I said “Univac” instead of “Multivac” here. Univac is a real computer, but Multivac was a famous supercomputer from a series of short stories by Issac Asimov. Specifically, I was referencing “All the Troubles of the World.” I don’t know if I have to say this, but they’re good reads.  

The lack of Aldean culture is an unspoken assumption of this episode, but then The Federation doesn’t have much culture either. Is culture a reflection of cultural strife? Do broken hearts, historically fictitious murderers, and creeping social capgras delusion define the biggest sources of conflict for folks in the US?  

Imagination has to play a part in culture, but people in Star Trek can’t be sci-fi nerds imagining their future because they are the future, but if a people don’t have a need to imagine a better future, what do they imagine?