Ignorance or Low Intelligence?

Posted on Mon 12th Jun, 2023 @ 7:26pm by Elizabeth Anderson M.D. & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran
Edited on on Fri 16th Jun, 2023 @ 2:20am

891 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Neither Yours Nor Mine
Location: Brown Sector
Timeline: MD 1, 2110 hours

Previously, on SB-109:

"I've never thought of myself as a poet," Damion said, quirking one side of his mouth up into a smile, "but sometimes I read good ones: You are not a drop in the ocean; you are the ocean in a drop. Said by an Earth poet whose last name was Rumi. I came across that in the remedial reading course I took before I could apply to Starfleet Academy. The teacher of that class used literature she thought adults would enjoy, with a mind to teaching us the difference between ignorance and low intelligence."

---

Elizabeth smiled slightly, gazing down at the path her feet were following through the bazaar. She hadn't wound up buying anything yet, but she thought she'd be back at the brass market before they left. "I like that quotation, and found this one by him, too," she added, accessing her computer connection.

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.

"I think we've always been in each other; this resonates within me like other truths have," she glanced up at him, wondering if she'd said more than he was ready to hear.

Damion felt his breath catch and gave Elizabeth a speculative look. "I think so, too," he said after a moment. "What I always liked best about Rumi was his way of saying profound things with very simple words: Not the ones speaking the same language, but the ones sharing the same feeling understand each other."

"Oh, yes, that captures things perfectly," Anderson smiled slightly. "We started with shared feelings, though our language has sometimes been different ... and our ideas. As time has gone on, I've felt we have grown to share more. We aren't the same people we were on the ship, yet our relationship is similar, but better."

"Yes, we have changed," Damion agreed. "I'm glad I'm not the same person I was on Hermes." He let out a breath.

"When I first came aboard that ship, I had a choice of which Counselor to see--you or Dr. Foster. I chose you because I wasn't confident of being polite enough to Dr. Foster, but I felt I couldn't offend you. I was relieved to talk to you over lunch that day. Then I got to know you better. By the time we arrived here, I no longer worried about etiquette. I don't know how that happened; it just did. I was my natural self, and I realized that was good enough. I could talk to Dr. Foster today and be fine with her. Whether that was your doing or mine I don't know--and I guess it doesn't matter now. I'm just glad the change happened."

Elizabeth nodded, and reflected on some of their earliest sessions. "You were ready for a change. All I did was listen. You did the real work.

"It's hard to perceive it as work when it's simply...living. I guess it's just figuring out how to make better choices slowly, over time," Damion said. "It seems to work the same way for you, even though you can think so much faster than I."

"And faster doesn't necessarily mean better, Damion. What I do is different processing than what you do," Anderson explained. "When I'm accessing data, that's not actually thinking or processing. It's just ... research, data acquisition, unless I choose it to be more. You are applying knowledge, and I'm simply collecting it."

"And then applying it," Damion said. "I doubt you collect knowledge for no reason, except for maybe incidental learning as when you walk down a hallway. And even then, you apply it. You note when seasons change, what culture is having a holiday, who's in that culture, who's acting typically or oddly for the occasion, which adds to your knowledge about them and might or might not prompt you to act."

Elizabeth mulled over what he'd said. He was right, for the most part. She did do more than collect, but she felt he was giving her too much credit. Still, ... if he wanted to see her in such a positive light, she was happy to have him do so.

"Let's agree that we both are thinkers, then," she said. "Our operating systems are different, but they both work. I think I saw somewhere that in the beginning, there were two types of computer systems. You could accomplish most anything with either one, though one was a little easier for art work than the other. Eventually, they became a joined system and everything is done by the system that also runs the main computer here on the starbase.

"I'm a little fascinated by the technical details, since a lot of them run me, too. Kind of strange to see myself as a living and breathing construct and a machine at the same time, but also ... interesting, I guess I could say. Until Starfleet decides to yank on the chain its attached to me." She hoped they wouldn't, because then she's have to do something that proved they had cause to do so.

"I'd say you've far exceeded your original intended parameters--and that's a fine and beautiful thing," Damion said.

 

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