Is respect for free will kind of like.. the Prime Directive?

[nurikabe]

I understand that free will is supposed to be respected, but I often wonder how formal this is? Is it acceptable to interfere occasionally to achieve certain spiritual goals? Or does Picard leap up and straighten his jumpsuit in consternation every time there is a breach of the Free Will Directive?

For that matter, is it possible for guides to accidentally influence free will?

[nurikabe]

Bump. I realize I asked this tongue-and-cheek, but actually its a serious question. How much latitude is there towards influencing free will?

[PresNevins]

Although no stranger to Star Trek, for the last couple of years the way I've been thinking of it is more in terms of the game metaphor that Steve posted about last month.

If it's my turn in the game, I don't want my support staff / friends who aren't currently playing to grab the controller out of my hand and say, "No, play like this!" I'd get really irritated at anybody doing that, especially if I had any kind of goal that I was trying to work through in the limited time I have before my turn automatically ends (i.e. I die).

On the other hand, if I'm currently in a particularly stubborn slump in my game-play, I might be the one to ask my friends to take over for me for a bit. And I can easily imagine them refusing to do so. Maybe because before I started the game I even explicitly told them to not mess with me even if I asked, because I really wanted to figure it out myself. Or maybe just because they don't want me to have any excuse to interfere with them when it's their turn to play, later on.

But in some cases hints might be OK... Depends on the situation.

That's the way I think about it. What do you think?

Pres