I did a lot of cleaning last night

[conuly]

And early this morning, until the cats came up to find out why I wasn't in bed yet. I tried putting them outside, but some kind soul let them in five minutes later and I didn't want to ask them not to at three in the morning.

While I cleaned (and it was urgent, believe me), I watched DS9 on Netflix. Truly, it is the best Trek, though I've always preferred Voyager's theme song. I'm up to the episode where Sisko and O'Brien get stuck on the forcibly low tech planet with the obsessed cult leader. I've never understood the premise of this. It seems like on Star Trek, humans and others colonize new planets every day. There seems to be an unending supply of habitable planets that conveniently are not already habited, and terraforming makes that supply even more unending. Plus, from the rate of colonization, even if we limit ourselves to no more than one small colony per planet (which seems more than enough space for even a larger colony!), you have to imagine that the population of humans on earth and established planets has got to still be up there in the billions. Otherwise, why would they colonize so aggressively?

So, to believe this episode, we have to believe that in order to found her low tech paradise she had to resort to trickery and sabotage? She couldn't honestly find enough low tech enthusiasts to go live in the past with her, she had to take people who, having no interest in living this way, perforce had no skills? And had to learn them all from scratch?

I don't believe it. I don't believe that in a whole galaxy of humans, billions or more, she couldn't found a colony the way she wanted without cheating. Hell, even if her main impetus was plain sociopathy and the desire to be the center of everything it probably still would've been easier to do it without lying.

Also, this is the episode that reminds me that Star Trek's economy makes no damn sense. It's the ubiquity of replicators that gets me, every time.

Comments

[azarias.livejournal.com]

I prefer the "trillions" estimate of human galactic population by the time of DS9. The Solar System's essentially one big urban zone, and Next Gen showed us a number of well-established Earth-origin colonies, before you even touch the mixed-origin colonies and the worlds that have been big urban centers since before humans figured out gunpowder and which now have significant human immigrant populations. Human priority number one after getting out into space seems to have been to make babies, which tracks with the rest of our history.

DS9 had an underlying -- often muddled and contradictory because it's Trek and they wouldn't know continuity from a hole in the ground, but DS9 tried -- theme that the Federation is a paradise for most of its citizens, the vast majority that fit in, and a really damned uncomfortable place for the few who don't. And that, as an organization and as a culture, the Federation has a hard time understanding that not everyone agrees that the Federation way of life is objectively best. Witness the ongoing failure to "get" the Ferengi. How can money be important?

I could believe crazy cult lady not being unjustified in thinking that the UFP wouldn't sign off on a low-tech, truly rough living colony like she wanted. It's all well and good to act out frontier fantasies on the holodeck or go camping in a wilderness preserve, but who in their right minds would go live somewhere that's really unsafe?

[conuly]

I could believe crazy cult lady not being unjustified in thinking that the UFP wouldn't sign off on a low-tech, truly rough living colony like she wanted. It's all well and good to act out frontier fantasies on the holodeck or go camping in a wilderness preserve, but who in their right minds would go live somewhere that's really unsafe?

Well, one would think that giving them a planet in exchange for going away would be the sensible thing to do with them, but people can be strange when it comes to other people's own good.

But there are still private ships, it seems. Why not buy one or charter one under the table instead of going through official channels? People seem to get lost frequently enough as well, who would really care to search for them? Or, if that's undoable, since she clearly had no compunction about sabotage, why not arrange with the other colonists in advance? Then at least the sabotage would be upfront and honest.