Star Trek IV: Changes in the World since 1986

[TheGoodNews]

Interesting how the world of 1986 appeared to Kirk & Co.

1) Cold war tension between US and Russia.
2) People still relying mostly on newspapers for their info.
3) Few people with mobile communicators.
4) Society was "still using money."
5) Cranial surgery was shockingly crude.

Now, 26+ years later.

1) USSR is gone.
2) More and more papers and newsmagazines going online. I think Newsweek was the latest.
3) Smart phones everywhere.
4) Timebanks, which don't use money, are popular globally.
5) MRI scans are now standard practice. And a 3D printer was used a year ago to make an artificial jaw for an elderly woman.

I wonder what we will see in another 26+ years?

 

[Nerys Myk]

Isn't the "world of 1986" pretty much our world as it was in 1986?

 

[Melakon]

I wonder what we will see in another 26+ years?

The United States will start paying for its bases in the United Kingdom.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, the Lunar Colonies will be established on Earth's moon.

 

[F. King Daniel]

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, the Lunar Colonies will be established on Earth's moon.

According to the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1980), that was in 2005

 

[General_Phoenix]

If they emerged from time travel in say.... 2006, their communicators wouldn't really seem all that out of place with all the cellphones out there. If they were in our current time, the iPads and tablets out there would seem of higher tech than some of the things we saw on TOS, and more on par with TNG tech.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, the Lunar Colonies will be established on Earth's moon.

Hence the name, LUNAR Colonies.

 

[jayrath]

The Eugenics War is finally over. Thank goodness! Now we can get on to the Post-Atomic Horror.

 

[Metryq]

The Eugenics War is finally over. Thank goodness! Now we can get on to the Post-Atomic Horror.

Meanwhile, "the Crazy Years" from Heinlein's Future History seem to drag on and on. Or perhaps we're into the Interregnum of the Prophet now...

 

[SchwEnt]

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, the Lunar Colonies will be established on Earth's moon.

According to the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1980), that was in 2005

^^^ Goddard Moonbase in 1998, Farside Moonbase in 2004, Marsbase 1 in 2012

 

[InklingStar]

"Are you a doctor?"

 

[t_smitts]

In another decade or so, we can expect the Federal Employment Act to be repealed and the homeless and unemployed to be relocated to Sanctuary Districts. "It's the only way to keep those... people... off the streets."

 

[T'Girl]

double post

 

[T'Girl]

In the year 2024, there is a Pan-Caribbean government.

There are student protests in France.

The French government's (majority?) would appear to be the Neo-Trotskyists, prior to them there were the Gaullists.

... and the homeless and unemployed to be relocated to Sanctuary Districts

My impression of the episode Past Tense was that simply being unemployed in of itself would not get you placed in a sanctuary district.

 

[Melakon]

According to Star Trek: Star Charts, the Lunar Colonies will be established on Earth's moon.

According to the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (1980), that was in 2005

^^^ Goddard Moonbase in 1998, Farside Moonbase in 2004, Marsbase 1 in 2012

I'm still wondering why the moon wasn't blasted out of orbit on 13 September 1999

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Good thing it wasn't...because if that really had happened the Moon would have crashed INTO Earth and destroyed us

 

[Metryq]

^^^ Goddard Moonbase in 1998, Farside Moonbase in 2004, Marsbase 1 in 2012

Or first moon landing in 1963, Mars by 1968... Man Conquers Space

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NGgccfSi-k[/yt]

^ Good thing it wasn't...because if that really had happened the Moon would have crashed INTO Earth and destroyed us

All we know is that the waste dumps were on "farside" (incorrectly called "Dark Side" in the opening scene). If just over the limb on the correct side, the Moon might have taken off on a tangent. Dead center on farside and the Moon might have dove inward, grazing Earth. Just over the limb on the other side, well, the Moon might have spiraled in and crashed into Earth. But then the show would have ended right there.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ In any case, I would think that the loss of the Moon would do to Earth exactly what a later episode of S1999 said it did: destroy it via climate alteration (i.e. the loss of tidal forces generated by the Moon's presence).

 

[davejames]

If they emerged from time travel in say.... 2006, their communicators wouldn't really seem all that out of place with all the cellphones out there. If they were in our current time, the iPads and tablets out there would seem of higher tech than some of the things we saw on TOS, and more on par with TNG tech.

Ha, so true. Our gadgets and technology would have probably looked FAR flashier and more advanced than anything Kirk's crew was using in that movie.

Save of course for the transporters and warp drive.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I have a friend who is younger than me and was born in 1986. I got him to watch The Voyage Home recently and he said he absolutely loved it. Said it was a wonderful film. Apparently, if anything about it seemed dated, it didn't affect his enjoyment at all!