a black woman working as a communication officer on the bridge, and Lt. Sulu, Japanese-American helmsman--and our current Cold War cultural enemies in the guise of Russian navigator Ensign Chekov. Hell, the show even featured the first interracial kiss in a fictional television program for what amounts as progress.

So does it come as any surprise that as these steps were being taken forward more were being taken back.

As example of this are the Klingons.

The Klingons of the original series are little more than brutes in blackface makeup propagating familiar themes of the other and the Noble Savage as well as recalling old minstrel acts and Jim Crows.

Of course, Jim Crows never seem to die in the culture. There will always be Short Circuits, and Ted Dansons, and Tyra Banks reality show experiments.

So what is the legacy of Star Trek's progressive race politics? Hell, I can't decide. Even Sulu is meant to be just a pan-Asian analogue.

Eugenics

I'd soon as not write this post. It would be some how fitting that way, this being the blog that it is. I first mentioned I would write this post back on Friday, August 8th, 2008. That's when I had all my inspiration and ideas. And I quickly wrote down the barest minimum of those ideas, and set it aside; I'll set the date for one week, I said, and save it as a draft. So here it is, one, nay, two, nay, three, nay, four, nay, five weeks later and here it is. Or the best I felt like writing so many days later.

The main problem with eugenics is that it has been associated in the public consciousness with "miscegenation" (what an ugly word-- clearly constructed to have negative connotations-- for such a beautiful thing) and racial cleansing/purity. I think this is another one we can blame on the Nazis.

But I subscribe to the Khan Noonien Singh theory of genetics, of which I derive the name from the character played by Ricardo Montalbán in the original Star Trek series episode "Space Seed" as well as the second Star Trek feature film The Wrath of Khan. I'll mostly focus on him as he appears in the television episode as no argument in favour of eugenics can be made with that awful hair he has in the movie.

Khan is a genetically-engineered übermensch bred free of mental and physical defects, as well as strong leadership abilities, from a pool of Latin and Indian stock. The key here is race diversity. From all accounts, while certainly ambitious (possibly wildly so), Khan was a benign ruler. Thus, I rule that Star Trek lands firmly on the pro-eugenics side. So just remove the dastardly moustache twirling and plans of world domination and we have a pretty good idea of the (theoretical) benefits of eugenics.

Then for an opposing viewpoint, we have the 1990s film Gattaca. I don't recall Gattaca ever addressing the race card, but apparently Blair Underwood was in the cast, so I think I can unequivocally declare the film not viewing genetics from an anti-miscegenation (grrrr) viewpoint. Gattaca's issue with eugenics is that it will inspire a new class system, one where the genetically-engineered will be earmarked for all the highest positions while any normal person (from now on referred to as "normies") will hit a glass ceiling. Further, these earmarks will be decided by probability calculator, so that any normies who exceed their station, any Ethan Hawkes if you will, will be put back in their place.

Of course, another real problem with eugenics is the same problem that surfaces any time one cultural group becomes assimilated into a bigger wider one. The death of the culture, language, heritage of the original group, and all the unique aspects that set it aside. See Modern China and the reason I was so politically offended by the movie Hero for more.

As a normie, among normies who have proceeded as a species for the past however many epochs, its hard to say if I am in support of any real form of eugenics, whether it be traditional or liberal, as it risks limiting genetic diversity. But I will say that I like to consider myself a Social Darwinist. Then again I consider myself a lot of things.

Star Trek and Teenage Heartthrobs

Star Trek, and by extension Gene Roddenberry, had a peculiar world view. It's firmly stationed in the nineteen sixties. Indelible and unmoving.

Season one of the show we had our competent, and diversely multi-cultured, cast of naval spacemen. But there was something missing. You can't court everybody with short-skirted, dark-skinned honeys or green-blooded, logic-spouting romanesques. You have to bring in the teenage girl demographic too.

Season Two. Enter Chekov. Not Anton, but rather Ensign Pavel Chekov.

Although Roddenberry had attached an apocryphal origin of placating cold warriors, the Soviet Union, who were also at the time in a space race, he is instead Star Trek's idea of the teenybopper idol, with his mop-top, his foreign accent, and audience analogue youth: the heartthrob. Of course, he didn't talk like 'is, allo, allo, is Chekov 'ere, allo guvnor, but rather with a delightful "Russian" accent, (i.e. "nuclear wessel").

But the The Monkees-esque youth movement courting teenage heartthrob is all right there in the image.

Golden Age Is Five

I had my rose-coloured glasses ripped off my face the other day. So I was channel-flipping (an odd action considering I rarely watch any "live" television these days) and I came across this episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. And I was like, I love this, this is my favourite episode. And so I watched it, excited. And while not terrible, it certainly did not live up to my expectations.

The episode in question is the seventh (and final season) episode "Genesis," airdate March 21, 1994. The plot of the episode is basically "Picard and Data find [...] the crew de-volving into their animal ancestors". I probably didn't see this episode in first run, but in the endless repeats. Still I'd venture to say it's easily been over 10 years since I saw it. Watching again, I couldn't recall the last time I'd watched an episode of TNG.

There were certain memories I had of this episode that did not correspond with the actual product. I thought Data's pregnant cat played a larger role (it was awesome when it was revealed it had turned into an iguana and awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww kittens) and I thought Chief Miles O'Brien played a larger role when in fact he plays none, not making an appearance in the episode.

Obviously, the only reason I remembered the episode (and it's the episode I have the largest vestigial memory of) was because of the high concept plot and the make-up effects used to achieve it. Otherwise, it felt like there were scenes missing and the conclusion felt rushed. The denouement consisted of just a jokey line from Counselor Deanna Troi about having to clear her schedule. I wanted traumatic psychological fallout, damnit. Hell, Worf bit her on the fucking face.

Weekly Wikipedia Find: The Wold Newton Universe

It must be literature week here at The Genius Defines. Just kill me now, eh? Am I right, guys? Am I right or am I right?

The Wold Newton Universe takes noted science fiction author Philip José Farmer's notion that famous literary characters were all members of the same bloodline (the Wold Newton Family) and runs with it. This bloodline includes Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Doc Savage, Solomon Kane, The Time Traveller, Allan Quatermain, Fu Manchu, Philip Marlowe, James Bond, etc. (OMG tag heaven!!1!). Of course, this is no ordinary bloodline to include all these exceptional individuals. Rather, it has been effected by the meteorite that struck the village of Wold Newton in 1795. That's the real-life meteorite which struck the real-life village of Wold Newton in the real-life 1795. The town's descendants then are gifted with extra endowed with intelligence and strength becoming of their fictional statures. Also, a community does not make a bloodline.

Onto the actual expansion of this idea is the sense that these now connected characters can infinitely extracted upon and within each other, looping and looping, so that 90% of all fiction (EVAR!) takes place in Farmer's mind as he shakes a snow globe. It's intertextuality, people; when will you learn (I might remind you that Spock is a descendant of Sherlock Holmes).

Wikipedia by Week

Week Twenty: Anonymous
Week Nineteen: Monty Hall problem
Week Eighteen: Brown Booby
Week Seventeen: Dieter Dengler
Week Sixteen: New Jerusalem
Week Fifteen: Technological Singularity
Week Fourteen: Numbers Station
Week Thirteen: Culper Ring
Week Twelve: Mary Sue
Week Eleven: Byford dolphin diving bell accident
Week Ten: Deep-sea gigantism
Week Nine: Bloop
Week Eight: Rat king
Week Seven: Gustave Doré
Week Six: Tomorrow
Week Five: Borscht Belt
Week Four: Swampman
Week Three: Chinese room
Week Two: Ambrose Burnside
Week One: Lolita fashion

Weekly Wikipedia Find: Mary Sue

Another deep sea... ahem, not going to go that route anymore.

No, instead I present to you, Mary Sue. A Mary Sue is a super-idealized, wish-fulfillment, author-proxy of a character, often appearing but not limited to fan fiction. And since I'm planning of writing a little about Star Trek I thought it amusing that Wesley Crusher is cited as the prime example of a Mary Sue.

Mary Sue, ladies and gentlemen.

Wikipedia by Week

Week Eleven: Byford dolphin diving bell accident
Week Ten: Deep-sea gigantism
Week Nine: Bloop
Week Eight: Rat king
Week Seven: Gustave Doré
Week Six: Tomorrow
Week Five: Borscht Belt
Week Four: Swampman
Week Three: Chinese room
Week Two: Ambrose Burnside
Week One: Lolita fashion