GUIDING PRINCIPLES
We agree with the following moral principle from the Prime Directive:
“The right of each sentient species to live following the greater universal law of Free Will, in accordance with its natural and biological cultural evolution is considered sacred.”
If we follow the Prime Directive, as we become a space faring civilization encountering primitive worlds, we may not “interfere with the normal, autonomous and healthy development of native life, society and culture.”
Fortunately for us, alien species so advanced that they look at us as primitive talking animals, are prohibited by the directive from eating or enslaving us.
Although the directive specifically applies to group behavior in space, we believe it can also apply to individuals on Earth in situations of power imbalances like that between adults and children, intellectually gifted and intellectually challenged people, humans and animals, etc.
The application of the Prime Directive’s moral principle on an individual basis, is what we call the Individual Directive.
INDIVIDUAL DIRECTIVE
Lovingly applying the Prime Directive’s free will protections to individual sovereignty would eliminate all forms of exploitation from slaughter to slavery to mere manipulation for an unfair advantage.
Of course, many big challenges in organizing society in that way are obvious.
For example, history has shown that allowing freedom in the market place for entrepreneurs to thrive has contributed to general prosperity, as well as huge concentrations of wealth and power. Unfortunately, that power can be used to turn people who lack entrepreneurial skills or resources into virtual wage slaves.
Another example of an obvious obstacle would be the problems inherent in applying the Individual Directive to human interaction with animals. That application would conflict with the biological or psychological need a large majority of humans have for eating animal products.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help facilitate the creation of a consensus on long term strategies for overcoming the obstacles to building a society that adheres to both the Prime and Individual Directives.
For example, in the economics section, we will examine strategies for rewarding entrepreneurial initiative and skill, while ensuring great prosperity for all non-entrepreneurial or unskilled, but good-hearted followers of the Directives.
And in our Health Department’s section on Food, we will look at methods for accommodating meat-eaters, while building a society with animal rights.
In summary, we will look for the most loving and practical strategies and plans for humanity to overcome any obstacles to becoming a proud member of the galactic community.
FINEDAY FOUNDER
The Academy was founded by David Watkinson, after a long career in Hollywood working on feature films and television shows. He started as a story analyst, but worked mostly on set and off creating and programming videos, animations and graphics for scenes where actors interacted with screens as small as an iPhone and as large as a wall screen.
Here are a few photos and invitations to “Cast and Crew” screenings for some of his shows:
While David worked on those shows, he maintained his interest in education by teaching multimedia courses at UCLA (Visiting Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Film, instructor at the UCLA Extension), host of a Multimedia Special Interest Group at the American Film Institute, etc.
After wrapping the final season of Seth MacFarlane’s The Orville at age 75, David decided it was time to devote all his time to The FineDay Academy, which he hopes to eventually turn over to like-minded people, who will continue its mission.
To help fund the school, David is selling some of his artwork in the campus store and will announce on Twitter (@finedayacademy) sales of various memorabilia (crew gifts, etc.) from his over 32 feature films and long running TV shows.
While working with Star Trek fan Seth MacFarlane and members of his Orville crew, who worked on the Star Trek series, David was inspired by their interest in a “Star Trek future” for humanity.
Like many others, David hopes that we can find allies on and off planet, who want us to succeed in creating that kind of future.
However, David knows that we must be careful to avoid delusions, deceptions, disinformation, misinformation, and misunderstandings, when dealing with such controversial subjects as ETs.
In fact, as a classic Liberal fan of President Kennedy, David has written about the need for vigilance in his article “JFK Jr. – A Warning About Conspiracy Theories,” which also gives more of his background.