Why do so many writers assume that disability wouldn't follow us to the stars? What disabilities that don't even exist today would exist tomorrow? What would be reclassified as a disability or not a disability?
I had just reached the point in your post where I started wondering that when you brought it up! Because, yeah, it would make sense that in the future some disabilities would be absent or lessened (the way myopia is no longer a disability because it can be compensated for), but just like dyslexia and electricity allergy are more disabling now than earlier in history, there probably would be disabilities in the future related to things we don't have now. Using Star Trek as an example (and not touching the current presentation of disability in ST), there could be allergies to replicated material, or molecular structure unsuited to teleporters, or inability to see projected holographs as intended, or space-induced pain issues...
I think largely it's a question of the SF writers trying to create better futures, and ending up assuming futures where people are more like them, in the belief that "what's good for me is good for everybody."
Anyway, what I wanted to say was, thank you so much for this post, which really made me think!
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Date: 2010-06-12 06:40 am (UTC)I had just reached the point in your post where I started wondering that when you brought it up! Because, yeah, it would make sense that in the future some disabilities would be absent or lessened (the way myopia is no longer a disability because it can be compensated for), but just like dyslexia and electricity allergy are more disabling now than earlier in history, there probably would be disabilities in the future related to things we don't have now. Using Star Trek as an example (and not touching the current presentation of disability in ST), there could be allergies to replicated material, or molecular structure unsuited to teleporters, or inability to see projected holographs as intended, or space-induced pain issues...
I think largely it's a question of the SF writers trying to create better futures, and ending up assuming futures where people are more like them, in the belief that "what's good for me is good for everybody."
Anyway, what I wanted to say was, thank you so much for this post, which really made me think!