I've always admired the morale fiber of the original characters, it's one of the things causing me to be a fan of the series but most people, and this may be why original Trek had such a limited following, (compared to other shows) most people do not believe their near perfect personas were realistic.
Does anyone here honestly believe we're really going to evolve into a species like that? I used to hope so but hey, I faced facts, (thanks to the internet ;-) things are not getting better. Nutrek says to me, and most of the "new" fans, we're going to make it to the future but Human Nature is what it is and will continue to be so.
Original Trek was eventually labeled "The Human Adventure". Bullcrap. I see now that those characters were only barely human. They did exhibit a few human characteristics but really, were they as Human as Nutrek characters? McCoy excepted, I think not. I do think the Nucharacter flaws are big percentage of why so many more of the general population has embraced NuTrek.
This is a difficult question, but its actually not as clear cut as you believe...it amazes me how people who are sci fi fans and supposedly forward thinking generally seem to be the most ignorant or resistant to the actual future, so to this end, let me suggest to you the myth of the past as a golden age and the "fact" the the future cannot be anything like Star Trek...in fact, we are likely to greatly surpass Star Trek in all its forms...it will just not take the path we thought!
First let me start off by saying this
could go either way, but I'm seeing the increasing likelihood of the singularity approaching all the time...to many the
Singularity means the end of everything as we know it(well it is..)--its is when machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence, and the resulting flood of change and information is too much for un-enhanced humans brains to digest. But instead of the machines advancing and eliminating or ignoring us (
Hans Marovec), what if we humans begin the rapid advance to
Transhumanism, and eventually supplant the machines, even without conflict....simply out-evolve them? While for some, the resulting version of humanity would not be humanity by the simplest definition, I see no reason this type of AI/humanity wouldn't be more enlightened than previous versions brought forth by natural evolution. One might say the exponential result of our accelerated evolution is the greatest accomplishment of mankind.
As for all the problems facing the current world or even the following transhuman transition period? Well frankly, we are the the most evolved, wealthiest, peaceful we have ever been, the Blade Runneresque future is fine for fiction and cautionary tales but a myth. We have tremendous problems, but there is no reason to assume they can't be solved with any number of human derived solutions, many of which we already know about. Some examples:
Most peaceful time in history
War..think again
Steve Pinker
Greatest numbers you've ever seen
Beaming solar power
Generation IV reactors
Fusion before 2035
Nanotech for environmental cleanup
Smart matter, post singularity
As for the characters, you claim evolved social humans are not human? How ridiculous!! We aspire to be like them but if we reach it we aren't "human"? The humans in ST are improved but not perfect, striving for improvement and showing social differences is ST what is about, its what makes the show different from the other shows that assume we can advance and stay exactly the same. You might say that making commentary about our times from that perspective is more imaginative and creative than arguing it from dystopia.
RAMA
