Star Trek: Mankind�s Never Ending Guide to the Future
Throughout the years of television, writers have depicted the future through science fiction inaccurately. Most of the stories involved monsters or aliens trying to take over the world, but this was highly inaccurate. But, in 1966, a show called Star Trek demonstrated an optimal view of the future, one that was believable. Unlike all the other science fiction shows, there were many technologies and ideas that, although beyond our comprehension at the time, did predict the future with an amazing amount of accuracy. The original series only lasted three short seasons, but the values, the morals, and the new technologies learned will be around for generations. Through all the seemingly far-fetched technologies and moral values, Star Trek did indeed predict the future with an extreme amount of accuracy.
Although some of the technology and theories portrayed in Star Trek seemed absurd, it did indeed predict the present day technology and science. For example, the communicators used by Captain Kirk and company, which transmitted messages on subspace, look almost exactly like flip-phones being used today. Despite the fact we don�t transmit information in subspace, the communicators look much like some of the phones that are commonplace today. Star Trek was right on the money with desktop computers. The desktop computers in Mr. Scott�s quarters look exactly like we what see every day at school. In the late �60�s the computers used were enormous. But now, just as Star Trek predicted, the computers seen now are much smaller and compact, even though this isn�t the 23rd century. All the computers that you can find either very much resemble the computers in Star Trek, or they look exactly like those computers. Another example of Treknology predicting the future is the diskettes on Star Trek. They look like a slightly larger, less compact form of disks we use now. Now we are using CD Roms , but Star Trek also predicted the use of those. The CD Rom was a more far off idea than the disks because the disks also resembled A-Tracks. But the CD did accurately predict the future. Another one of the many technologies depicted is military stealth technology. The Romulan and Klingon cloaking devices demonstrated this well. The famous (or infamous) Bird-of-Prey and Spock�s famous �gas� quote in Star Trek VI showed that there would be weaknesses in such a technology, which accurately predicted our stealth technology. In summary, although preposterous at the time, many of the technologies depicted in Star Trek are commonplace today.
Star Trek also came up with ideas and morals about humans advancing and having to make peace if humanity is to even make it out of the twentieth century. An excellent example of this is the many dealings the Federation had with the Klingons. The Klingons were much like the Russians were to us at that time. Just as in our Cold War, they posed a threat but didn�t attack as much as they could have. The Organian Peace Treaty and Star Trek VI showed that we would eventually have to make peace with the Russians whether we were forced to or not. Star Trek, especially in its movies, demonstrated that we would have to overcome our prejudices if we are to make peace and succeed in the future. Spock was prejudiced towards Valeris because of her accomplishments as a Vulcan, and Kirk was against the Klingons because of the death of his son. Yet, they both learned to overcome those feelings and prejudices, which is what we had to do and did do with the Russians. And, just as Star Trek predicted, we are working with them on such projects as docking with their space stations. We did overcome many of our difficulties at the time, and we did work together to better the quality of life.
Star Trek was the most influential show of the �60�s. It stood for sticking to one�s ideals, morals, and increasing the quality of life. It also helped in the technological areas. Now, in the three spinoffs of Star Trek, writers are introducing such ideas as isolinear chips and bio-neural circuitry . Although the three dimensional data storage of isolinear chips and faster processing in bio-neural gel packs may seem unbelievable, it may not be far off. We thought the same thing of electronic note pads and desktop computers thirty years ago, but look at where we are now. It isn�t as far off as it might seem. We now know and agree that we have to stick to our ideals and forget our prejudices if we are going to succeed as a whole. Star Trek accurately showed that to us. This was because of Gene Roddenberry�s pure idealism and ingenious ideas. So, let us improve our ideas, values, and technologies, �Seek out new life forms and new civilizations,� and, �Boldly go where no man, where no one, has gone before.�