In the Name of Science, Noonien Soong[1], and
The Son, Data[2], and
The Holy Logic, Vulcan[3].
A temporal shift generally refers to a change or alteration in the timing or sequence of events, or a movement within the space-time continuum. It can also refer to a shift in perspective or focus related to time, such as a shift in the temporal order of an organization. In Science Fiction, it is the concept of moving from one point in time to another, either forward or backward, within the space-time continuum.[4] This blog article argues that temporal order presents, both, good opportunity and bad opportunity for cognition, both clarifying and/or twisting the thinking of a person. The concept of the temporal shift can distorts understanding if the person does not have sufficient understanding of history. With the sufficient understanding of the history, a temporal shift can clarify, clear up any problems, in present thought.
“Time’s Arrow” is the 26th episode of the fifth season and the first episode of the sixth season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.[5] It comprises the 126th and 127th episodes of the series.
Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet crew of the Federation starship Enterprise-D. In this episode, an engineering team finds evidence that aliens visited Earth in 19th century San Francisco: Data’s severed head, buried five hundred years ago. The second part of the episode was nominated for three Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, winning the award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Series.
It turns out, in the plot, that an alien species – shapeshifters who are a literary linking[6] in the cognition to the Dominion’s Changelings[7] — are draining the life out of 1895 San Franciscans, covered up as persons who died of cholera. The Next Generation Changelings do this because it is the only food source (or so they say). Here we see how human beings falsely feed on history in the present. The feed in the holy logic of their survival, or so they think. The thought pattern is that these innocence have to be killed to meet ‘my’ consumption needs. Think how Palestinians are starved in Gaza, and the critical historical question is to what end is this course of action; and now innocent Iranians and Israelis are being killed, caught up military ‘legitimation’.
The story ends with Captain Picard attending to the injured Guinan before returning to the Federation Enterprise, and, using photon torpedoes in phase with the alien habitat, the dangerous time-shift amplification is negated. The side story in the episode, “Time’s Arrow,” is the story of friendship in history, played out in Captain Picard and future bartender Guinan, meeting for the first time in temporal shift. It goes to the good opportunity in ordinary, mundane, human thought in the cognition of friendship. The opportunity is to discover new things in personal history. To go forward in friendship is to go back in time.
END NOTES
[1] Human cyberneticist; father of Altan, husband of Juliana, and creator of Data, Lore, a replica of Juliana, B-4, and two other prototype androids. Like Khan Noonien Singh, named for a friend of Gene Roddenberry’s.
[2] Data is a fictional character in the Star Trek franchise. He appears in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), the first and third seasons of Star Trek: Picard, and the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks; and the feature films Star Trek Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998), and Nemesis (2002). Further information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_(Star_Trek)
[3] Vulcans, sometimes referred to as Vulcanians, are a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Star Trek media franchise. They are noted for their strict adherence to logic and reason and suppression of emotion. Further information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulcan_(Star_Trek)
[4] A good set of illustrations comes from the other great and classic science fiction series, Dr Who. Dr Who is a Time Lord. Further information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_War_(Doctor_Who)
[5] Further information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%27s_Arrow_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)
[6] The concept of “The Link” is common in Science Fiction series. In Star Trek, Vulcans link, and the Changelings join The Link. It is also a key character in the Matrix series. Link serves as the ship’s pilot and operator for the crew of the Zion hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar, replacing Tank and Dozer. He is a man with questionable faith in those around him, as Morpheus is far more daring than any other captain he previously served under, and is not a believer in his wife’s superstitions, initially refusing to wear her fortune necklace. However, by the end of The Matrix Revolutions, he appears much more confident in those around him. He wears Zee’s fortune necklace (saying “it can’t hurt” at first) as he personally detonates the Mjolnir’s EMP, saving Zion, and later tells Zee he will never take off the necklace. He also leads Zion’s cheer after Neo achieves peace between humans and machines. By the time of The Matrix Resurrections sixty years later, Link is dead, as with everyone else who ever served aboard the same ship as Neo. My argument is that Star Trek has a clearer understanding of linking than The Matrix. This is due to the fact The Matrix rides much more on the concept of ‘control’ than in Star Trek. In Star Trek ideas of ‘control’ are developed in the narratives with a greater openness: interspecies cooperation, diplomacy, and federation state of peace which is fully aware and critical of its shadow side: colonialism and manipulation. The Matrix appears to the critical reader as a celebration of manipulation.
[7] See the article on the “Dominion War”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_War
Featured Image: dreamstime_m_125995513.jpg, and The World Premiere of Star Trek Is Held At The Sydney Opera House.
Supermassive Black Hole Consuming Another Black Hole. SpaceTime Curvature, Time Travel, Binary Black Hole Merger Concept
The World Premiere of Star Trek Is Held At The Sydney Opera House
Neville Buch
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