The steel-Vulcan in the original quote admits that humans have an edge in the field of interpersonal relations. I imagine that’s why the Vulcans let the humans lead; because the humans are capable of persuading all the other races in the Federation to go along with this whole ‘federation’ idea, and leave the Vulcans more-or-less alone as long as they share some of their research results.
Or, to put it another way; Vulcan High Command has managed to foist off the boring administration work onto the humans, in exchange for mere unimportant status, and is not eager to have it land back on their laps again.
Of course, some Vulcans do think that a Vulcan-led empire would be an improvement over a human-led one. The last batch to think that went off and formed the Romulan Empire. The Vulcans and the Romulans are currently running a long-term, large-scale experiment to see which paradigm creates a more lasting empire in practice. (They don’t tell the other races that it’s all a political experiment, of course. They might not be great at interpersonal realtions, but they have found out in the past that that is a very bad idea).
It’s not mere unimportant status, though. The Federation makes decisions that affect the state of the Galaxy, and they make different decisions than they would under Vulcan control, and those differences cash out in terms of significant differences in overall utility. For a culture that believes that “the fate of the many outweighs the fate of the few, or the one,” the choice to allow that just so they can be left alone seems bizarre.
Of course, that assumes that they consider non-Vulcans to be part of “the many.” Now that I think about it, there’s no particular reason to believe that’s a commonly held Vulcan value/belief.
The Federation makes decisions that affect the state of the Galaxy, and they make different decisions than they would under Vulcan control
Eh, questionable. I’m sure many of us have been in situations where we’re advising more senior staff and the manager or whoever isn’t really the one making the decision anymore—they’re just the talking head we get to rubber stamp what those of us who actually deal with the problem have decided is going to happen.
In practice I tend to find that the people who control access to information, rather than the people who wield formal authority, tend to have the most power in an organisation.
This is a conceptually simple trade-off, although the math would be difficult. Assume that a Federation under Vulcan control would make better decisions but would have more difficulty implementing them (either on a sufficient scale or as effectively) because the strengths that make them better analysts are not the same strengths that make humans charismatic leaders. The Federation might not have as many planets, those planets might not be as willing to implement Vulcan ideas when advocated by Vulcans, etc. Is overall utility higher if Vulcans take the optimal action A% of the time at X% effectiveness or if humans take the optimal action B% of the time at Y% effectiveness? (You would adjust “the optimal action” for the relative strengths of the two species.)
If you believed that AX > BY, you formed the Romulan Empire. If you believed that AX < BY, you joined the Federation. I don’t know enough Star Trek lore to say what happens if you end up with different estimates than the rest of your faction (defection, agitation for political change, execution?).
Of course, that assumes that they consider non-Vulcans to be part of “the many.” Now that I think about it, there’s no particular reason to believe that’s a commonly held Vulcan value/belief.
It’s Spock’s belief… but Spock was half-human, and the other Vulcans mostly seemed to think he was perhaps a bit too attached to that side of his ancestry. I think that they definitely assigned a good deal less weight to non-Vulcans. (Not zero weight… they did help out Humanity a bit on first contact, after all… just less weight).
Besides, given that the Vulcan High Council is pretty influential in the Federation, they can steer things their way at least some of the time; they might not be able to persuade the Federation to follow the path of maximal utility, but they can signpost the path (and warn about any cliffs in the area); the other races might not listen to them all the time, but they’re quite likely to listen at least some of the time, severely limiting the utility loss.
The steel-Vulcan in the original quote admits that humans have an edge in the field of interpersonal relations. I imagine that’s why the Vulcans let the humans lead; because the humans are capable of persuading all the other races in the Federation to go along with this whole ‘federation’ idea, and leave the Vulcans more-or-less alone as long as they share some of their research results.
Or, to put it another way; Vulcan High Command has managed to foist off the boring administration work onto the humans, in exchange for mere unimportant status, and is not eager to have it land back on their laps again.
Of course, some Vulcans do think that a Vulcan-led empire would be an improvement over a human-led one. The last batch to think that went off and formed the Romulan Empire. The Vulcans and the Romulans are currently running a long-term, large-scale experiment to see which paradigm creates a more lasting empire in practice. (They don’t tell the other races that it’s all a political experiment, of course. They might not be great at interpersonal realtions, but they have found out in the past that that is a very bad idea).
It’s not mere unimportant status, though. The Federation makes decisions that affect the state of the Galaxy, and they make different decisions than they would under Vulcan control, and those differences cash out in terms of significant differences in overall utility. For a culture that believes that “the fate of the many outweighs the fate of the few, or the one,” the choice to allow that just so they can be left alone seems bizarre.
Of course, that assumes that they consider non-Vulcans to be part of “the many.” Now that I think about it, there’s no particular reason to believe that’s a commonly held Vulcan value/belief.
Eh, questionable. I’m sure many of us have been in situations where we’re advising more senior staff and the manager or whoever isn’t really the one making the decision anymore—they’re just the talking head we get to rubber stamp what those of us who actually deal with the problem have decided is going to happen.
In practice I tend to find that the people who control access to information, rather than the people who wield formal authority, tend to have the most power in an organisation.
This is a conceptually simple trade-off, although the math would be difficult. Assume that a Federation under Vulcan control would make better decisions but would have more difficulty implementing them (either on a sufficient scale or as effectively) because the strengths that make them better analysts are not the same strengths that make humans charismatic leaders. The Federation might not have as many planets, those planets might not be as willing to implement Vulcan ideas when advocated by Vulcans, etc. Is overall utility higher if Vulcans take the optimal action A% of the time at X% effectiveness or if humans take the optimal action B% of the time at Y% effectiveness? (You would adjust “the optimal action” for the relative strengths of the two species.)
If you believed that AX > BY, you formed the Romulan Empire. If you believed that AX < BY, you joined the Federation. I don’t know enough Star Trek lore to say what happens if you end up with different estimates than the rest of your faction (defection, agitation for political change, execution?).
This was what I’d meant to say, only much, much better phrased. Thank you.
It’s Spock’s belief… but Spock was half-human, and the other Vulcans mostly seemed to think he was perhaps a bit too attached to that side of his ancestry. I think that they definitely assigned a good deal less weight to non-Vulcans. (Not zero weight… they did help out Humanity a bit on first contact, after all… just less weight).
Besides, given that the Vulcan High Council is pretty influential in the Federation, they can steer things their way at least some of the time; they might not be able to persuade the Federation to follow the path of maximal utility, but they can signpost the path (and warn about any cliffs in the area); the other races might not listen to them all the time, but they’re quite likely to listen at least some of the time, severely limiting the utility loss.