Greetings STARFLEET,

Continuing our IDIC series, today we’re talking about meaning what you think you mean. See, it’s not enough to mean well when you speak. It’s also essential to do good as well, which is increasingly challenging in modern society.

For example, World Autism Day is April 2^nd. Many well-known organizations run “Light It Up Blue” campaigns, and it’s a recognized event. However, grassroots advocates spend countless hours pointing out that the organizations also advocate finding the genes responsible for Autism for the purposes of prenatal eugenics.

Even when people realize the implications of supporting the “Light It Up Blue,” they still offer reasons why they take part. Things like “blue is my son’s favorite color” or “it’s the best awareness effort we have” are common. Yet from the outside, the reasons are obscured.

This example is one of many where the meaning is not as important as what that action does. The technology (or extraterrestrial species) to read minds does not exist yet. There’s no way for us to know what is meant by an action if it’s outside our cultural frame of reference.

As culture becomes more visually orientated, this problem will become even more prevalent than it is today. Colors, memes, and emojis are all things that rely on our shared cultural frame of reference. As an international organization, STARFLEET members do not always share the same frame of reference either.

Even within a culture, meanings are not always precise. Sarcasm in text is one example. Another is trying to figure out how an emoji after a sentence changes the meaning of the words. We’ve all had texts or emails like that.

These are only a few examples of where what we mean when we say or use a symbol does not always have the effect we imagine. Therefore, it’s incumbent on us to make ourselves clear and to accept new information when it is presented to us.

Let’s keep moving forward, STARFLEET.