Alternate Universe In the Absence of Trek?

[Vger23]

I've watched a few of these documentaries and read some of the books speculating and documenting the huge influence Star Trek has had on culture and even inspiring the advancement of technology and certain careers.

I think it would be a very interesting project for someone to reverse engineer that and write an alternate universe story about what early 21st century Earth would look like if Star Trek had never existed.

How many inventions might not have been made...or would be fundamentally different and how would that change the world?
What repercussions would occur if there were significantly less people inspired to be doctors and engineers etc. as a result of their fascination with those characters in Star Trek?

As much as we like to point out that Star Trek is pretty "middle tier" when it comes to outright popularity in the genre space...there's no way to argue that there were many other franchises that potentially influenced the course of history like Star Trek did.

 

[Tenacity]

I'm sorry, but I think the impact of no Star Trek would next to none.

We'd still have pads (differently named?), cellular phones, and all the other thing occasionally attributed to Star Trek.

Star Trek did motivate some people to go into the sciences, military service, or community services. Which would have had some effect on the world, but a measurable effect?

Debateably Paramount Pictures would be gone by today..

 

[Vger23]

I'm sorry, but I think the impact of no Star Trek would next to none. We'd still have pads (differently named?), cellular phones

I don't think we know that. How many engineers and technologists were inspired, even subconsciously by Star Trek?

 

[The Wormhole]

Early cell phones probably wouldn't have been flip-phones. Flip-phones didn't really have much of a practical purpose anyway, aside from being influenced by Star Trek communicators. Of course, the first space shuttle would have been named Constitution, as was originally planned, since there would have been no letter writing campaign to name it Enterprise.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Of course, the first space shuttle would have been named Constitution, as was originally planned, since there would have been no letter writing campaign to name it Enterprise.

But it was called Enterprise in the intro to Enterprise! *universe implodes*

 

[The Wormhole]

The TOS cast are also there, so this was already problematic to begin with.

Is this why the Disco fans don't think visuals are canon?

 

[Butters]

I saw one of those documentaries recently, possibly the same one, but it was so self congratulatory and tenuous that I couldn’t bare more than a few minutes.

Necessity is the mother of invention and form follows function. The road to the invention of the mobile phone began with the invention of the telephone, if not the smoke signal.

No one ever watched Star Trek and thought, you know what, I’ll invent the mobile phone. Likewise, the iPad didn’t come along because Picard had one.

The three and half inch floppy disk doesn’t owe its existence to a painted block of wood being pulled from a slot.

Star Trek has been influential, beyond doubt, but inspiring inventions, inventions that are the natural consequence of decades of research and development.

No. That’s a nonsense. If not, why has no one been inspired to build warp drive yet, or teleporters, replicators or sentient androids?

 

[The Wormhole]

If not, why has no one been inspired to build warp drive yet,

I should think the nagging reality that FTL speeds are impossible likely has a part in that.

 

[Butters]

I should think the nagging reality that FTL speeds are impossible likely has a part in that.

Young minds, fresh ideas...

 

[1001001]

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don’t think it’d have a major effect on the level of science and tech available, but I think it would have an effect on consumer demand for technology.

But I think Trek had more impact on making people think we could really solve our cultural problems and grow understanding with our current enemies.

 

[The Old Mixer]

But I think Trek had more impact on making people think we could really solve our cultural problems and grow understanding with our current enemies.

And look how far that's come....

 

[Steven P Bastien]

I'll answer this way. If "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" was never written, would nuclear submarines have been invented? Yes.

Would they have been invented at the same time? Most likely?

Besides, I think what is shown in Star Trek as future technology (meaning of course, only that technology that has now been realized in some form) is not all that impressive. Jules Verne did a better job. A communicator is just a walkie talkie. I had a set of those in the 1970s. Our cell phones are much more than a communicator.

However, the communicator uses sub-space communications, so if we discover a phenomena akin to "sub-space" I will have to eat my words.

 

[sbk1234]

I like to think that in the Star Trek universe, that starting in the late 1960s there was a different science-fiction franchise that began and filled the void left by there being no actual Star Trek series. They could even still call it Star Trek or Galaxy Quest, or whatever. That would have had all the same "influence" as Star Trek.

 

[XCV330]

No. That’s a nonsense. If not, why has no one been inspired to build warp drive yet, or teleporters, replicators or sentient androids?

I'm more impressed that someone has built an impulse drive.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/...rogress-to-great-interstellar-propulsion.html

I like to think that in the Star Trek universe, that starting in the late 1960s there was a different science-fiction franchise that began and filled the void left by there being no actual Star Trek series. They could even still call it Star Trek or Galaxy Quest, or whatever. That would have had all the same "influence" as Star Trek.

Benny wrote it.

Besides, I think what is shown in Star Trek as future technology (meaning of course, only that technology that has now been realized in some form) is not all that impressive. Jules Verne did a better job. A communicator is just a walkie talkie. I had a set of those in the 1970s. Our cell phones are much more than a communicator

Walkie talkies and cell phone networks both were invented by ham radio enthusiasts, many of whom were Trekkers.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

Who didn’t need Star Trek to have the creativity to invent. The ideas were out there long before Star Trek anyway.

 

[Kor]

In the absence of "Star Trek," "Lost in Space" would have become a major media phenomenon, spawning several big-budget motion pictures and a few spinoff TV series.

Kor

 

[DavidFalkayn]

I'm more impressed that someone has built an impulse drive.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/...rogress-to-great-interstellar-propulsion.html


Benny wrote it.


Walkie talkies and cell phone networks both were invented by ham radio enthusiasts, many of whom were Trekkers.

Walkie talkies were invented prior to the Second World War and Hedy Lamar developed much of the electronics technology that made such things as cellular phones possible when she invented wifi and much of spread spectrum technology in the 1940s. Sorry, but Star Trek had little to anything to do with those inventions.

 

[Steven P Bastien]

I’m a professional engineer that was born in the 60s . I’ve never found things that I’ve seen in sci-fi to be critical to inventing or developing anything.

However, I did find sci-fi to be an overall motivation to becoming an engineer. It creates a fascination and interest in science and technology.

I expect I would have been an engineer even without Star Trek because I was taking my transistor radio apart at age four. Still, Star Trek and other sci-fi played a significant role.

 

[DavidFalkayn]

In the absence of "Star Trek," "Lost in Space" would have become a major media phenomenon, spawning several big-budget motion pictures and a few spinoff TV series.

Kor

If it had maintained the tone of first season, Lost in Space might well have been a major phenomenon, but it got campy quick. Time Tunnel or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea might have been other candidates if we're looking at Irwin Allen. Otherwise, perhaps Planet of the Apes.