Part of the reason the show works is that we never really see Federation life outside of Starfleet. Mostly this is for practical budget reasons; what does a post-scarcity egalitarian society actually look like? That’s difficult to depict in a show designed to recycle the same set every episode and only very occasionally go outside to film.

So what little we see of the civilian federation looks… a lot like the US. There’s a president. Member states planets. Constant references to US history. A military that operates how Americans like to think their military works, rather than what it actually historically has done.

Newer shows take this even further. Section 31, as it was first introduced, was supposed to be a highly illegal, unsanctioned conspiracy acting in the shadow of the proper Federation. Now they’re presented as the ultra official, coolest badasses who are the only reason any of the egalitarian principals are able to survive.

They certainly could have gone that rout. It would have made her situationship with Dukat make more sense.

Overall, I think DS9 was a rare inversion of the usual trek formula - the writing started strong but got shakier as the series went on. That got masked somewhat by the actors becoming more comfortable with their characters, so the performances carried where the world building and arcs may not have landed on their own.

So is this a more classic case of Apple’s usual tactic making their things needlessly different to move more product?

sorta the basis for all eukaryotic life

yep absolutely no hand-harvested crops, just unheard of, nobody makes any money farming those

It’s agriculture, there’s always profit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brandt_(farmer)

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Brandt experimented with different combinations and species of cover crops, such as radishes and sunflowers, to improve crop yield and improve soil quality. As a result of these cover crops, Brandt was able to cut back on commercial nitrogen additives, which also saved money. Additionally, Brandt saw less mold and blight and fewer insects among his crops, to the point that he was able to reduce or stop using fungicide, herbicide, and insecticide on parts of the farm.

Keynesian economic policy would give our institutions (and the ruling class) a new lease on life. Unfortunately, these are also the same institutions that spent the last 70 years stripping out everything but the military make-work programmes. I don’t think our leaders, any of them, ideologically capable of recognizing any of the benefits of returning to that compromise.

You wanna name any of these alternatives, or are we just using the fallacy fallacy to wave away arguments we don’t like?

Perhaps, as you claim, free housing isn’t feasible. But you can walk up any road in any street in any city in the world to find a real example of this “strawmanned” landlord.

Look, if this were a publication in a scientific journal, sure.

But it’s not. It’s a webforum. In casual conversation, you can gesture to the idea that there was more sealife before mechanization, pollution, and industrial fishing becacasue… yeah. Duh. Of course there was.

if you can dismiss the proofless infograph without proof, I can dismiss your dismissal without proof. We can go on recursively all day.

Do you have evidence that oceans were less plentiful in the past? Or are you just taking a contrarian position because it’s easy?

i’d love some new problems, new problems would be a breath of fresh air

there should be a legal mandate for websites to sort chronologically by default

companies can still have screwy algorithms, but users should have to turn it on each and every time they connect or open the app

oh hey it’s thud

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Games_of_the_Discworld#Gameplay

isn’t it a combination of younger developers not learning to programme under the restrictions of limited memory and cpu speed, on top of employers demanding code as soon as possible rather than code that is elegant or resource efficient or even slightly planned out

fair enough

personally, I think DS9 used the Mirror Universe well. As you say, it’s enjoyable for the writers. I also think the cast had a lot of fun with them - cut loose and go full camp.

Staying in the mirror universe is what kills me. I liked the first half of STD’s season 1 well enough. But after revealing that Lorka was from the mirror universe and then spending the rest of the season there? That’s not fun at all. Just boring.

GLaDOS would read that seduction is a highly successful tactic for getting what you want, attempt it for all of 0.68 seconds, before declaring it a mistake and switching on the neurotoxin.

Ctrl a

Ctrl c

alt tab

Ctl v

Ctl s

conversion complete

i like the implication that after the Dominion War, most of Starfleet is just sloshed on whatever that Orion beverage is