Exploration and Expanding Knowledge.   The worldview depicted in the Star Trek universe is grounded in the assumption that the pursuit of increased knowledge is intrinsically valuable, such that it is worth the risks and dangers inherent to exploration of the unknown. In this episode of Meta Treks, hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling examine this underlying assumption of the Star Trek universe: Does knowledge have intrinsic value or merely instrumental value? What ethical and practical constraints should be placed on the pursuit of knowledge? Should all knowledge be open-source and publicly available, or are some forms of knowledge tainted by having been achieved through ethically questionable methods? Join Mike and Zachary as they explore and expose the hidden tensions in the pursuit of knowledge and of the exploration of the unknown in the Star Trek universe.   Chapters  Welcome to Episode 66 (00:01:07)  The Intrinsic Value of Knowledge as the Underlying Assumption of the Star Trek Universe (00:06:18)  Intrinsic Value vs. Instrumental Value (00:08:56)  The Risks of Exploration (00:15:10)  Starship Captains and Chutzpah (00:22:05)  Species Authenticity - The Rational Animal (00:23:46)  Ethical Constraints on the Intrinsic Value of Exploration (00:34:13)  Tainted Knowledge vs. Open-Source Knowledge (00:39:54)  Gnosticism and The Omega Directive  (00:45:00)  Essential Attributes vs. Non-Essential Attributes (00:52:35)  The Unknown - We Don't Know What We Don't Know (01:07:07)  Science without Scientism (01:14:47)  Final Thoughts (01:17:47)   Hosts Mike Morrison and Zachary Fruhling   Production Mike Morrison (Editor) Zachary Fruhling (Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive Producer) Patrick Devlin (Associate Producer) Kay Shaw (Associate Producer) Kit Loffstadt (Associate Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager) Brandon-Shea Mutala (Patreon Manager)   Send us your feedback! Twitter: @trekfm  Facebook: http://facebook.com/trekfm  Voicemail: http://www.speakpipe.com/trekfm  Contact Form: http://www.trek.fm/contact  Visit the Trek.fm website at http://www.trek.fm/  Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.com/trekfm   Support the Network! Become a Trek.fm Patron on Patreon and help us keep Star Trek talk coming every week. We have great perks for you at http://patreon.com/trekfm