Star Trek: "Computer, turn on the lights" "Unable to comply"
Real world
Real world
Strange Real World
- Thread starter Arpy
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I like aspirational future, but would much rather Trek fans try to do it in the real world.
I don't know. I grew up being told the world was ending at every turn (I remember the Berlin Wall coming down and my parents wondering what that would mean, various wars, and y2K, among others). Yet, we have, as a humanity, increased access to information, a downturn in poverty across several countries (per worldbank statistics), and increase access to clean water sources.
Yeah, we have problems; of course we do. But there is that optimism for me because we are seeing, like in Star Trek, technology used to further humanity's growth. Is it perfect? No. Do we have ongoing wars and challenges? Absolutely. But, I am less pessimistic about the future than I was 20 years ago.
Not so sure I'd want the voice-activated replicator.
<Me, standing for replicator during work break> Computer, one coke zero please
<Coworker behind me> ... mixed equal parts with tomato juice!
<Me, standing for replicator during work break> Computer, one coke zero please
<Coworker behind me> ... mixed equal parts with tomato juice!
"Single sonic source mode activated."
So? Giving up is not much of a better option.
Eh, I do think a lot of people get away with it. Hell, whole countries get away with it. How many genocides have there been since 1946? And yet there's a lot that they don't. Many go to prison, many others don't ever do a thing that would send them there. Some invent longer lasting lightbulbs or rockets to Mars or have families or make Star Trek art that ignites the imagination. It's all an awe-inspiring soup. And in it there's you and me and my friend Moe, and it's pretty great. There's that Kennedy line about the Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times." I suppose we do, but let's make the most of it. My suspicion is that for all the awful that will happen there'll also be most people just living their lives. Looking at the difference in the world between 1900 and 2000, I think the world of 2100 will be more astonishing still. Technology evolves exponentially. It's on us to carve out our little corner of it and enjoy it all.
I wrote the following in another thread here recently:
I wrote the following in another thread here recently:
This century doesn’t end without AI, fusion power plants, a base on Mars, cures for many cancers, robots, nanotechnology, and maybe quantum computing. Any one of those would be game changers and yet I think they all happen. The onus will be on us to coexist, to find balance and bliss in a world unmoored from outdated prediction.
...
Shatner famously said Get a Life. I think those of us that do are the ones able to weather the chaos and will be the ones there for, well, the Human Adventure just beginning.
...
Shatner famously said Get a Life. I think those of us that do are the ones able to weather the chaos and will be the ones there for, well, the Human Adventure just beginning.
I am in neither camp, some things will inspire tech improvements e.g the communicator = our mobile phones, but they still don't have video links on their comms which looks silly now.
As for humanity improving socially and cuturally seems to boil down to the rest of the world becoming an overseas version of a Westen Utopia (or a Utopian verison of the USA) which seems a touch arrogant to me.
For me its just an entertaining TV show, that I like to talk about. Nothing more, nothing less.
Edited to add I agree with Trek lore that the only way humanity gets over itself, is after its almost nuked itself out of existence and aliens turn up.
But as long as humans keep electing Trump/Johnson/Putin/Netanyahu like politicians, we deserve what we get because this is the Mirror Universe
As for humanity improving socially and cuturally seems to boil down to the rest of the world becoming an overseas version of a Westen Utopia (or a Utopian verison of the USA) which seems a touch arrogant to me.
For me its just an entertaining TV show, that I like to talk about. Nothing more, nothing less.
Edited to add I agree with Trek lore that the only way humanity gets over itself, is after its almost nuked itself out of existence and aliens turn up.
But as long as humans keep electing Trump/Johnson/Putin/Netanyahu like politicians, we deserve what we get because this is the Mirror Universe
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I wonder what Star Trek would have looked like, had it been produced by any other nation, say, the Japanese.
(I mean, except for the obvious stuff, such as there being a lot of Japanese in the future).
It would have been about the dangers of the photon torpedo and an attack by a giant Gorn….in the sequel it would face a giant Mugatu.
Exactly so.
What I find very, very amusing is the huge memory capacity of padds as stated in the technical manuals and also Tricorders you'd think they could put all their work on one single padd instead of multiple devices if they have huge internal memories. I find that amusing and rather short sighted.
Ah yes, the great Cylonian Jihad of the 2050’s.
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I worry about the neuralink technology mentioned on page one. It comes dangerously close to us being species 227(or whichever) and the quadriplegics being the first generation of the Borg.
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