I’m still trying to figure out how an arrogant scientist whose creation killed over 450 Starfleet crew members on two starships and then went insane himself got a prominent technological institute named after him.
Considering that despite his failures Starfleet has muscled on with fleet automation ever since, no matter how many times it destroys the fleet, I suppose they consider his failure aspirational.
I would make the case that in the Star Trek future, people have learned to be able to see beyond an individual’s mistakes (even egregious ones). The M-5 was certainly a dangerous mistake, but Daystrom had good intentions and was working on a project of great interest to Starfleet Command. The results were completely unintentional on Daystrom’s part, and he clearly was not emotionally stable by the time “The Ultimate Computer” occurs, so I think that in light of the many tremendous impacts Daystrom had in computing that society was able to understand and forgive.
I’m still trying to figure out how an arrogant scientist whose creation killed over 450 Starfleet crew members on two starships and then went insane himself got a prominent technological institute named after him.
Considering that despite his failures Starfleet has muscled on with fleet automation ever since, no matter how many times it destroys the fleet, I suppose they consider his failure aspirational.
Well, his big successes were early, right? Maybe the institute was too.
Yeah, well, other than that he was great!
I would make the case that in the Star Trek future, people have learned to be able to see beyond an individual’s mistakes (even egregious ones). The M-5 was certainly a dangerous mistake, but Daystrom had good intentions and was working on a project of great interest to Starfleet Command. The results were completely unintentional on Daystrom’s part, and he clearly was not emotionally stable by the time “The Ultimate Computer” occurs, so I think that in light of the many tremendous impacts Daystrom had in computing that society was able to understand and forgive.