Think Galacticon 3: Friday
Jul. 11th, 2011 08:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherThe bus ride was loooooong and I had pain in my face and shoulder the whole time. I listened to podfic and eventually took a Dramamine.
jesse_the_k and I stayed at a private dorm about a block from Roosevelt University. It was fine if a bit spartan. For instance, the beds were single, hard dorm beds (although I slept pretty well anyway), and there were desks but no lamps, just a bright overhead light. We were warned that there would be no linens, so we brought our own, but there were in fact linens on the beds. I would have liked an ice machine. We could hear the El go by, but this didn't bother me; I guess I was tired enough to sleep well. I loved the many conveniently located restaurants.
The first program item I attended was "Colonialism in Star Trek". I didn't take notes here, but it was super fun to geek out about Star Trek as an opener to the con. We tried to define colonialism and if it is even a bad thing if the Federation is doing it. We cited examples of when it's a bad thing in canon, or when there are rebellions or moral dilemmas: The Maquis, forced relocations, etc. The issue of racism or "speceism" in Star Trek, ie the human thinking they are better than Ferengi, not taking the Bajoran's relgion seriously, etc. We talked about the Prime Directive, and one episode of Enterprise where we thought is was egregiously misapplied when Dr Phlox withheld medical treatment from some people, thereby committing genocide. This we discussed at length. The Borg are an example of Star Trek style exploration gone wrong. Exploration is a human trait that we admire, but is it always good? Someone mentioned the book "Collapse" about how human presence has destroyed native ecosystems on Earth. It is ethical to colonize unoccupied planets? How would we even know if they are unoccupied? This was a fun and thought-provoking panel. Yay Star Trek! It is streaming on NetFlix now, which means I may never leave the house again.
Board Games followed; I played Settlers of Catan with Gremlin and Ian.
jesse_the_k and I stayed at a private dorm about a block from Roosevelt University. It was fine if a bit spartan. For instance, the beds were single, hard dorm beds (although I slept pretty well anyway), and there were desks but no lamps, just a bright overhead light. We were warned that there would be no linens, so we brought our own, but there were in fact linens on the beds. I would have liked an ice machine. We could hear the El go by, but this didn't bother me; I guess I was tired enough to sleep well. I loved the many conveniently located restaurants.The first program item I attended was "Colonialism in Star Trek". I didn't take notes here, but it was super fun to geek out about Star Trek as an opener to the con. We tried to define colonialism and if it is even a bad thing if the Federation is doing it. We cited examples of when it's a bad thing in canon, or when there are rebellions or moral dilemmas: The Maquis, forced relocations, etc. The issue of racism or "speceism" in Star Trek, ie the human thinking they are better than Ferengi, not taking the Bajoran's relgion seriously, etc. We talked about the Prime Directive, and one episode of Enterprise where we thought is was egregiously misapplied when Dr Phlox withheld medical treatment from some people, thereby committing genocide. This we discussed at length. The Borg are an example of Star Trek style exploration gone wrong. Exploration is a human trait that we admire, but is it always good? Someone mentioned the book "Collapse" about how human presence has destroyed native ecosystems on Earth. It is ethical to colonize unoccupied planets? How would we even know if they are unoccupied? This was a fun and thought-provoking panel. Yay Star Trek! It is streaming on NetFlix now, which means I may never leave the house again.
Board Games followed; I played Settlers of Catan with Gremlin and Ian.
