Posted on 05/09/2009 4:53:47 PM PDT by JoeProBono
It takes a certain mix of optimism and frustration to contemplate the possibility of space travel. To dream of navigating the cosmos is to assume that man has the resources and the know-how to propel himself into the heavens, but also some compelling reasons to exchange his home planet for the cold vast unknown. It was these seemingly contradictory impulses that shaped “Star Trek,” the supremely influential science-fiction television series whose three-season run yielded 40 years of sequels and spinoffs including a new feature film about the origins of Kirk and Spock that opened on Friday. Yes, the series is at heart a geeky space epic, but it is also one with a political and historical context.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What do you mean with the 10,000 year reference?
What were the implications of this scene and added graphics?
1. The Star Trek universe made it clear humans did anything that didn’t kill them first. Vulcans didn’t make lots of mixed-breeds. Or create a lot of colonies that I saw in that universe. Thus humanoids expanded and bred far more compared to Vulcans.
2. The Federation was probably held together by human Rishathra (to borrow from Larry Niven). Which added human DNA even to alien gene pools, making them all “human-oid”.
Wasting money on space exploration at this time is crazy. We have more than enough terrestrial problems to deal with and not enough resources or brainpower. Maybe, just maybe, if we last 10,000 more years we can go fooling around in space. It’ll take that long to solve the distance travel and we might have the funding for something irrelevant to life on earth. In short, space travel is the province of SF.
Like this one. Where did the Mayans go? How much gold did it cost them?
Implications of this scene?
IMO, if we don’t get some of our eggs into an extraterrestrial basket we won’t be around in 10,000 years.
What are the doing in the picture?
Fine. When you can demonstrate to me that we’ve solved anything on this planet by way of government, we’ll discuss planetary travel and/or migration.
Check post #29.
IMF, the earth WILL be destroyed, and remade as it was intended to be at creation.
Really no need to worry about the “eggs in one basket”...
Because if my faith isn’t true, there isn’t even a point to humans existing another 10,000 years.
Several lines of thought.
The first is, that all science fiction is a reflection of the times in which it was written. However, at the time Star Trek was made, there were some interesting contradictions about the direction it would take.
To start with, Star Trek had to compete with different visions of space and science fiction on TV, that predated and ran consecutively with it, such as Lost In Space (the space version of the Swiss Family Robinson), My Favorite Martian, The Invaders, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
For its part, Star Trek was supposed to be the space version of the western Wagon Train, but that idea didn’t last long. And fortunately, they moved away from “the monster of the week” with some pretty substantial science fiction writing. This was essential on the heels of The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits, which took science fiction writing into the stratosphere. Many of the actors used, however, were well known in other western dramas of the time.
And a year or so into production, Desilu Studios was sold by Lucille Ball to Paramount Television, which substantially changed the program’s direction and vision.
The strange idea of adult oriented science fiction was a hard sell, as it was still seen as a children’s and adolescent’s genre. And the ham-fisted efforts to incorporate blunt social themes was just as uncomfortable then as it appears today.
However, it captivated an audience segment that has never been duplicated. It became the single greatest impulse into the study of engineering ever devised, and most engineers working today trace their inspiration from that show and its influence on them.
Another reason to avoid this cult!
Which picture?
This episode always made me observe that these people must not have discovered mirrors.
Wow, what a dumbass...
racism? where? who’s being affected by it (besides whites, these days)?
and war? We’ll eliminate that when we lay down and let the next tyrant just take over instead of fighting back.
Has to be a lib to be this much of a dumbass.
We will always have problems. Good thing those who explored the new world did not wait until their societies were perfect before coming.
Societies that expend energy and capital exploring and exploiting frontiers aren't spending energy and capital on social engineering and nanny states.
That’s just dandy for you.
I assume you don’t object to the rest of us taking appropriate steps to deal with the very real possibility of a dinosaur killer?
Well it does seem to give employment to a lot of criminals!
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