TNG: A Fistful of Datas

[Yukaphile]

Well, people like to downplay how inclusive or progressive the past was because it makes it easier to defend the status quo. "You may think you have it rough now, but in the Bad Old Days you would have it so much worse, so be happy and stop protesting!"

Its also becomes a lot easier to blame past evils on white heterosexual men if we ignore all of those examples of blacks, gays and women being successful. The media loves a bogeyman to focus its attention on.

Was that supposed to mean something? I'm a 30-year-old white guy, and think we need to address institutional sexism, empower women and minorities, and do more to recognize the LGBT community as real people with real feelings and just as normal as straight het people.

Oh trust me, there are definitely downsides to the past. You didn't wanna be a female in Eastern Europe at the end of WWII when the Red Army came storming into town. You were just meat to them. Yes, the past was progressive in many ways, and in others it wasn't.

[cdrood]

As an IT professional this sort of episode really irks me. The idea of experimenting on production systems is idiotic. That's what isolated dev and qa environments are for. When that production system is responsible for maintaining the oxygen for 1000 people and possesses weaponry capable of leveling the Himalayas from orbit, it moves from idiotic to suicidal. Did it not occur to them to start with a shuttle craft, work up to a docked ship with it's weapons disabled, before messing with the the fleets top line ship?

That's the brilliance of the thematic connection between the A-plot and the B-plot! You see, Geordi and Data are cowboys too, shootin' from the hip!

The low point was "Contagion" where the idea of restoring from backup and rebooting was considered a revolutionary concept.

[Deledrius]

As an IT professional this sort of episode really irks me. The idea of experimenting on production systems is idiotic. That's what isolated dev and qa environments are for. When that production system is responsible for maintaining the oxygen for 1000 people and possesses weaponry capable of leveling the Himalayas from orbit, it moves from idiotic to suicidal. Did it not occur to them to start with a shuttle craft, work up to a docked ship with it's weapons disabled, before messing with the the fleets top line ship?

That's the brilliance of the thematic connection between the A-plot and the B-plot! You see, Geordi and Data are cowboys too, shootin' from the hip!

The low point was "Contagion" where the idea of restoring from backup and rebooting was considered a revolutionary concept.

Those are the moments that take me out of the story and remind me that it's all being written by some people who barely (at the time) had gotten used to the idea of using electronic typewriters and word-processors in their professional work, and weren't sci-fi writers or technologists at all. As time has passed and the concepts of backups and reboots are common even with non-technical mainstream consumers, it only becomes more obvious. It's not a "they couldn't have seen this coming" sort of prediction problem, but a matter of being deeply unfamiliar with the material which the characters should have more than a basic fluency.

[clearspira]

Well, people like to downplay how inclusive or progressive the past was because it makes it easier to defend the status quo. "You may think you have it rough now, but in the Bad Old Days you would have it so much worse, so be happy and stop protesting!"

Its also becomes a lot easier to blame past evils on white heterosexual men if we ignore all of those examples of blacks, gays and women being successful. The media loves a bogeyman to focus its attention on.

Was that supposed to mean something? I'm a 30-year-old white guy, and think we need to address institutional sexism, empower women and minorities, and do more to recognize the LGBT community as real people with real feelings and just as normal as straight het people.

Oh trust me, there are definitely downsides to the past. You didn't wanna be a female in Eastern Europe at the end of WWII when the Red Army came storming into town. You were just meat to them. Yes, the past was progressive in many ways, and in others it wasn't.

It means exactly what it sounds like: people do blame men disproportionately for the evils of the past. Take the women's rights movement for example. We recently celebrated 100 years of the vote for women in Britain, NOT ONE MENTION EVER in the mainstream media of the thousands of men that campaigned alongside women to achieve that vote. Every single time the subject came up, it was phrased as men v women when that simply was not the case.

Every period of history has a group in which the general population, the government and the media uses to blame every evil of society on. The Irish, Jews, gays, blacks, women, religion, communism and immigrants have all been there at one stage or another among others, and right now it is the turn of heterosexual men. Give it a few years and it'll be someone else because that is how our world works. The easy answers are always more preferable to the complicated multi-faceted ones.

[CrypticMirror]

Take the women's rights movement for example. We recently celebrated 100 years of the vote for women in Britain, NOT ONE MENTION EVER in the mainstream media of the thousands of men that campaigned alongside women to achieve that vote. Every single time the subject came up, it was phrased as men v women when that simply was not the case.

That is what makes a good ally in a cause, the ability to support without demanding the spotlight.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

Well, people like to downplay how inclusive or progressive the past was because it makes it easier to defend the status quo. "You may think you have it rough now, but in the Bad Old Days you would have it so much worse, so be happy and stop protesting!"

Its also becomes a lot easier to blame past evils on white heterosexual men if we ignore all of those examples of blacks, gays and women being successful. The media loves a bogeyman to focus its attention on.

Was that supposed to mean something? I'm a 30-year-old white guy, and think we need to address institutional sexism, empower women and minorities, and do more to recognize the LGBT community as real people with real feelings and just as normal as straight het people.

Oh trust me, there are definitely downsides to the past. You didn't wanna be a female in Eastern Europe at the end of WWII when the Red Army came storming into town. You were just meat to them. Yes, the past was progressive in many ways, and in others it wasn't.

It means exactly what it sounds like: people do blame men disproportionately for the evils of the past. Take the women's rights movement for example. We recently celebrated 100 years of the vote for women in Britain, NOT ONE MENTION EVER in the mainstream media of the thousands of men that campaigned alongside women to achieve that vote. Every single time the subject came up, it was phrased as men v women when that simply was not the case.

Every period of history has a group in which the general population, the government and the media uses to blame every evil of society on. The Irish, Jews, gays, blacks, women, religion, communism and immigrants have all been there at one stage or another among others, and right now it is the turn of heterosexual men. Give it a few years and it'll be someone else because that is how our world works. The easy answers are always more preferable to the complicated multi-faceted ones.

The difference is that these other "bogeymen" groups suffered massive institutional prejudice and violence, whereas white straight men are afraid of being accused of being a bigot. I understand that "reality is more complex than one group causing everything", but you're making a rather dubious equivalency.

[Riedquat]

Take the women's rights movement for example. We recently celebrated 100 years of the vote for women in Britain, NOT ONE MENTION EVER in the mainstream media of the thousands of men that campaigned alongside women to achieve that vote. Every single time the subject came up, it was phrased as men v women when that simply was not the case.

That is what makes a good ally in a cause, the ability to support without demanding the spotlight.

Yet it was the way men had been treated that was one of the big drivers too. All those who had been sent off to die in the First World War without being able to vote. It was really a campaign for universal suffrage, not just female suffrage. FWIW it was a bit later before the requirements were equal for men and women.

[pilight]

As an IT professional this sort of episode really irks me. The idea of experimenting on production systems is idiotic. That's what isolated dev and qa environments are for. When that production system is responsible for maintaining the oxygen for 1000 people and possesses weaponry capable of leveling the Himalayas from orbit, it moves from idiotic to suicidal. Did it not occur to them to start with a shuttle craft, work up to a docked ship with it's weapons disabled, before messing with the the fleets top line ship?

Plus, in this case it could have easily been sidestepped without changing the story at all.

Geordi and Data take their plan to Picard. He says he's hesitant to try such an experiment on the main computer that keeps everyone alive and tells them to run a simulation on the holodeck first.

It actually makes more sense this way, with Data getting infected by a program running in one of the other holodecks as opposed to randomly affecting him in engineering.

[TGLS]

Take the women's rights movement for example. We recently celebrated 100 years of the vote for women in Britain, NOT ONE MENTION EVER in the mainstream media of the thousands of men that campaigned alongside women to achieve that vote. Every single time the subject came up, it was phrased as men v women when that simply was not the case.

That is what makes a good ally in a cause, the ability to support without demanding the spotlight.

Yet it was the way men had been treated that was one of the big drivers too. All those who had been sent off to die in the First World War without being able to vote. It was really a campaign for universal suffrage, not just female suffrage. FWIW it was a bit later before the requirements were equal for men and women.

In Britain, there was a 10 year lag until all women were allowed to vote, the act giving some women. Other countries, expanded the suffrage to both sexes at once, while other delayed women. Other countries delayed the expansion of the suffrage to particular minority groups, and still others had arbitrary restrictions that were removed later.

[PerrySimm]

Can't disagree with the rating. "A Fistful of Datas" is not totally bulletproof from a Science Fiction perspective, but fun enough, and notable for the opportunity it takes with Troi.