Risk is our business

Just gave a keynote in Huntsville, Ontario, at the Deerhurst Resort -- which will host the 2010 G8 summit. The keynote was for The MEARIE Group (MEARIE = "Municipal Electric Association Reciprocal Insurance Exchange"), at a conference on risk management, and I ended my keynote by doing a William Shatner impression, reading what I think is Kirk's greatest speech from all of Star Trek, this bit from "Return to Tomorrow."

McCoy: "Then I'll still want one question answered to my satisfaction: Why? Not a list of possible miracles, but a simple, basic understandable why that overrides all danger. Let's not kid ourselves that there is no potential danger in this."

Kirk: "They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars, and then to the nearest star? That's like saying that you wished that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great-grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this. But I'm not -- because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this. But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great. Risk ... risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her."

YouTube has the whole exchange here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site