Errand of Mercy

011 - Minor Ideological Differences

Welcome to another episode of the To Baldly Go Podcast.  As usual, I am joined again this week by my wife, Abbie, and our friend Nate as we discuss:

  • Star Trek: The Original Series episodes: This Side of Paradise, The Devil in the Dark, and Errand of Mercy

  • ChatGPT for philosophy

  • 3rd-level Star Trek analysis – talking about what ChatGPT says about episodes!

  • Colonies in Star Trek

  • Was Kirk immune because he was angry?

  • What is life without ambition, wants, challenge?

  • Do we need to have ambition to survive?

  • Lack of ambition pulling others down

  • Cordyceps

  • Biologically, what is happening with the spores?

  • Are we overthinking this?

  • Stories with underlying meanings, intended or not

  • Why intense emotions broke the spell of the spores

  • Revisiting our scoring system

  • The Tricorder is basically a smart phone

  • Spock should not be a gun safety instructor.  Trigger discipline is lacking!

  • Mines from Stardew Valley

  • Hero’s Journey.  Character change in Kirk

  • ChatGPT says 1 thing about the episode in 5 different ways

  • Spock doesn’t want to explain his theories without data to back it up

  • Similar episodes in different series

  • Preconceived notions

  • Mind meld from distance?

  • Phaser differentiation

  • The Prime Directive and imperfect information

  • Who gets to decide who is in control?

  • Two sides of the same coin?

  • Klingons and Federation become friends?

  • Automatic deflector shields

  • A Vietnam allegory?

  • Realizing that we draw many of the same conclusions as ChatGPT

  • Personal freedom as the highest of virtues

  • What is worth fighting for?

  • The United Federation of Planets

Until next time – Never give up!  Never surrender!