Vision of Spock, ‘Star Trek’: Think, feel, be human

Leonard Nimoy’s death last week did what the “Star Trek” series often did; it made a lot of people stop and think.

At its best, Star Trek has always been about us now, humans in the present, not aliens in the future. Its future is what we might produce eventually by being a better version of ourselves now.

It encourages mass introspection, something good fiction tends to do. The arts give us permission and a nudge to look at ourselves, and science fiction lets us do that without having to stare too directly at what might be painful in real life — violence, racism, our personal struggles.

Spock, the character Nimoy played, matters because we are Spock, at least most of us are sometimes, when we feel like the odd person out or wrestle with different parts of ourselves.

I loved the show’s gadgets, space travel, imagining other worlds, but over time the characters became more important. Uhuru’s presence was gratifying, but I identified with Spock on a personal level. He knew what it was like to be an outsider. I was quiet and bookish, and also black, and from a poor family, so I didn’t feel normal in a supposedly middle-class country. He was calm no matter what, and I usually was, too, on the outside anyway.

Seattle is probably home to more Spock wannabes than most cities, so I’m sure you understand. The EMP Museum at Seattle Center moved a Nimoy display into its lobby last weekend so that fans could stop by and pay their respects. A staffer told me one woman left a flower at the base of the display; another visitor took off his hat out of respect before being photographed with Spock’s shirt.

The EMP was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who included a science-fiction museum in the building, and you know what Allen named his company: Vulcan, of course. Spock was half Vulcan, half human.

I still think about the Star Trek universe and where it intersects with and diverges from our own.

In that universe all Earth is united; in this one, well, you know what’s going on.

The people of the 23rd century had all kinds of cool gadgets we could only dream about in the 1960s when the show first aired. I keep thinking our technology is advancing at warp speed while socially, politically and economically we seem to be sputtering along like a Model T. Medical technology is far ahead of where it was 50 years ago, but getting basic care to everyone is still a controversial idea. Is that logical?

Star Trek gave us the first black/white kiss on television, and in its universe, that was no big deal. We’ve come far since then off screen and on, but not as far as Star Trek.

It’s harder to change people and institutions than it is to build gadgets, but we can do better at improving ourselves and our communities by taking advantage of advances already being made in understanding our brains and behavior. (Did I mention the Allen Institute for Brain Science?)

We won’t ever be entirely logical, and we wouldn’t want to be. Even in Star Trek’s 23rd century, humans relied on gut instincts to make those quick decisions that can’t be made any other way.

Over the past few decades, researchers have learned lots about our brains and behavior that can begin to help us improve socially if we’d put it to use. Emotions and biases dominate our decision making even when we think we are being rational. Understanding that can help us avoid the problems hidden biases and unacknowledged emotions can cause. We’re just at the beginning of a deeper understanding of ourselves, and maybe that’s really the final frontier.

I got hooked on Star Trek reruns in college and I wanted to be Spock, but I knew even he wasn’t always really logical and impervious to emotions. If he had been, the show would have been boring, and few viewers would have connected with the character.

He made us stop and think, and last week some of us also paused to feel.

As Spock himself discovered over time, there is value in listening to our emotions. What we still need to learn is how to make the combination of logic and emotion work better. We can live long and prosper.