The Problem of Inferring Anything about the Star Trek Universe

The second problem has more to do with using Starfleet as the lens through which we draw conclusions about Federation society. If I were to show some alien society a documentary about the United States, set primarily on a US aircraft carrier, with ~90% of the situations and characters taking place in a military context, my alien viewers would draw some very interesting inferences about the US (or, more broadly, all of human society). They'd think we were a rigidly hierarchical society. They'd think we have a handful of basic professions, and that nobody really cares too much about personal property. They'd wonder how everyone gets by, and how resources are allocated, and they'd probably assume it's through a quasi-socialist system of rationing and stipends.

The microcosm of the US military is different from the macrocosm of US society, and especially different from that of the entire world. It's sort of a mini society within a larger society, operating under its own rules and organizing principles. Similarly, we should suspect that life in Starfleet is probably different, in some meaningful ways, from ordinary life in the Federation. And life in the Federation is different from life in the Klingon Empire, or in the Cardassian Union, etc.

Notes:

Folksonomies: observation bia scope

Taxonomies:
/society (0.668865)
/society/unrest and war (0.380113)
/business and industrial (0.268574)

Keywords:
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Entities:
Federation society:Organization (0.951814 (neutral:0.000000)), United States:Country (0.725822 (positive:0.460624)), Federation:Organization (0.617183 (neutral:0.000000)), aircraft carrier:FieldTerminology (0.489268 (positive:0.396713)), Cardassian Union:Organization (0.471807 (negative:-0.215199)), 90%:Quantity (0.471807 (neutral:0.000000))

Comment on Star Trek Economics

Electronic/World Wide Web>Message Posted to Online Forum/Discussion Group: jonathanson, (2014), Comment on Star Trek Economics, Retrieved on 2014-08-09

Source Material [news.ycombinator.com]

Folksonomies: society observation bias microcosm