Yugoslavian Recidivist Knuckleheads

Do you remember Night Court? I loved this show. And I had no idea Brent Spiner, aka Data from Star Trek-The Next Generation was in it until I found this video. I have been on a Star Trek bender watching season one. I just started the episode "Datalore" where they go to Data's home world and find his "brother." I love how they make fun of things like money and the need people felt in the old 21st century for such a silly thing. They are so beyond money, so advanced.

The show always seemed to emphasize what was good in human nature--curiousity, change, exploring, striving to get ahead and learn, most of all learning. What is out there? What does it mean? I loved the exploration part of the show. Kind of like going on a long drive just wandering around. Taking a road just because you have never been on it and it seems interesting. Sometimes it is scary and sometimes you find something you did not imagine.

When they would encounter beings more advanced then they were, those beings always seemed to see something to admire in humanity. Even with all our flaws. Oh, the fun they had showing us our flaws and how we would outgrow them. I loved the fundamental optimism of the show.

I still do not understand how people are not excited about learning. I have a post brewing on Wolfram Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine." It is not a search engine like Google. From the little I have played with it, I would call it more of an answer engine. It is such a fun site and Dr. Stephen Wolfram (yes, that is his name!) gives some great answers to why he started this project. But even my brother the geek and his equally geeky friend, Lop, did not know what it was. (I mean they both have servers in their homes. It's like a computer wonderland.) They are the kind of people though who will discover the site and manage to manipulate it such a way that will blow me away.

But for all my love of things geek, and things that bleep and touch screens to play with, I like silly sitcoms like this one. Ah, gee. Now I want to watch Designing Women. Time for a Julia Sugarbaker rant.