The Star Trek Prophecy
Posted on May 30, 2009 by Marcus Burke
The most obvious appeal of Star Trek lies in its anticipation of human technological advancement and in its ability to entertain the dream that along with phasers and transporter beams, we may eventually acquire the secrets of our universe.
And yet the real seductiveness of Star Trek is tied up not with technology, but with its ability to predict the direction in which a new human ethic might eventually evolve: For on board the star ship Enterprise, the crew have conquered not only science but also their darkest fears, banishing feeble-mindedness, superstition and the politics of difference, in favor of logic, common sense and solidarity.
In our fictional future, human integrity has finally caught up with human technology. And although humans, at the dawn of the twenty-first century have already begun to boldly go where no one has gone before, one thing is painfully clear: while our future aboard some warp-capable star ship is almost certainly assured, our destiny as emotionally competent and worthy crew members is far less certain.
With this in mind, the question that should be occupying the minds of both “Trekkies” and philosophers alike in the second Millennium is this:
Will the Human Race succeed in closing the gap between its technological and its ethical development in time for the two to meet seamlessly, as Captain Kirk would have it?
Right now, things don’t look so good.
In his recent devastating indictment on American society, author Chris Hedges notes that a massive chunk of this country has slipped so far into mediocrity that it has literally lost the ability to tell the difference between lies and truth.
“The core values of our open society, the ability to think for oneself, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense indicate something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, to understand historical facts, to separate truth from lies, to advocate for change and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways of being, that are morally and socially acceptable”, are dying, he says.(1)
On almost every subject from global warming to sexual orientation and religion, we are informed by simplistic, childish narratives and cliches that are thrown into confusion by subtelty or the invasion of alternate viewpoints. What’s worse is that even when we recognize the truth, we dare not speak it. We have become an entire nation of people dressed in the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Without clear thinking, the human race is doomed to failure – and the movie Idiocracy hints comically at where our collective future might lay – and it’s not on board the Enterprise.
(1) TruthDig.com – America the Illiterate
Related Posts:
Tags | critical thinking, culture, education, Philosophy, Science
I LOVE Idiocracy. Its so funny, because its so possibly true – possibly, but NOT hopefully. Orlando people need only go to Crash-a-rama at Orlando Speedworld to see Idiocracy in action.
I share Marcus’ love of Star Trek and its vision of the future and I do not share Hedges’ pessimism. To say that our core values are dying implies that once they were more vital. When? When has our society been more open? When has it been less repressive of dissent? When was it more socially integrated and connected to the greater world at large than now?
I think we are freer and more democratic than ever. We can do this, what I’m doing right now, saying what I want to anyone who will care to listen. I have no fear of being an atheist and no fear of reading whatever I want, things that would have got me hanged or burned at the stake just a few generations ago.
When I was a child, television was practically worthless. Now, I have hours of documentaries on everthing from The History of the Universe to A Brief History of Unbelief. I know more about physics, astronomy, chemistry, cosmology, history and philosophy than I did when I graduated college, all from watching excellent programming on cable and reading articles on the internet. Any of my friends now are a thousand times smarter about all sorts of things than all the friends my parents ever had or ever knew.
Yes, there are a tremendous number of ignorant people out there. They have always been there and likely always will. But our numbers are growing steadily. And now there is no Library of Alexandria which can be burned. Knowledge and reason are proliferating at an ever-increasing rate, far beyond the reach of even the most tyrannical North Korean or Iranian dictator. We are living in the greatest time humans have ever witnessed. We just gotta keep our shit together.
Well Pamela, I feel that the only thing that can truly save us is for humanity to simultaneously ditch religion and start living like modern humans. Of course I don’t think this will happen, so the short answer to your question would be no, I don’t think there is time. I think our end is already written, which is a shame. In some senses of course, it doesn’t matter since the sun will eventually explode and wipe us out of the picture anyway, but it would have been nice to know we’d given a better account of ourselves!
Thanks for the introduction to the writing of Chris Hedges, Marcus. I’ve heard the current state of our society compared to declining Rome.
What combination of changes must we make to insure that our civilization doesn’t die? And do you think there’s still time, or is it already too late?