What is the point of the Kobayashi Maru test?

The Kobayashi Maru test is an examination given to Starfleet cadets in the late 23rd century.

The test consists of a simulation of an interstellar trade route, with a series of events that test their ability to make decisions under stress. The test is named after the character in the film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home".

Contents. Starfleet Command uses a computer program called the Kobayashi Maru Test as a final test for candidates for Starfleet. The candidates are placed in a simulated interstellar trade route and given a series of circumstances to resolve. The candidates must identify what the correct course of action is in each scenario and be able to come up with a plan that is both logical and rational. The test has been used to test the ability of future officers to face challenges and make life-or-death decisions.

The tests are a form of simulation game used to train officers in how to resolve a variety of situations. One of the test scenarios is based on a real incident that occurred when the starship USS Lexington was damaged during a battle.

In 2161, the USS Lexington is in the vicinity of the Andorian system when it comes under attack from an unknown aggressor. Commander Shelby, captain of the Lexington, requests reinforcements from Starfleet's flagship, the USS Saratoga, which is on a mission in the Tau Ceti system. The Lexington receives a distress call, but the signal is sent at the wrong frequency. The commander of the Lexington, Captain James Kirk, decides to send the ship to the nearest Federation outpost, Starbase 12. As Kirk is about to leave, he is informed that the Saratoga is already en route to Starbase 12. Kirk goes to the ready room and sees a holographic message from the Saratoga, which tells him to "break off" his mission. Kirk demands to know what happened, and Lieutenant Carol Marcus responds, "I don't know, sir. We're under attack."

Kirk immediately launches a shuttlecraft to get to Starbase 12. The shuttlecraft encounters an unknown vessel and a fight ensues. After several hours of fighting, the two vessels crash and the Lexington is damaged.

While the Lexington is docked at Starbase 12, a cadet named Hikaru Sulu takes the Kobayashi Maru test. Hikaru is assigned to the Lexington under Captain Kirk's command.

How did Picard pass the Kobayashi Maru?

Well, he didn't.

He didn't even finish the test. And yet, Starfleet's best captain, who's also arguably the most intelligent human being who has ever lived, managed to score a passing grade.

How? How did he fail the test? What did Picard learn in the process? Picard's Kobayashi Maru Quandary. The Kobayashi Maru test is one of the primary exercises in the Starfleet Academy curriculum. As one of the original Academy graduates (in 2285, and thus well before the advent of warp speed), this test was probably the most challenging. It required a highly competitive mind to even try.

Kobayashi Maru is named after a test vessel built by renowned Japanese ship designer Masaru Sato, who first proposed it as a theoretical test in the late 1950s. Sato's test was intended to showcase the vulnerabilities of a starship when attempting to survive in a hostile environment. A test subject would need to respond to a series of threats, with little or no time to act.

How should you react if attacked by three Klingon warships? How would you handle the loss of a starship? Should you send an urgent distress call, attempt to retreat from the situation, or stay on course? Sato's test was an extreme test for any captain, but Picard has his own reputation. He once famously vowed to Never make the same mistake twice. In the context of the Kobayashi Maru test, this means his response to the test scenario will be unique.

There are four potential scenarios in the test. Let's analyze each in turn.

Scenario 1: You are attacked by two Klingon cruisers and a D'Qar. Their missiles seem to be coming in at you from different angles and at different ranges. They are attacking you from the sides and from behind. The captain orders a retreat. You fire up your engines, accelerate, and head off to Starbase 74. The attack appears to be over. What would you have done had this been your actual situation?

What Picard would have done. Is what he should have done in the test scenario. Captain Picard should not have attempted to avoid the test at all costs. He should have accelerated and tried to find cover.

Is it possible to beat the Kobayashi Maru?

When I took my first Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan review class last week I was surprised to learn that one of the questions I'd need to answer had become an open-ended, hypothetical question, with no right answer.

Klingons may or may not destroy the Enterprise, but do you think that he should have done it, or is it a reductionist idea? So how should the ship's crew react to this possibility? The Kobayashi Maru. I first encountered the Kobayashi Maru in a course of philosophy in which we discussed the implications of the Matrix on free will. This was in the early 2000s and my roommate was a philosophical genius who knew a thing or two about Kant and Dostoevsky, who also went by the internet handle, Seth (the character played by Christopher Eccleston in a great BBC drama about a philosophy teacher named Humphrey Leavis). One day he'd ask us if anything could ever be done to avoid certain results. He'd point to the famous scene from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, where the Red side Kirk is trapped aboard the dilithium mining vessel, and asks us whether the events of the story would prevent them from going through with any plan they came up with.

No. We all said. They could always run away, or just shoot the ship. Either way, a logical outcome would result. If they don't, the only logical out would be to surrender and make that as their final option. They don't.

He asked if that was the case for everyone. We explained that everyone means that anyone would do something so that the conclusion could be avoided and everyone really means that if the Red side didn't try and break out of their predicament, you can actually make someone surrender.

That might mean they'd have to blow up the ship or shoot everyone. We'd never actually seen anyone do either one of those things. But if you wanted to avoid those outcomes, we admitted, the only logical solution was to try and take control of the ship.

But how did this come up in relation to Star Trek?

Has anyone passed the Kobayashi Maru?

I think a good majority of the people in the community have.

I'd say 90% or more.

I'd guess that there has been an internal review. I don't really know who at the org is responsible, but it certainly wasn't someone like me or someone with the same level of knowledge or competence of the situation. It was most likely a very senior level person or a director. This was an example of the kind of things that would normally get passed on to other staff and directors to correct.

In the end, if you're not allowed to do what you want to do, then you might as well just be on your own and have no one to blame but yourself when you're eventually forced into not doing what you want to do. So while he's not getting the job done, he did learn something and that's a victory in itself. Even if it's not the lesson he was originally hoping to get.

He'll probably get a new title, a new boss, and a new boss's job of enforcing the chain of command. In the end though, it will all be about what he wants to do now, not what he did once. If he got a pass, he won't need to worry about that anymore.

If you want to see some of the best examples of this in history, there's always the Roman Empire. That seems to be the difference between the US military and the Chinese Military. The US military says they're not letting you down because they're doing everything possible to get you home as soon as possible, not matter how. The Chinese Military says: If you're not willing to work, then you're not welcome here.

They didn't say anything to me. They left it to my boss and his boss to decide. I still haven't gotten a pass yet, though.

I wonder if there were any other guys like this at the base? The main problem with the whole situation is that he had to go outside of the usual chain of command to make a decision. Someone on the command side decided he couldn't pass and gave him a choice of either working or not working. He took the decision away from the command staff and made it into a moral issue.