by Park [email protected]
As someone who lived the first three decades of his life
in Knoxville, Tennessee, I was happy to see the Star Trek Next
Generation marathon on TNN this week, and to learn that ST Next Gen will
be a regular program on this station. It was a welcome change from the
usual offensive and embarrassing TNN fare of wrestling, hunting and
fishing. A show about a future generation of more intelligent humans is
greatly appreciated.
The several Star Trek television series have always
featured stories dealing with the issues of vegetarianism and the
concept of rights extended to other beings. I grew up on the original
Star Trek and I suspect that Spock, the vegetarian Vulcan science
officer, might have been an important influence. It seems logical.
This morning I watched one of the best episodes of ST
Next Gen which explored the idea of rights of sentient beings. It was
the episode which debated the fate of the android character, Commander
Data, whether he was a sentient being capable of determining his own
fate, or property, a machine owned by the Federation of Planets. A
central issue was slavery and the exploitation of other species by man.
In defending Data's rights, Captain Jean Luc Picard pointed out that the
word "machine" should not be used to denigrate beings of artificial
intelligence, because humans are just another type of machine, running
on electro-chemical reactions.
Of all the definitions I have seen of humans, and how we
differ from other species, I enjoy this idea put forward by Star
Trek....that we are a species capable of recognizing the rights,
desires, and the freedoms possessed by other creatures.
Although the production designers of Star Trek never
made a big deal about it, all the Federation officers and crew were
vegetarians who ate meals from food synthesizers. The meat entrees were
from replicated molecules and not from factory farms. There was no barn
in the aft section of the starship. And I am left thinking...If in some
bright, imagined future, we can view alien species as having basic
rights, that implies that somewhere along the way we have granted basic
rights to animals.
And that's why I am a fan of star trek, because it
presents a future I wish could come true.
Let's hope that the people who usually watch The
Nashville Network will learn from this program and come to appreciate
the Federation's Prime Directive of noninterference with other species
and cultures.
Go on to Victories For
Animals In the U.S. House of Representatives
Return to 7 October 2001 Issue
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