I thought of the same thing as I read this article. Darmok is hands down my favorite episode of TNG! I routinely say, "Temba, his arms wide" to my husband when I'm handing him something. Even if Toki Pona wasn't the inspiration for the TNG episode, they certainly function on the same basic principles. Imagine a world in which language had no nuance - no one could get their feelings hurt because a stranger referred to them as "boy" instead of "man" (or vice versa). Although, I think it would complicate things a bit on the internet.
Was this the inspiration for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Darmok?
I thought of the same thing as I read this article. Darmok is hands down my favorite episode of TNG! I routinely say, "Temba, his arms wide" to my husband when I'm handing him something. Even if Toki Pona wasn't the inspiration for the TNG episode, they certainly function on the same basic principles. Imagine a world in which language had no nuance - no one could get their feelings hurt because a stranger referred to them as "boy" instead of "man" (or vice versa). Although, I think it would complicate things a bit on the internet.
As a reference, one of the miscellaneous quests you can pick up in Skyrim is to deliver bear pelts to an NPC named "Temba Wide-Arm." http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Temba_Wide-Arm
I think of that episode all the time! I love how Next Generation handled alien cultures.
When the walls fell!