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Star Trek is a vehicle for science fiction themes, and like many science fiction stories, it sometimes uses the future to focus on issues that touch us today. I look at the issue of sentience, as seen in respect of the character, The Doctor on the series Star Trek: Voyager. After a brief look at the way this pop-cultural icon addresses the issue, I launch into other considerations of sentience, highlighting moral inconsistencies and moral compartmentalisation and the way this relates to non-human animals.

Music intro from TV series Star Trek Voyager.

One correction: I used the term at one point “non-white” when I meant to say “people of colour”.

Here’s some excerpts of the series episode titled “Author Author”

Starts at 1.17

Starts at 0.45 secs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EASb1XYOtE

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For more information:

Sentience, Speciesism and Rights | How To Go Vegan Podcast

Sentience: The Morally Relevant Characteristic Justifying Basic Rights