Star Trek PhD Thesis Wins Academic Prize

An anonymous reader writes "A PhD thesis based on Star Trek has won an Australian university's top academic prize. Dr Djoymi Baker's 90,000 word dissertation 'Broadcast Space: TV Culture, Myth and Star Trek' was awarded the University of Melbourne's Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD. Dr Baker watched over 700 Star Trek episodes — more than 624 hours — to investigate the relationship between ancient mythology and today's popular culture. American academics thought her research was 'superlative' and suitable for teaching."

Slashdot Motto: The Next Generation

> Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

I'm a doctor, not an editor! Not kill I.

It's an article, CmdrTaco, but not as we know it. Ahead mod factor five.

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Heh heh -- that's very logical*.

There's a lot of good science fiction that becomes science, just as good metaphysics eventually becomes physics. Every breakthrough begins with an idea, and the best ideas have their source in the imagination. A lot of kids

Re:Slashdot Motto: The Next Generation

I know I'm being just the biggest Star Trek nerd ever, but isn't it "No kill I"?

My God, Jim, it's a nitpicker!

Re:Slashdot Motto: The Next Generation

Mod him up, Scotty !

Finally

Finally Star Trek is gaining the academic recognition it so richly deserves. Having Trekology as an official subject for a BS degree should be coming up soon at all major mail order universities. Live long and prospers.

Yep...

...sounds like BS to me!

Not yet, but maybe soon

Finally Star Trek is gaining the academic recognition it so richly deserves. Having Trekology as an official subject for a BS degree should be coming up soon at all major mail order universities. Live long and prospers.

Maybe some day those who embrace the Federation's Ideals can be accepted on a jury or even in public office.

stardate 2006.828 i've successfully been elected to the town school board. the squabbling is terrible and nothing ever gets done. i've never felt in need of a phaser so much in my life.

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Hey, there's some good subject matter in Star Trek, especially TNG. In my philosophy of medicine class, we had a medical ethics paper on the episode where Worf has spinal replacement surgery ;-)

It may not be high art, but I bet their aren't that ma

Re:Finally

I've heard of "Measure of a Man" used in an ai class or something similar.

(For those unfamiliar, this was an episode early on in the series. Some random character at a space station wanted to disassemble Data to study him. After talking with this dude, Data decided that he hadn't the proper background knowledge to be able to reassemble him when he was done, so refused to undergo the procedure. The guy got an admiral to order Data from the Enterprise to go with him for the experiments, so Data resigned Starfleet. Starfleet responded by claiming that Data was its property and didn't have the right to resign, so Data went to a trial/hearing type thing so that a judge could decide. Picard argued that Data had the right to resign, and Riker was ordered to take the opposite side. (They didn't have any actual lawyers at this space station, so the top-ranking officials acted, though Riker against his will.) The episode was essentially about what constitutes life.)

Re:Finally

I've heard of "Measure of a Man" used in an ai class or something similar....The episode was essentially about what constitutes life.)

Not knocking this; but this theme goes back to the very first SF story, Frankenstein (1818). And more recently, Isaac Asimov's robot stories in the 1940s and 50s. Trek is fun, but not highly original in its storylines.

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This was the first really good TNG episode. Unfortunately, it was spoiled somewhat by the final speech of the judge, in which she started to raise the question whether or not Data has a soul. A soul is a metaphysical construct that has nothing to do with t

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But think of it: if it could be proven that Data actually has no soul, does that mean he would have been handed over to Starfleet and be dismantled?

You pose that as a rhetorical question, but it seems to me it's a legitimate one. I take it that your answer

Re:Finally

You pose that as a rhetorical question, but it seems to me it's a legitimate one. I take it that your answer is "no"?

I would say that Picard's argumentation was that Data could not really be distinguished from a living, sentient being, so that the ruling should be in his favor. His vision was that if the judge would allow Data to be "enslaved" because he was ruled not to be sentient, the judge should be very clear about where the line is drawn, because that would open the door to the enslaving of all kinds of races.

The supposedly rethorical question is not legitimate (in this episode), because the existence of a soul is not brought forth as an issue by either Picard or Riker. It should not play a role in the judge's ruling. The answer should be "no" with or without Data having a soul.

And if you ask my personal opinion: I do not believe in the concept of a soul as a separate entity that occupies our bodies and can exist after death. So I say that I have no soul. And still I do not wish to be dismantled. The fact that I admit that I have no soul is no reason to dismantle me. The fact that I can express the genuine wish not to be dismantled should secure my rights in that respect.

But if I was just an entity in a Chinese Room experiment, with no other desires and wishes than just to translate scribbles to different scribbles, it seems to me that I am not sentient. So, if there comes a day that I am reduced to that, please dismantle me.

Sure, she got a Ph.D., but . . .

... did she successfully pass the Kobayashi Maru exam?

Re:Sure, she got a Ph.D., but . . .

... did she successfully pass the Kobayashi Maru exam?

The fact that I know what you're talking about makes me want to cry.

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Yeah, wpedia is really amazing for pop culture. Traditional encyclopedias choose to ignore pop culture out of cultural bias, but the large amount of pop-related articles on wpedia reflect how much people enjoy the stuff.

However, I'm now eager to know how

SlashScholar.

"A PhD thesis based on Star Trek has won an Australian university's top academic prize."

Now all we need is a PhD thesis based on several years of reading slashdot.

Today's "true" myths

It is nice to think that at least today we KNOW that our myths are made-up.

But there are still some people who manage to insist they are real, actual events! - UFO religions like the Scientologists or heaven's gate.

Nonetheless, despite the fact that our current mythology is fiction, Star Trek and the like are at least Science Fiction: not based upon the supernatural, but instead upon testable, and currently tested theories and ideas.

Amazing: even as culturally advanced as we fancy ourselves, we still retain those ancient urges to believe in the fantastic. But
perhaps that's because so much in this universe is actually fantastic; far more, in fact, than we ever imagined.

It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the late, great Dr. Feynman: "Far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the
past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if
he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?"

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Star Trek and the like are at least Science Fiction: not based upon the supernatural, but instead upon testable, and currently tested theories and ideas.

Star Trek based on science? Muahahahah, *wipes eye* that was hilarious. It's like the definition of unr

Re:Today's "true" myths

Star Wars mostly ignores science. Star Trek actively butchers it at every opportunity.

Re:Today's "true" myths

Well,

We did have one episode where Kirk built a gunpowder cannon to survive the Gorn....

Okay, okay...I'll shut up.

Re:Today's "true" myths

Yeah, because the only reason WE can't redirect the output from the dilithium matrix through the deflector array to close a rift in the space-time continuum and send Q back home is because we didn't build the Superconducting Supercollider.

It's interesting that you picked the SSC for your example.

John Cramer [washington.edu] (a physics professor at the University of Washington) wrote a book entitled Einstein's Bridge [amazon.com]. It's what he calls "hard science fiction", about how the SSC was actually built and resulted in an invasion by a hostile intelligence. The protagonists somehow travel back in time and manipulate the political process so that the SSC is never built.

Not necessarily.

A myth is just a story that explains something.

Myths are also used to pass on the culture, norms, values, mores and ethics from one generation to the next.

And to reinforce those in each generation.

Myths tell us what is "good" and what is "bad".

Is it published?

I did a cursory search for it, but only found references. Wether you like ST or not, it might be interesting given the title.

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Yeah, I tried searching for it, too. If anybody knows of a preprint for this, I'd be much obliged.

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TFA says "Since finishing her thesis last year, the 34-year-old has had a daughter and is turning her thesis into an academic text." So it probably will be published.

The only thing that seems odd...

...is the idea that you could learn much about the relationship between anything and today's popular culture from the Star Trek TV franchise, which had been struggling to remain viable on any basis but nostalgia for years before it finally died.

I didn't believe it...

But it is possible. There are (courtesy of tv.com)
79 Original Trek Episodes
178 Next Gen Episodes
176 Deep Space Nine Episodes
172 Voyager Episodes
98 Enterprise Episodes

Which totals 703 episodes. He didn't even need the 22 Animated Series episodes.

Wow.

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She, if you can believe it.

-Peter

Re:I didn't believe it...

And a cute one too [slayage.tv]

I'm sure I will go to that special hell for reducing a PhD to a sexist remark. :-)

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79 Original Trek Episodes

Not 79 episodes, dumbass, there were, uh...

Sorry, I'm not enough of either a Star Trek or a South Park dork to remember how that goes.

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Wonder which ones she couldn't stand to watch?

I'd wager 500 quatloos one of them was Spock's Brain :)

Re:I didn't believe it...

To further that, something I calculated when Enterprise went off the air:

Now that Star Trek's over, it's interesting to see exactly how much Star Trek there is (canon only, add 660 minutes/11 hours if you include The Animated Series):

Movies:

The Motion Picture: 132 minutes
The Wrath of Khan: 113 minutes
The Search for Spock: 105 minutes
The Voyage Home: 119 minutes
The Final Frontier: 107 minutes
The Undiscovered Country: 113 minutes
Generations: 118 minutes
First Contact: 106 minutes
Insurrection: 103 minutes
Nemesis: 116 minutes

Episodes:

The Original Series: 79 (3713 minutes @ 47 minutes/episode)
The Next Generation: 178 (8010 minutes @ 45 minutes/episode)
Deep Space Nine: 176 (7920 minutes @ 45 minutes/episode)
Voyager: 172 (7740 minutes @ 45 minutes/episode)
Enterprise: 98 (4116 minutes @ 42 minutes/episode)

Movies Total: 1132 minutes (18 hours, 52 minutes)
Episodes Total: 31499 minutes (524 hours, 59 minutes)
Grand Total: 32631 minutes (543 hours, 51 minutes)

That's 22 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes of Star Trek. Not bad...

I think I going for my Pschology or Sociology...

Ph.D.

Djoymi Baker watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of Star Trek and its spin-offs, dating from 1966 to 2005, in the name of research.

But for me it would be:

Anonymous Coward watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of pornography and its cum-shots, dating from 1966 to 2005, in the name of research.

Too Much Work...

Dr Baker watched over 700 Star Trek episodes -- more than 624 hours -- to investigate the relationship between ancient mythology and today's popular culture.

Wouldn't reading Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces [wikipedia.org] been easier? This guy must've

In other news

Popular bittorrent sites have noted a huge spike in Star Trek episode downloads over the last 12 months...

Star Trek vs Star Gate on mythology.

to investigate the relationship between ancient mythology and today's popular culture.

Star Trek? My bet would be that the first few seasons of Star Gate would give much more away on that.

Futurama called the whole mythology thing

Star Trek "priest": "And Scotty beamed them to the Klingon ship, where there would be no tribble at all"
Crowd chants: "All power to the engines!"

Darn, must now go for my second choice

Mirror of human values by Anonymous Cowards

Abstract: In the spirit of the best human qualities, Anonymous Cowards seeking public yet anonymous recognition show formidable selflessness. By doing away with the link between benevolent exposure of ideas and karma gratification they elevate public commentary to a social reinforcement of Insightful, Interesting and Funny: all essential components of high achievements. This in turn strengthens the Blog medium with not only cohesive forces but justifies the Anonymous Cowards with legitimacy beyond what have been observed throughout the history of the Internets. Their willingness to start from scratch over and over yet still earn the respect of their peers hardly justifies the "coward" epithet and proves that comments, even at -1, are a gold mine for those seeking understanding of TFA.

We will show that Anonymous Corwardiness is alive and well and that despite sometime adverse moderation, this modern tradition offers by its unique qualities a look inside the human soul.

What's Truly Amazing Here

What's really amazing here is that Djoymi Baker is female. Die-hard ST fans weren't known often for being of the fairer sex.

PhD thesis on Star Trek- Skip the english version,

to Truly understand the thesis, you must read it in its original Klingon.

Goes to show...

...how important intelligent communication is. While a topic like 'TV Culture, Myth and Star Trek', in my opinion, does not provide a revolutionary breakthrough in the study of humanities, the fact that she intelligently and effectively enumerates and supports her argument is enough to merit the award she received.

Re:Myth and Star Trek???

Watch closer. The whole of ST:TOS was an exploration of the Human Condition [wikipedia.org]. It just happened to take place in space, ergo it was "Sci Fi".

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There was nearly no over-arching Myth, but many of the episodes had mythic elements, some altogether too literally. (Remember when our intrepid crew encountered the actual, factual Greek God Apollo?)

But you miss the main point, which is thanks to the magic

Re:Proof

Culture is culture. If no one looks at culture of the present day, we lose a lot of valuable information. You're basically saying it's OK to abolish the study of culture at the university level. And while I am not personally interested in Star Trek, I do think that it has had an amazing influence over a large portion of the general population, and studying that effect is definitely worth the effort. And I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't look at the effect of the Simpsons on our civilization. Ignoring the mundane details that describe our culture means ignoring the essence of culture as a whole.

check out the others...

This just proves that PhD stands for "piled higher and deeper."

Not all PhD's. But in this case...I'm a little inclined to agree. No offence to the talented and fetching Dr. Baker, but here are the other three winners of the U of Melbourne's Chancellor's

Re:check out the others...

I dunno, your analysis seems to dismiss Dr. Baker (who is a fox) and her research just because it is in a modern cultural field. Yes, something like a medical advance is extremely useful to humanity, but when he isn't studying immunological facotrs relating to the herpes virus, what does Dr Christopher Smith watch on TV while he relaxes? Why does he watch it, and what does it say about the greater cultural forces surrounding him? If he responds to the Borg, for instance, as effective villains, why is that? Is it because they are ugly and their mechanical elements makes them intimidating, or is it because they represent the polar opposite of the Thatcher-esque mode of thinking that has come to define modern capitalist nations? (Thatcher once said there is no society, only individuals. The Borg are the exact opposite.)

I could go on a rant about how medicine may allow us to live, but culture makes life worth living, but it would be a stretch to say that Dr Baker is producing culture. What she is doing is helping us understand our own culture. When we foster a society that can engage critically with its own culture and media, we have a culture that is less susceptble to the influence of those who would use media to control the public. We gain understanding, or at least perspective, on the other cultures surrounding is and the cultures that preceded us, and we also open doorways to a brighter future. How many people do you think became engineers or scientists thanks to watching Star Trek as children? Couldn't Jules Verne and Meliés deserve some credit for inspiring certain elements of our journeys to the mood and beneath the oceans?

As someone currently in college, currently studying animation (but finding myself drawn away from the practical side and towards the theoretical side) I often grapple with the feeling that I'm devoting a lot of my time, my youth and my mental energy to something that could quite possibly be considered irrelevant. On some level it's possible to say that research using Star Trek is fairly inconsequential, but ultimately, devoting research to it goes back to one of my favorite adages of philosophy, Socrates. The unexamined life is not worth living. If no one examines Star Trek, is it worth watching?

Maybe less useless than you think

Seems like a wee bit more serious and useful work.

Dunno.

It's been famously stated that those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it. I'd suggest that those who do not study myths are condemned to act them out.

Many of may have been taught abo

Re:Star Trek

No, no, no. Not 'shitty'. The term you're looking for is 'Shatty'.

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I'm a doctor, damnit, not a Star Trek addict!

And only Bones could fix the brain-melt she must be suffering after 624 hours of Trek. It must have been like a dagger in the mind. [wikipedia.org]

Crap, I'm a nerd.