I should start right off by telling you I am not a Trekkie. Or a Trekker; however, some might make the argument -- rightly, perhaps -- that the fact that I know what these terms mean suggests that I am both. At any rate, what brought me down this particular road was a comment that a friend of mine made on Facebook, when she said, "I know it's old economy, but I really enjoy buying magazines and books that can be held in my hands, not just on my iPad."
I was one of those many earnest people who responded with my agreement. I made some overly-precious remark about how much I'll miss being surrounded by books in bookshelves in "The Future." That's when I flashed on Star Trek: The Next Generation and realized that Captain Picard had a Kindle long before it was invented. I remembered the way a young actor in a red shirt would come officiously onto the bridge with a little plastic rectangle, hand it to Picard who would tap it a couple of times before handing it back to the extra and getting back to his captainly duties. Paperless society. No books. Just Kindles, or whatever they called those plastic rectangles.
Then I remembered a visit I had recently to a middle school in Fort Worth that is using their grant money to shore up their science department with technology. They bought a classroom set of these really cool probes that can help the kids find everything from heart rates to air temperature to barometric pressure. "It's a freaking tricorder, I thought." Those Star Trek writers foresaw this device, too.
Remember how ridiculous you thought it was that in the Star Trek future every individual would be packing a little hand-held communicator that flipped open? Hello? Look around.
The only error they made on Star Trek is that you never see anyone walking in the background talking on their cell phones, er, I mean "communicators."
And finally there's the lovely Lieutenant Uhura, who had everyone beat. Back in the mid 1960's, and check out what she's rocking. Yep: It's a Bluetooth.
i guess this shows just how futile predicting, even depicting, "the future" can be. Star Trek TOS (the original series) 1966-69 is set in the mid-23rd century, almost three centuries from "now", and yet the various gadgets in your blogpost, Dan, (as well as others you didn't mention like "teleportation" "cloaking" "shuttle crafts" "medical scans" ...) are already here in the late 20th / early 21st century. "the future" centuries on is bound to be stranger than we can imagine and, i doubt, no where nearly as romantic as this quintessentially "60s" vision that made a proud "Trekkie"-nerd of me back in the day. (btw, i attended the first "Star Trek Convention" in NYC back in '72 or '73!) there are moments i wish i could feel the naive wonder again of immersing myself in that optimistic, heroic 23rd century of "starships" "utopian federations" "a galaxy of alien races" using "universal translators" etc ... the present is already stranger than we'd expected just several years ago -- i suppose in tech-driven societies it always will be thus -- so certaintly the near future, and even more so further futures, are bound to be mostly unrecognizable in our terms.
ReplyDeletekids today are so tech-savvy but seems so hand-me-down cynical & world-weary. their "final frontiers" are becoming more and more virtual & context/relationship-free, or so it seems to old farts like me (us). i'm not so myopic or lazy to blame any one thing (e.g. rampant corporatism, overwhelmed/set up to fail schools, burnt-out teachers, broken-breaking/negligent families, pervasive porn, gambling & drugs, 24/7 plugged-in/video-gaming culture, etc) but doesn't it seem like contemporary society is discouraging children from speculating on wider, distant "possible worlds", that kids today more than ever are conforming to "cool" instead in order to avoid even the appearance of being NERDs who dare to wonder or GEEKs who dare to work at bringing about those wonders? have we old farts made the world too "cool" for young people to thoughtfully consider the (literary, scientific, humanistic) prospect "to boldly go where no man has gone before"?
as an educator maybe you can give me less reason to be pessimistic; maybe, Dan, you can blog about those things in the lives of students/youth today that give them occasions of truly felt wonder.
All intriguing points, sir, and things I've considered at one time or another. As for the state of today's youth, I'm sad to say that I'm a few degrees removed from knowing what they're thinking/doing these days. No longer in the classroom and only a monthly visitor. (Brings up an odd metaphor, doesn't it?)
ReplyDeleteI will say, though, that I may have some encouraging news, based on the young people with whom I am in touch, via Facebook. They fit that "plugged in" profile; yet, since graduating high school, they have gone on to have productive college careers, and now do work that is eminently "social," i.e. educators, film-makers, visual artists, club deejays, stand-up comedians -- all the things we've always loved, and needed, to keep our society moving and vital.
I'm the yin to your yang, brother. I am the eternal optimist. Yes, they spend more time in the virtual world than we do, but they appear able -- at least at first glance -- to live in both worlds. To employ one of my favorite sociology terms (because my students do it so well), they are "bi-culturally competent," in both the real, social realm, and that escapist, "second-life" space that is The Interweb....
So be encouraged, my friend. All is not lost.