Tag: anon asks

Pop Quiz: you have been sent as the Earth ambassador to meet with a new race of aliens. before you can establish talks, you and the aliens are attacked and only you and the alien ambassador survive. The ambassador tells you the attack was led by alien separatists who don’t want to be involved with Earth. Do you order retaliation or do you try to broker peace and trade?

Complicated. Depends what we’re looking to get out of the arrangement. Some materials or technology we do not have that would be helpful to us? Do we have anything of good value for the aliens? If the ambassador and I can get along and speak with total honesty, perhaps we can work together to help both our people work toward deserving the friendship and community of the other.  

This only works in a future ST:TNG type of scenario, though, where we have eliminated some of our worst characteristics. If we’re speaking of the here and now – I’d just tell the aliens to run and keep running.  

Pop Quiz: you and the love of your life are crew members/passengers on board the first intergalactic voyage to a new home. You are only a few short month away from arriving, but there is a catastrophic accident and you, the expert are the only one capable of fixing it. Dilemma is: the love of your life is trapped by this accident and you have a choice: save him/her and die in the process, or save everyone and lose him/her in the process. What is your choice?

It would have to be the pragmatic answer, wouldn’t it? The greater good. If I’m so useful, it would have to be the latter. Save everyone, lose what is important to me. 

I would need a third option.  The above simply isn’t acceptable.  If I’m such an ‘expert’ I would immediately establish a third option with a positive outcome for all.  

hi dr. smith i’ve been following you a while i’m autistic and have trouble eating i can’t digest certain things or the food just turns me off. is this an issue for you? how do you deal?

I’m sorry to hear you have so much trouble, I do relate.  I prefer to eat very simple foods.  When I was very young, my mum had trouble getting me to eat anything mashed or gelatinous (I still don’t like, but it doesn’t bother me so much now), I’d only eat eggs if they were poached (still true).  I won’t eat margarine. I won’t eat canned soups or microwave meals. I tend to eat the same things over and over, as well.  I’ll eat the same breakfast or dinner for weeks.  Is this your experience?  My coping with food is just to be aware of all that I’m eating. I do read labels and I do ask questions about what is in something (I like watching food being prepared whenever I can).  If I don’t know what it is, I won’t be touching it.  

Hi Doc I’m also autistic and am mostly non-verbal. Communicating online with friends is really important to me. Do you experience nv periods? How do you deal with them if you do? I want to learn sign but I’m not social so I don’t see the point. Do you sign or use some other method?

Hi there, I do experience NV episodes a lot, I’m easily triggered in fact, so online communication is important for me as well (especially with students). I wanted to study sign language when I was younger, but felt discouraged as no one in my family was interested in it.  When I was nonverbal as a kid, I’d write to communicate, using flash cards. I still do, sometimes.  Since being NV usually goes hand-in-hand with other issues (like anxiety), I usually avoid social contact as well, or, if I can’t, I try to let those who will be around me know ahead of time that I won’t be speaking. Most of my family and those who work with me know what to expect and have been very good with it.  

I use my iPad a lot, too – there are so many great apps that can help you communicate effectively.  If you use a tablet, try looking up some that are age-appropriate and available in your area.  

do u vr get sad cuz they nvr gon invite alicia to th grounder cons n its so fkn rude thy jst cut her out of evythng

This took me a good five minutes to read and a little longer to take in, so – I know it’s probably easier to type shorthand via phone, but it really isn’t that easy for some of us to read.  

I don’t get sad, it’s not something I think about at all. I don’t think there is anything personal about it, but it is a business, those conventions are (I believe) studio sponsored to promote the show and if the show/network doesn’t want any Lexa brouhaha, it is possible they decline to invite ADC.  It is a little on the cruel side, as it kind of deletes her contribution in a way (like erasing Lexa from the montages) and makes it difficult for fans to really celebrate that character in a way that isn’t hamstrung by the studio politics of it.  Speculation, of course.  

Keeping in mind how popular Lexa became (before and after her death), I can see the studio not wanting the character to overshadow the show itself – if you saw the fuss at the Copenhagen Comic Con, it was basically LexaCon.  If that happens at an unrelated event – imagine what would happen if she did attend an actual related-convention?  I can’t see anyone risking the fallout.  Not while the show is still on the air, at least.