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Trekkie Dating, is it Good for the Gene Pool?
Eloketh writes "It seems that Tucker Carlson of MSNBC thinks that Internet Dating services are a somewhat disturbing trend. Specifically, when talking about Trekkies, he says 'Is this good for the gene pool?' He also goes on to question whether allowing Trekkies to meet and mate is 'in the national interest.'"
If there are less than 4 female trekkies world-wide, then I'm married to one of them. I'm so lucky. :)
She also loves Stargate, Battlestar and Farscape, has a healthy interest in IT, and is the mother of all goddesses; a Librarian.
And it's not necessarily good for the human race as a whole.
Take okcupid for example. Answer 500 muliple choice questions and the statistical grouping algorithm it uses matches you up with well lots of people who answered in a similar manner. You end up talking to people who think in a very similar way, often with similar interests. In fact it can be damned near telepathy at times. OK, that's great and getting on with someone is very easy but... As well as the influence of the nurture stuff there are underlying genetic mechanisms to the way people think and act but guess what, we're sorting these similar "good" and "bad" genes to be close to one another.
The result is potentially increased incidence of genetic diseases. Ultimately I think things like this will weed out the bad genes naturally as they express themselves in children but there's the suffering and potentally increased healthcare costs.
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The most interesting aspect of this species of critter is their seemingly complete lack of self-reflection. They've got images -- the bow tie -- but they're entirely externally facing, and seem not to be subject to introspection. It's like the trade requires a sort of obtuseness in that area, to the point where stuff like Jon Stewart reaming him probably got filed away as "People who didn't follow the script" by Carlson.
Small example of this lack of reflection: Carlson himself has an extremely high "nerd radar" presence for me. He doesn't seem that far from Trekkie country himself. Does he?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
When I was a kid, my Mom and Dad used to let me stay up late on Thursday night to watch a strange new show, Star Trek. Star Trek's view of the universe, science and technology stuck. Like many people I meet of my generation (I'm 44), I was inspired to a scientific/technical career by Star Trek, the space race, and so on, while I was a kid. This has to be A Good Thing, IMHO.
The one real issue in all of this is the way that lots of mildly autistic engineering folks (most engineering types live life their own way, in their own world) are meeting and mating with other mildly autistic engineering folks, producing profoundly autistic kids.
Some years ago I owned a chunky silver chain necklace, long before the hip hop morons started sporting such things. It had a definite Klingon look to it, and if anybody asked I would tell them I had had a relationship with the Klingon Ambassador's daughter, and it was a going-away present when her dad was posted back to Kronos. An interesting relationship. If anybody asked about the bruises, I looked them right in the eye and told them. :-)
...laura
Takei: ....You see, the show was banned after the Star Trek wars.
Zapp: You mean after the vast migration of Star Wars fans?
Nichols: No, that was the Star Wars trek. [Some mechanical hands come out of her jar, pick up a video tape and put it in the VCR.] By the 23rd century, Star Trek fandom had evolved from a loose association of nerds with skin problems into a full-blown religion.
[On the screen, a service is held at the Church of Trek.]
Priest: [on TV] And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship where they would be no Tribble at all.
Congregation: [chanting; on TV] All power to the engines.
Nichols: As country after country fell under its influence, world leaders became threatened by the movements power. [In Berlin a sign is unveiled saying "Welcome To Nazi Planet Episode Land. Formerly Germany".] And so the Trekkies were executed in the manner most befitting virgins.
[On the rim of a volcano two men throw Trekkies into the flames.]
Man: [on TV] He's dead, Jim! [They throw another in.] He's dead, Jim! [Another.] He's dead, Jim!
Nichols: Finally, the sacred texts were banned.
[The episodes are put inside a torpedo casing.]
Takei: The last copies of the 79 episodes and six movies were dumped on the forbidden world, Omega 3, along with that blooper reel where the door doesn't close all the way.
[As he speaks, a ship that looks like an Eagle from Space: 1999 fires the torpedo. It hits the planet like Spock's coffin in Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan. The video ends.]
Nimoy: Thus, Star Trek was forever scoured from human memory.
Bender: Another classic science-fiction show cancelled before its time.