Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Faith and Star Trek

Am I the only one who has a problem with the fact that most of the aliens portrayed in the new Star Trek movie are humanoid? I found this so annoying that it pretty much ruined the film for me, despite some of the best effects and action ever in my favourite genre, science fiction. I'm no Trekkie, but I do feel strongly about this aspect of the Star Trek franchise to want to say something about it. It is logically impossible for any alien species, not to mention dozens, to share anything beyond perhaps an eye or a set of teeth in common with humans. The chances of a species on another planet evolving to resemble humans, down to the limbs and digits, is just not possible. Ruminating on this subject after watching the film, I typed a few search terms into google and found reference to some early episode of Star Trek which sought to explain this phenomenon by way of the much earlier evolution of "humans" on a distant planet in the galaxy, and a subsequent "seeding" of "M-type planets" with the human genome. The problem with this explanation is that humans on this planet are inserted into a complex set of evolving forms, with so many connections and antecedents which make up a consistent framework of evolution. Humans weren't simply inserted into this mix, their form is entirely consistent with the set of other forms related to it. For some earlier race to "seed" the earth could only occur at a much, much earlier stage in the evolution of life, say the Pre-cambrian, when the ancestors of the modern genus of species were formed, or rather selected from a larger set of possible genus(es?). This is impossible too, as the insertion of an earlier set of genes could not be assured of evolving into the human form, as evolution is based on random mutations, and their selection based on suitability for survival in a given context.

Basically, those Star Trek people are retarded if they don't see this as a problem, which I consider to be significant enough to kind of ruin the whole thing for me. But I guess myriad millions of us are ok with implausability, with inconsistencies and illogicalities - observe the faithful multitudes. For me, stuff that doesn't make sense is a big deal and can't just be resolved with faith or forgetfulness. If intellectual honesty was a prerequisite for living, faith would disappear like a life-form ill suited to its environment.

No comments: