Of Mice and Sandwiches

Posted on Sun 5th Mar, 2017 @ 9:00pm by Commander Zachary Hunt & Commander Paul Graves PsyD

1,812 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night
Location: XO's Ready Room; Orchids and Jazz, Deck 600

"...These are the counseling stats from last month to this month," Paul said to Lt. Commander Hunt. The two of them sat in Hunt's office for the brief meeting. The report appeared on Paul's and Hunt's PADDs. Occasionally Paul would highlight something on his device, and the indicator would appear on Hunt's screen, as well.

"You'll notice the almost complete lack of visits from Security staff. They're all working double-time to handle the diplomatic delegations, and I don't expect to see any of those personnel until after the talks end. I've had to reschedule an appointment with the one Security staff person I did have an appointment with. Overall visits are down, which I take to be an encouraging sign. People are settling in and getting used to the place." Paul paused with a faint grin. "Either that, or I'm scaring them off."

Hunt had a quick glance at the reports Paul had just shown him. "It's good to see that people are getting used to the place; it is all a bit overwhelming to begin with. Especially when the news of 'creatures' got out and having to stop everyone worrying. Still that's long over now! You should take this time to have a break, whilst you have the opportunity." He mused, taking a sip of his juice.

"Before the next murder happens or the next exo-creature is found?" Paul said with a chuckle. "I'm thinking of setting up a dressage program for the holodeck. Unlike a lot of my people, I like horseback riding, and while it will feel uncomfortable to ride holographic horses at first, I should be able manage the horses the same way Terrans do. What do you like to do when you want to get away from it all?"

Hunt let out a laugh back, "I've never got on with horses. Anything that can chuck me around with so much ease but look so innocent is a no for me. Ahhh well I generally like socialising, and you know already I play Racquetball. Maybe a bit surprising, is I enjoy reading philosophical works," He paused and took a second to think, "Well all types of works really. I have a massive interest in learning something new. OHHHHH and I like Poker, it's a nice social kind of thing that you don't have to think too hard about. I'm sure my list could go on and on. To be fair food comes above everything though. I'm rambling now, aren't I?"

"Slightly," Paul said with a smile. "I don't dare play poker; I cheat without meaning to. Racquetball sounds like fun, though! And yes, food is a top choice at any time. They make lamb chops at Orchids and Jazz that are to die for, but it's too much food for me."

"Woops!" Hunt chuckled. "Yeh maybe the poker front isn't for you then! Lamb chops are a favourite, I've only been to Orchids a couple of time, but I do keep telling Miss Lantz I will visit more often!"

"Well, it's almost lunchtime. Want to go down there and see what they're serving? I think we're pretty much finished here," Paul said.

"Sounds absolutely perfect. Hopefully they have lamb chops," Hunt licked his lips.

"Not at this hour, unfortunately," Paul said. "We're stuck with sandwiches--though they're really good sandwiches."

Hunt's face turned into a face of hurt, "Ohh man, I just got my hopes up. Oh well! Let's go for a sandwich!" Hunt stood up gesturing Paul to do the same.

* * *

Just before the lunch rush for Alpha shift, Jade stuck her head in the kitchen for her last-minute conference with Marin. "Everything okay in here?"

"Hunky-Dory, as Great Grammy used to say," Marin replied, without looking up from the crepes she was supervising. "Oh, I decided to try that new recipe as a lunch special today. The one you got from the protocol thingy?" Her voice went up in a question.

Jade smiled. One thing Marin was not was a political creature. "Good. I'd like to try that myself. What was it called again?"

"Cordon Bleu Rulat is the closest I could come. It's almost like an old schnitzel from Earth, only instead of the meats we might expect, there's something I can't even pronounce from this bunch that's visiting the station. I used a good old Earth Swiss cheese, though. The dough is also from our visitor's culture. Tasty enough," Marin assured her boss, with a quick glance up from her skillet.

"We have a plan for the day, then," Jade said as she let the door close behind her and moved into the dining room.

Hunt and Paul continued to walk and talk to Orchids & Jazz, the conversation moving towards various philosophical works. Hunt enjoyed having these types of conversations, but detested when they started to turn into debates which he normally tried to rein in and stop the conversation in the end. "... so what are you saying when it comes to free will?" Hunt questioned. They could see Orchids & Jazz in the distance, meaning if Hunt played this right the conversation could finish by the time they got to the doors. Plus he liked the conversations with Miss Lantz as well and wouldn't want her to get involved in such a debate. It would give him such a headache to have an extra person debating their views.

"Well, there's a school of thought that asserts there is no such thing as free will--at least, not at the root of it," Paul said. "This particular line of reasoning says that, since all thought is dependent upon the brain, and since the brain can only function according to its own developmental pattern, what we really express when we think we are exercising free will is entirely dictated by our neurochemistry, that we are at the mercy of our brains." Paul shrugged. "I prefer to think that whether I choose to drink Tarkalian tea or Bajoran springwine at dinner is wholly my conscious decision, but I can understand the case that the neuroscientists are trying to argue. It's a fascinating question, at any rate."

This was the best, meatiest conversation he'd had with anyone in quite a while, Paul thought, and he realized that he'd been practically starving for a talk like this with someone. It wasn't with or about a patient, it wasn't discussing strategies for a treatment; it was just plain conversation about an interesting topic for the pure joy of it. Why had he never hung out with Hunt before?

Hunt had half regretted telling Paul that he enjoyed reading up on philosophical ideas and views after that response. "When I look at free will, I have my own Science head that believes the neuroscientists case. But then I look it from my own mind and wholeheartedly agree with you. If there was no such thing as free will then what would be the point of it all," Hunt paused. "There's been scientists tracking brain activity for centuries now, and they are still no closer to finding an answer. There's also been studies surrounding 'neuroprediction,' which looks at tracking brain activity to see if they can predict decisions that we make. Now imagine if there was the case that I could predict your decision before you've already thought of it. Now the question I put to you, would that mean if you could predict a decision, would this undermine free will? Or what if I could manipulate your mind into changing a decision you were going to make. Would that mean you wouldn't have free will?"

"I think neurochemistry creates likely paths of decision making," Paul said. "For instance, if you have a particular type of neurochemistry demonstrated by particular results shown in a functional brain scan, I can predict that it is more likely that you will, for example, make particular decisions rather than others--but it is not absolute. And if I could predict your decisions perfectly, I personally don't believe that would undermine your free will, as long as I didn't tell you my predictions." Paul grinned. "But if I accurately predicted enough of your decisions and told you my predictions, sooner or later that would piss you off, and you would start making wild decisions just to prove to yourself that I didn't know your mind better than you do."

"But if you could predict my decision to...for example kill someone, would you go out of your way to then stop it? Or keep it on your mind that you could have prevented that life being taken away? But if you prevent that, I would say you have taken my free will away," Hunt paused. "Obviously I'm not going to kill someone, let me just put that out there. Sometimes I think you do know my mind better than I do, anyhow."

"Only because I know how you're feeling when you say things," Paul told him. "But even that doesn't always work. It's quite possible for a person to feel things and for me to not understand why the person feels them, so that knowing their emotions is not the help that it would normally be. As for being able to predict if you would kill someone--If I knew that I could accurately predict that you would decide to kill a person under circumstances very likely to occur, I would either try to remove you from those circumstances or warn others to be ready for your murder attempt--your free will be damned. But I wouldn't be able to predict when that murder attempt would happen or how you would attempt to kill the person, only that, under the correct circumstances, you would try to."

Hunt let out a chuckle, "You do have a valid point there my friend, of course. I could discuss this with you all week if we had the time. It does amaze me how different people have different views on everything and how things are generally perceived. I don't think we will ever be close to finding out the true answers surrounding free will," He said as they finally reached Orchids & Jazz. It felt like a godsend to Hunt as his stomach had startled to rumble.

"I don't want to know the true answers," Paul said. "Some things should just be unanswerable. Think how boring life would be if it were possible to learn the answer to everything." He sniffed the air. "Fortunately, we can start figuring out the menu right now. I have no idea what that is, but it smells good. Some kind of seafood, do you think?"

"My Science head disagrees and would like everything answered, but I do agree that things would be boring. I believe it is, can't remember the last time I had seafood either," Hunt said, spotting the usual characters within Orchids & Jazz.

To be continued!

 

RSS Feed