Funk Babblings

Two or three interesting points to touch on...

1) One might imagine their perspective to assume survival of the species (and the long history tied to it) to be more important than doing that justly. How to reflect on/react to that is an interesting problem

2) If we can't make social progress before then, space might not be very effective at preserving humanity.

3) I don't know if Roddenberry assumed the change would be "magical" so much as that it would happen. One possible view (that I don't *entirely* agree with) is that societal advancement is inevitable and that we'll get there, disempowering those who would enslave us eventually. Does Roddenberry portray it as an easy transition? Does he portray it at all? I don't consider him much of a political philosopher, and can't think of many instances where he's talked much about political theory, but if his work is portrayed as a looming future reality, we probably should ask the people who do so "How?", rather than fault him as a writer who might not be so interested in that. It may be that the casting of Uhura was a small step of activism, but activism is only a baby step towards becoming a statesman.

Incidentally, allow me to recommend Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution series. The first book is close to cyberpunk, and his later book "Cassini Division" is closer to hard sci-fi, but both of them have a deep political edge to them that I think presents a future that acknowledges human nature and politics.