EX-CATHEDRA: THE VOICE OF REASON
A scholar's weekly intellectual news nodecast with Eva Petrenko, PhD
Season 01 Episode 01 - Upload Date: Sol 09/07/2117
Salutations, my name is Eva Petrenko, although you may have already heard of me due to my revolutionary doctoral thesis "Applied Social Psychology in the frontier colonial environment of Chiron". Thanks to the wonders of the new University backbone, we are now able to deliver broadband-intensive content between all current and future University Colonial Bases. Therefore, with the full support of the faculty, I have been tasked with delivering you this weekly nodecast, available both in live streaming and archived episodes on the datalinks.
The aim of this show will be to promote ideas of reason and scientific progress. Ideas which will turn us all into better human beings, unhindered by the superstitions of the past. Ideas such as scepticism, atheism, empiricism, creativity and of course the pursuit of knowledge.
First of all, the latest news. Terraforming projects are already bearing fruit, quite literary at that. The crop yields of Zoloto-Gold have nearly quadrupled thanks to the farming infrastructure development of the terraforming crews. With ad-hoc greenhouses replaced with proper irrigation and new agri-machines deployed, Zoloto-Gold can produce much more food than it needs at this stage. Christopher Peyson and his team now focus on other vital infrastructure and development, as the threat of famine has been eliminated for years to come.
The UNV Curiositas, the sole oceanic exploration vessel of the University, has located a floating Unity supply pod. Within the pod a number of rovers has been located. Our explorers have secured the rovers transporting them aboard the Curiositas back to Continent Alpha. They will be used to further explore the continent.
In further exploration news, there are still no signs of other human survivors. Many views this as a blessing, as unfortunate as such reference to supernatural beliefs which we should indeed cast aside is. With no potentially hostile and barbaric elements, possibly lead by the same group of saboteurs who have killed Captain Garland, the University is free from potential aggression and tyranny of the ignoramuses.
Contact with the Homeworld has not been established. It is presumed the Lascomm relay aboard the Unity has been destroyed before entering orbit around Chiron, so such news is not unexpected. However the radiotelescopes of University Base have failed to detect any artificial radio signals coming from Sol. Industrial civilization on Earth is thus presumed to have been annihilated by the forces of greed, ignorance and zeal.
Which brings us to the next important piece of building a better world and a better mankind on Chiron. Our Children. The first Generation of Chironborn Humans is slowly approaching adulthood. Their minds are a true Tabula Rasa, for they are untainted by the anti-intellectual horrors that plagued the Homeworld. Horrors which have no doubt doomed humanity.
One such Horror was "Social" Media, actually an effective medium for the spread of narcissism, egoism and anti-intelectual behaviour such as selfies. The Internet, in all its potential to spread knowledge and create a technological singularity, was turned into petri dish for ignorance, by making the populace mentally lazy, self-centered and focused on funny pictures of kittens. This tragedy cannot come to pass on planet, keep our datalinks safe, report all attempts of social media software and content development to your local Scienta Custos.
Then there were commercial media: television, the radio and the dreaded film industry, all of it dedicated to lobotomising mankind. They fed us images of celebrities, sexual arousal and flashy action devoid of intellectual thought. They promoted a lifestyle of decadence, passive behaviour of an obedient "receiver" and willing ignorance. They put the anti-science politicians in power, for the benefit of the Corporate overlords.
Sports, circus for the rabble. A time-waster achieving exactly nothing to further the cause of uncovering the mysteries of the Universe. There can be no place for this vile, wasteful activity in the borders of the University. Only faculty-sanctioned competition is permitted or our children shall become intellectual zombies incapable of creativity and rational thought.
Religion is the last and most obvious threat. It is what turned the once scholarly cultures of the Middle-East into rabble. It is what destroyed the ancient artefacts of Constantinople. It is what turned America from the spearhead of scientific progress into a paradise for christian impersonators of Boko Haram. Report anyone found praying or otherwise at suspicion of having belief in the supernatural including, but not limited to: organised religion, god or gods, ghosts, visitors, melonheads, astrology, interest in old homeworld celebrities, weather forecasts and vaccines causing autism. Those people need help in the form of deprogramming or sterilization so the gene pool remains pro-intelectual. The Scienta Custos must intervene in such cases!
That will be all for this week. Stream-in next week or download. This was Eva Petrenko, live long and prosper.
