Civilian Life

[Varun]

Hi, I am new on the board, and I'd like to open with a thought of mine. During Star Treks run on TV and from the movies we got an idea as to how Starfleet crews lived in the 22nd, 23rd and 24th centuries, but only glimpses of what life was like for the average citizen of Earth, The Federation or any of the many civilizations throughout the galaxy. This isn't a complaint, of course, I didn't expect a series focued round an average joe in the 2300s but as an exercise in speculating what life could be like in the future, what do you think?

Main things I have considered are politics, economics and transport. For instance, we know any Federation citizen can become president, and the executive branch of the government is based in Paris, but what about local governments/councils/etc. Certain characters in the show seemed to identify with different nations, like Malcolm Reed gave of an impression of being distinctly British. He even spoke of his father being in the Royal Navy. This does imply that not only was there a Navy in the early 2100s, there was a royal family.

This made me think, what if the future Earth depicted in Trek was arranged similar to the EU; everyone has an "United Earth Passport", but they are individual citizens of their home countries, like Picard would be French, Reed would be British and well pretty much everyone else would be American.

While it may seem at first unlikely, I'd like to bring UK as an example, there are four constituent nations, each with their own parliaments, which have say in their own education, health and to a small extent taxes. This is all after 300 years of unification; longer than United Earth had been around in TNG time.

There are other ideas I have to fill out (what I feel are) the gaps in the Star Trek universe, but I shall not go on just now, as I am not sure how interested others are in discussing this as of yet.

 

[wicca coolmom]

Weren't there some episodes of DS9 where Sisko & Jake were on Earth, in New Orleans I think...Sisko's father ran/owned a restaurant? That gave at least a limited glimpse of civilian life.

 

[Anticitizen]

We also got to see Picard's family winery business. Or 'business'. Whatever. Still unclear on what people are working for. Credits, I guess, whatever those are.

 

[Joby]

Explaining civilian life in Trek always seemed like a hard thing to do, because you would have to then do some explaining of the economy of the future or why people work or do anything at all. If replicators can give people anything they need, then what stops civilians from doing nothing but sitting around and drinking illegal cases of Romulan Ale? We are led to believe Sisko's father runs a resturant because that is what he loves, Picard's family has a winery because that is what they love, all for the betterment of society I suppose. But again, you do wonder what options someone graduating from high school in the Trek universe has? Are they encouraged to enlist in Starfleet or pursue a higher education? Or is being the best janitor you can be just as good?

 

[kes7]

Explaining civilian life in Trek always seemed like a hard thing to do, because you would have to then do some explaining of the economy of the future or why people work or do anything at all. If replicators can give people anything they need, then what stops civilians from doing nothing but sitting around and drinking illegal cases of Romulan Ale? We are led to believe Sisko's father runs a resturant because that is what he loves, Picard's family has a winery because that is what they love, all for the betterment of society I suppose. But again, you do wonder what options someone graduating from high school in the Trek universe has? Are they encouraged to enlist in Starfleet or pursue a higher education? Or is being the best janitor you can be just as good?

On this point, STXI made sense -- the police officer was a robot. If a job like that could be performed by a robot, surely janitor, window washer, etc. would also be handled by robots, assuming no sentients wanted to do it. The TV shows never showed this, though.

 

[Orcus]

Surprising no one has mentioned the lack of media (apart from the odd news coverage shown in the film and TV series). I don't ever recall anyone being employed in the film/TV/media industry within the canon thing? Maybe TV and tabloid-type entertainment has died out entirely by the 22nd century? We can but hope...

 

[william]

Well at the end of the 23rd century Microsoft had finally achieved dominance in every economic sector in the world.
To celebrate this ,on the eve of new year 2999 they decided to release their ultimate Windows version called "Windows Vista 3000 : the ultimate experience" , it all went downhill from thereon......

that's why , in the 24th century average Jane and Joe had to live back in a world much like the pre-industrial world.

just my best guess of how the future will look in the 24rd century.

 

[Falcor5]

Surprising no one has mentioned the lack of media (apart from the odd news coverage shown in the film and TV series). I don't ever recall anyone being employed in the film/TV/media industry within the canon thing? Maybe TV and tabloid-type entertainment has died out entirely by the 22nd century? We can but hope...

Ya as you mentioned the media was shown a couple of times. There was a ton of media shown in Generations when Kirk came aboard to help celebrate the launch of the Ent-B. So people must still watch some form of TV? Or maybe its more like the internet?

 

[Deckerd]

Well there are clearly visual media since historical events are shown in this format, with commentary. The return of Voyager was one such, as was [gag] TATV [/gag].

 

[The Badger]

According to DS9's 'Past Tense', a multifunction system called the interface began to replace television in the 2020's, as it combined that medium with internet access and other technologies. TNG's 'The Neutral Zone' refers to TV lasting no longer than the 2040's.

The Federation News Service and the Federation News Network are two known organisations in the Star Trek universe. Both were present at the launch of the Enterprise-B. Jake Sisko worked as a correspondent for the FNS during the Dominion war.

 

[Deckerd]

So we have the 4th Estate, restaurateurs and vintners. What else?

 

[barnaclelapse]

Strippers.

 

[Star Wolf]

Surprising no one has mentioned the lack of media (apart from the odd news coverage shown in the film and TV series). I don't ever recall anyone being employed in the film/TV/media industry within the canon thing? Maybe TV and tabloid-type entertainment has died out entirely by the 22nd century? We can but hope...

Consider how characters reacted upon finding out that Geordi, Barclay and Quark had built holo characters based upon real people. The holo directors are needed to create socially acceptable drama's in the preferred entertainment media.

 

[The Badger]

On this point, STXI made sense -- the police officer was a robot.

Was he? I thought it was just a man wearing some hi tech mask, perhaps with inbuilt video recorder, comms system, etc.

 

[john titor]

It terrible, you're forced to wear one piece baby clothes. You have to join starfleet to retain any sort of dignity.

 

[kes7]

On this point, STXI made sense -- the police officer was a robot.

Was he? I thought it was just a man wearing some hi tech mask, perhaps with inbuilt video recorder, comms system, etc.

You might be right.

 

[bluedana]

Surprising no one has mentioned the lack of media (apart from the odd news coverage shown in the film and TV series). I don't ever recall anyone being employed in the film/TV/media industry within the canon thing? Maybe TV and tabloid-type entertainment has died out entirely by the 22nd century? We can but hope...

At least as of 22nd century, news media (cable or internet or whatever) is still around. Travis Mayweather's kind-of-ex-girlfriend is a reporter in the last 2 ENT episodes, Demons and Terra Prime. I always thought her camera was cool; it was a tiny thing attached to her headset and so wherever she looked, that's what got filmed. We also know that Chinese restaurants are still around in the 2150s.

 

[Kira Nerys]

I would like to have seen an episode on civilian life in ST more than the small glimpses of what we got .

 

[SkySolo]

Hello , I am also new to the board! I have often wondered what civilian life was like.Especially concerning the transport technology. I think it would be something not available to the commoner because as you can imagine it would ruin surprise parties and people’s undies would disappear during lasertag matches and landing who knows where like in someones soup.

 

[alicelouise]

I always had the impression that in the ST verse, Earth was sort of like the EU/USA. There seems to be no racial, national, or religious prejudice on Earth. However, jokes and slurs towards Cardassians, Ferengi, and even Vulcans seem to be commonplace. The human race may have great fellowship only because what they've seen shows that all of their differences in a universal sense are paper thin.

On DS9 the Data Padd seems to be a Kindle type device where you can toggle between domjott games, text, read the latest news, get your daily work assignment, sign contracts, catch up on your great magnum opus of a novel... It probaly is akin to our modern day wallet or handbag. Your life if stored in there.