Philosophy 381: Metaphysics in Science Fiction

According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia: "The Bozeman was three weeks out of its home starbase when it disappeared near the Typhon Expanse in 2278, where it remained until 2368. During those 90 years, those aboard the Bozeman experienced the passage of only a brief period of time. Unknown to them, they were in a recursive temporal causality loop, so they experienced that same brief period over and over, ad infinitum, until the loop was disrupted by the Enterprise-D, with which it nearly collided."(p. 53)

Answer the following two questions:

Is this description consistent with what actually is portrayed and explained in "Cause and Effect"? Justify your answer.

Ignoring the Encyclopedia account, is "Cause and Effect" internally self-consistent? I.e. is it possible to account for all the events and explanations given in the episode in a unified and consistent manner? If a unified account is possible, provide and justify your unified account. If a unified account is not possible, prove and explain why not.

Extra Data: (a) X and Y are consistent iff it is possible for X and Y to be true simultaneously. X and Y are inconsistent iff X and Y are not consitent.

(b) Creative Work Convention: Within creative work C, if character X says Y happened or Y explains Z, etc., then Y happened or Y explains Z, etc., unless it is explicitly revealed within C that X is mistaken with regards to Y.

Extra directions: This assignment should be a minimum of 2 standardly formatted typewritten pages. There is no maximum length, but since I value precision, conciseness, and clarity, excess verbiage should be avoided. Email submission is permissible. I prefer a Word or PDF attachment.

Due: Tuesday, September 5, at the beginning of class.

I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work.