While I was brushing my teeth this morning, I began to have extremely geeky thoughts about Star Trek aliens.
One of the premises of the Star Trek universe (as far as I understand it) is that there are many alien races that are basically humanoid in shape. This is because life evolved in the similar ways across the universe, with only little variations from species to species.
So — if that’s the idea, then does that mean that all Star Trek aliens have primate counterparts on their planets?
Do the Vulcans have evolutionary primate ancestors with corresponding big pointy ears? Are there Ferengi orangutangs with very big ears horrible teeth? Klingon gorillas with crazy bumpy foreheads? Borg monkeys?
Of course not. That’s silly.
The Borg would never assimilate monkeys.
The reason why I’m writing this is because during my freshman year of college, I was always coming up with goofy ideas like the one above. A friend of mine told me that if I were ever to create a website (websites being novelties back then) then its header would read “No matter who you are, by visiting this site your view of the world is going to be permanently altered.” I was flattered by this.
Although, I told him then — and I am not making this up — that if I were to create a website, I would want to make one that was a big online encyclopedia that anybody could contribute to.
That’s right. My dream website as a college freshman was Wikipedia. So you can imagine how gratified I was when, ten years later, somebody actually did the job for me.
Thanks, nerds! Now get crackin’ on that teleportation device!
Casa Camisas 
Your idea for wikipedia reminds me of my idea in high school of something to stick on your face and pull off while pulling gunk out of your pores. My friend laughed at the time but I felt vindicated when Biore made those pore strips. Your thinking of wikipedia is way cooler.
I always love to find other women that speak trekky.
I’ve also always wondered what it was with the forehead? It always seemed that the variations figured prominently in that region. Those poor Klingon females.
I know! Do you think the Klingons ever have to floss their foreheads? I imagine it takes quite a bit of work to keep those ridges clean . . .
I don’t think your Star Trek thoughts are silly. The Borg would practice assimilation techniques on monkeys, don’t you think? Who knows how many different kinds of brain energy they could have plugged into those cubes.
I remember learning about heat exchangers in college and wondering why they couldn’t use that to design air conditioning and heating systems. My idea was scorned by those around me, but later I saw people using that exact same idea for air conditioning units that would heat houses in the winter.
Some of us are just a little too early for our times, I guess.