Meta Treks is a Trek.fm podcast dedicated to a deep examination of the philosophical ideas found in Star Trek. In each episode, Zachary Fruhling and Mike Morrison take you on a fascinating journey into the inner workings of Star Trek storytelling, deeper into subspace than you've ever traveled before.
http://trek.fm/meta-treks
episode 90: ODD (Omniscience Deficit Disorder)
The Q Continuum.
From the The Original Series onward, Star Trek has had a preoccupation with false gods, culminating in the introduction of Q and the Q Continuum in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But although members of the Q Continuum have many of the properties usually ascribed to deities—such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and so on—do they posses these qualities to sufficient degree to be considered genuine deities of the Star Trek universe?
In this episode of Meta Treks, hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling give a philosophical analysis of the Q Continuum and the deity-like attributes of the Q. From paradoxes of omnipotence, such as the Q being powerful enough to create a prison another Q cannot break out of, to the many things the Q don't seem to know despite their supposed omniscience, Mike and Zachary debate, and perhaps debunk, the status of the Q as deities.
Chapters
Intro (00:01:19)
Should We Consider the Q to be Deities? (00:02:42)
Q and the Q Continuum (00:07:34)
The Tension Between Transcendence and Immanence (00:14:44)
Contrasting The Q Continuum with the DS9 Prophets (00:20:08)
Are the Q Omnipresent? (00:23:18)
Are the Q Omnipotent? (00:27:32)
Are the Q Omniscient? (00:35:00)
Attributes Not Found Among The Q (00:43:34)
Should The Q Have a Moral Obligation? (00:47:48)
Star Trek and False Gods (00:53:23)
The Visualizations of the Q Continuum (01:03:54)
Closing (01:11:07)
Hosts
Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling
Production
Mike Morrison (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) Patrick Devlin (Associate Producer) Kay Shaw (Associate Producer) Mark Walker (Associate Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)