Starlog #21: “It’s not safe out here. It’s wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it’s not for the timid.” -Q

As we explore the frontier of space, how can we approach the peoples and environments that we encounter? Can we reconcile our instinct to explore with an awareness of our impact on space, planets, and potentially, other species?

With respect is a good start, have an open mind and wish that whomever we send to these planets and other people have these values.

I guess it’s also a question of did we land right in the middle of their grounds and surprise, here comes diplomacy and hopefully a common “sign” language. Or if they land miles away from their housing and there is time to observe and see what their customs are.

That’s why I love the movie First Contact and ST Enterprise has an episode on this as well where the Vulcans try and melt into our civilization without being noticed.

There are so many scenarios. I mean how advanced are they as a species, do they even use words to communicate, are they friendly and welcoming and curious or are they hostile and kill everyone on sight. I mean Star Trek deals with all of these scenarios and I don’t think I would do it differently.

I do feel like the Prime Directive could be bended a bit so to speak to help out when needed or requested. And sometimes the repercussions are a bit farfetched as in ‘oh don’t give them weapons because they will destroy each other, we have to teach them their ways’. No, neighboring tribes have been killing each other over food, land and their women. It’s as old as we exist. Human nature to a sad point.

Here’s to hoping we educate our first contact people and that they have enough knowledge of the atmosphere of the planet, the climate, the fauna and flora and whatever they may build hopefully wouldn’t affect those people’s environment.

That’s what we’re doing right now, sending out probes and satellites and telescopes and rovers to mine and figure out if everything in this part of the universe is actually universal and go from there.