Like many kids, I grew up watching Star Trek. I was fascinated by the gizmos, cultures, and general Star Trek universe. I even grew up to be a liberal-techno-geek-archaeologist. Pretty much livin’ the Star Trek way. I was also a fan of Next Generation and Voyager, but I never really liked Deep Space Nine, as it broke the cardinal rule. They rarely went where no Man (or one) has gone before. They stayed on that silly station and fought border wars. It was a little too like the real world and the conflicts in the Mideast for my taste.
Anyway, back to my “point”. I am known to often comment on how much our lives these days are like Star Trek. Beyond my personal techno-anthro-liberal lifestyle, I have noticed how much of our daily life was but a fantasy back in the days of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Let’s consider a few of the obvious points in common…
1.. The communicator – Flips up, wireless, beeps, and can transmit your location. Sounds a lot like most cell phones with GPS. The Next Generation pin-on communicators look just like Bluetooth headsets!
2. The Tri-corder – These varied in size and shape, but we now have portable heart-rate monitors, breathalyzers, and blood sugar monitors. Medicine is all about the small and portable these days.
3. Data Pads – Amazon Kindle anyone? Laptops? Yeah, they’re everywhere.
4. Holodecks – We have all sorts of virtual worlds to explore these days. Be it with special goggles, giant movie screens, or even your Wii, we are not limited to living in reality anymore. The characters even interact with you just like on the holodeck.
5. Viewscreens – Flat Panel T.V.s work just like them. You can even hook your laptop and webcam up to them and speak to someone across the galaxy… uh well, maybe only the world.
6. Weapons - Nuff said. We can zap anyone anywhere these days.
So… those are my random thoughts of the moment. Feel free to comment or add your own real life parallels to science fiction.
And… if you don’t agree with my points, well, “Damnit Jim, I’m a blogger not editorialist.”
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