Dunsel

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Dunsel is a word invented in popular 20th century media culture. It first appeared in popular media in the Star Trek television series.

Dunsel is defined as 'a part which serves no useful purpose'. The jargon term was said to originate from Starfleet Academy.

The word was introduced by the Star Trek episode "The Ultimate Computer" as a symbolic morality play in order to exempify the problematic aspects and functional consequences of machine intelligence with regards to human sociocultural assumptions. Dunsel was used in reference to Captain James T. Kirk, after the USS Enterprise, under control of a supercomputer, had successfully defeated two other starships in a wargame. The implication was that a computer had made the human crew and commanding officer obsolete.

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