More homework for “Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology”

Scott asked, “What Star Trek technology is on your list of must-haves?” Could the Star Trek universe exist without this type of technology? How would it be better (or worse) with (or without) this technology? Be sure to use evidence to support your argument.

The obvious answer: Star Trek could not exist without warp-drive. Getting from planet to planet would be impossible. What is really cool is the transporter. But that is not at must-have. Neither are phasers, quantum-torpedoes, (medical) tricorders etc. Would Star Trek be worse without warp-drive? No, it would not exist.

But I think the most important technology is the replicator – in combination with, for all practical purposes, unlimited energy. That, in my opinion is the important technology.

What it does, is making the Star Trek universe a universe without scarcity. Picard sums it up in “First Contact”:

“The economics of the future is somewhat different. You see, money doesn’t exist in the 24th century. The acquisition of wealth is no longer the driving force in our lives. We work to better ourselves and the rest of humanity.”

Humanity does not want anymore. No one needs to starve, no one has to be without housing, food and clean water. And assuming that what ever delivers the energy required, does so in a clean way, we can do it without destrying the environment.

That, the unlimited energy, the instant delivery of “earl grey. Hot”, is the most important technology.

Star Trek can work without it. Voyager frequently has to ration the energy reserves, and in TOS at least a couple of episodes are centered around the need to get fresh dilithium crystals.

That does not imply that money is a thing of the past. It might be in the ideal world of the Star Fleet flagship. But we see several instances of Star Fleet officers having to pay for things. And the other races, Ferengis is the obvious example, do have money. But hunger, and need for material things is a thing of the past in the Federation. And that, makes the replicator and unlimited energy the most important technologies in Star Trek.

Denne gang vil jeg have papir på at jeg ved noget om Star Trek. Så. Et EdX kursus: Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology. Mine lektier bliver lavet på en anden side.

More homework for “Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology”.

To what extent did the business model of network television enable Star Trek: The Original Series to appeal to such a wide range of audiences? In ways did that same model constrain it?

Network television, and especially the syndication concept, made it possible to reach a lot of different audiences. Viewers would know when the show would air. Broad, family friendly programming filled the need at the networks to cater to a very wide range of audiences – to hit all segments of society with advertising. And Star Trek provided a narrative of a positive future. With a cast that covered almost all segments of viewers.

Network television and syndication also hampered the series. Or rather the lack of information about what demographics actually watched it. That meant that it appeared to get too few viewers, and was subsequently cut.

And that should get me to the rank of ensign:

The course “Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology” asks me to do a media analysis. Or – write about Star Trek. The latter interpretation is much more interesting 🙂

The question posed is:

“Which pilot, best adresses the contemporary societal issues from when it was produced while taking the most advantage of the television format on which it was shown? Rank the episodes you watch in mumerical order, where 1 is the episode that best answers the question prompt.”

• The episodes are:
•  “The Cage” – TOS (first pilot)
• “Where No Man Has Gone Before” – TOS (second pilot)
• “Encounter at Far Point” – TNG
• “Emissary” – DS9
• “Caretaker” – VOY
• “Broken Bow” – ENT
• “The Vulcan Hello” – DIS

Before answering, it might be worth noting, that watching Star Trek from outside the US, actually makes it a bit difficult. What were the contemporary societal issue in the US in 1987? And how does that relate to “Encounter at Far Point”? Those of us living in the rest of the world (96% of it) do have a pretty good idea about the current societal issues in the US. And as a die-hard trekkie, it is pretty easy to figure out what they were. Just look at the issues treated in Star Trek. On the other hand – those are the issues that we notice today, and might reflect the issues that we today think are important, were important, should be important, or should have been important.

Anyway, here goes.

1. Discovery. Women, women everywhere! An issue that is clearly perceived as important today is female underrepresentation in media, and other places. The gender-atypical name “Michael” of the protagonist also speaks to the societal issues of trans-rights, and we finally saw a gay couple on-screen in Star Trek.
2. TNG. Not quite yet out of the cold war, humanity is on trial for our past transgressions. We are being held accountable for our wrongs, by an omnipotent being. In a post-apocalyptic setting, after a nuclear war. I would say it adresses the fears of war and the growing awareness of environmental disaster.
3. DS9. The first black captain! Also religion is treated quite different from what we have previously seen.
4. ENT. My best guess is the race-issue. We are confronted with a very different culture, that is, to some extent a threat to humanity. At the same time humanity is put in is place, or rather tried to be put into our place, by a superior race.
5. TOS. “Where no man has gone before”. A black woman in command! A person of, probably, japanese descent, presented to an audience that must have grown up learning that Japan was an existential threat to the US. Both on the bridge, in positions of relative authority.
6. TOS – especially “The Cage”. To be honest. To cerebral. The only issue I can find is the female number one.
7. VOY. A female captain. Feminism takes center stage in Star Trek. But last on my list, because we have already seen strong female characters in all the previous series, at times where these issues were, or perhaps should have been, more pressing.

As to the use of the television format. I do not really see a difference between the series. All of them where first broadcast on a single channel, and then went into syndication. Even Discovery is basically broadcast on a single channel. The main difference is that we do not have to tune in at a certain time, but can watch the episodes at our leasure. That might make it easier to gather new audiences. The main difference is probably that the way the stories are told, streamed or not, has changed. The long story archs gives room for more character development, compared to the more episodic storytelling of previous series. But that change began before streaming. Enterprise has long story archs as well, as do DS9.

Alright, for the next several weeks, I’ll be taking a break for R, data-analysis, visualizations and other stuff on this blog.

This will be my StarLog.

I’ve joined a course on EdX: “Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology”, and this is my homework 🙂

First job is to introduce myself, and what brought me to this course.

My name is Christian Knudsen, I am 44 years old. And I did not grow up with Star Trek. Actually I was a bit dismissive of trekkies. Such geeks! I had watched a few episodes of TNG on danish television, and had a bit of a crush on Wesley. But never more than that. About 14 years ago, I embraced my inner trekkie. A complete season of DS9 was on sale. I don’t remember which, but I bought it. Watched it. And was hooked. I acquired the complete collection, and watched it all. I watched it in order. I watched it in order with my husband again. And currently we are watching it in StarDate order. We have been to cons. The priest referenced Star Trek at our wedding. There is a Star Trek quote inscribed in our rings.

To me, Star Trek is the promise of a bright future. The promise, that humanity has a chance. That we will, somehow, overcome our problems. Like all good science fiction, it tackles current issues, and provoces thought. Living in a liberal, social-democratic country in northern Europe, it is sometimes difficult to understand exactly why a controversial subject is that controversial. The progressive themes are not necessarily viewed as that progressive in a Danish context. That also gives an interesting perspective on an american culture, that can appear very alien to outsiders.

And that was the way I got here. The final ingredient was a link on a danish Star Trek group on Facebook!

And with that, I earned my promotion to CWO!

Zoos with Great Pandas in their exhibitions, as pr. medio March ’19.

And Copenhagen Zoo, which will get their pandas in april.

One of our users need to find the max-value of a variable. He also needs to find the corresponding value in another variable.
As in – the maximum value in column A is in row 42. What is the value in column B, row 42.

And of course we need to do it for several groups.

Let us begin by making a dataset. Four groups in id,

library(tidyverse)
id <- 1:3
val <- c(10,20)
kor <- c("a", "b", "c")


example <- expand.grid(id,val) %>% 
  as_tibble() %>% 
  arrange(Var1) %>% 
  cbind(kor, stringsAsFactors=F) %>% 
  rename(group=Var1, value=Var2, corr = kor)

example

##   group value corr
## 1     1    10    a
## 2     1    20    b
## 3     2    10    c
## 4     2    20    a
## 5     3    10    b
## 6     3    20    c

We have six observations, divided into three groups. They all have a value, and a letter in “corr” that is the corresponding value we are interested in.

So. In group 1 we should find the maximum value 20, and the corresponding value “b”.
In group 2 the max value is stil 20, but the corresponding value we are looking for is “a”.
And in group 3 the max value is yet again 20, but the corresponding value is now “c”.

How to do that?

example %>%
  group_by(group) %>% 
  mutate(max=max(value)) %>% 
  mutate(max_corr=corr[(value==max)]) %>% 
  ungroup()

## # A tibble: 6 x 5
##   group value corr    max max_corr
##   <int> <dbl> <chr> <dbl> <chr>   
## 1     1   10. a       20. b       
## 2     1   20. b       20. b       
## 3     2   10. c       20. a       
## 4     2   20. a       20. a       
## 5     3   10. b       20. c       
## 6     3   20. c       20. c

The maximum value for all groups is 20. And the corresponding value to that in the groups is b, a and c respectively.

Isn’t there an easier solution using summarise function? Probably. But our user needs to do this for a lot of variables. And their names have nothing in common.

One can only hope that the concept “Digital Natives” will soon be laid to rest. Or at least all the ideas about what they can do.

A digital native is a person that grows up in the digital age, in contrast to digital immigrants, that got their familiarity with digital systems as an adult.

And there are differences. Digital natives assumes that everything is online. Stuff that is not online does not exist. Their first instinct is digital.

However, in the library world, and a lot of other places, the idea has been, that digital natives, because they have never experienced a world without computers, groks them. That they just know how to use them, and how to use them in a responsible and effective way.

That is, with a technical term, bovine feces. And for far too long, libraries (and others) have ignored the real needs, assuming that there was now suddenly no need for instruction in IT-related issues. Becase digital natives.

Being a digital native does not mean that you know how to code.

Being a digital native does not mean that you know how to google efficiently.

Being a digital native does not mean that you are magically endowed with the ability to discern fake news from facts.

I my self is a car native. I have grown up in an age where cars were ubiquitous. And I still had to take the test twice before getting my license. I was not able to drive a car safely, just because I have never known a world without cars. Why do we assume that a digital native should be able to use a computer efficiently?

For many years, from 1977 to 2006, there was a regular feature in the journal for the Danish Chemical Society. “Kemiske småforsøg”, or “Small chemical experiments”. It was edited by the founder of the Danish Society for Historical Chemistry, and contained a lot of interesting chemistry, some of it with a historical angle.

The Danish Society for Historical Chemistry is considering collecting these experiments, and publishing them. It has been done before, but more experiments were published after that.

We still don’t know if we will be allowed to do it. And it is a pretty daunting task, as there are several hundred experiments. But that is what I’m spending my free time on at the moment. If we get i published, it will be for sale at the website of the Danish Society for Historical Chemistry.