Living the Star Trek life

I saw the new Star Trek movie in its limited release on May 7, and enjoyed it a lot (although I did think giving the Enterprise the new hull number NCC-90210 was a bit much).

Anyway, the movie includes scenes set in Iowa, which got me thinking about what life is like for the average person in the Federation of Planets. I think it probably isn't very different from life here on our Earth.

(Credit: Paramount Pictures)

For example, we don't have warp drives, transporters, food replicators, or phasers, but I don't think these are part of the daily life of the average citizen of the Federation either.

In the new movie, I was struck by several scenes in which the technology of the mid-23rd century seemed to be markedly behind our own. I assume these anachronisms were considered essential for consistency with the various Star Trek television series, but I think this movie could have provided a good opportunity to retcon these awkward precedents and make Star Trek seem more futuristic to today's audiences.

But no. Today we have cellphones the size of Zippo lighters, whereas in 250 years, communicators-- even for intraship communication, as shown in the new movie-- will be larger, and somehow they will lose any kind of display screen.

Indeed, Lt. Uhura sometimes wears the trademark huge circular-finned earpiece from the original series, though most characters get to wear something much more like today's Bluetooth headsets.

In another scene in the movie, a courier delivers a message to a senior Starfleet officer by carrying to him-- likely over a significant distance-- a large electronic clipboard. We've had Short Message Service support on cellphones for over ten years! If you've seen the original Star Trek series, you've seen these clipboards-- Yeoman Rand used to bring them to Captain Kirk on the bridge.

These clipboards-- also known in the Star Trek universe as data slates, or most commonly, Personal Access Display Devices (PADDs)-- shrank over the years; by the 24th century, they were down to the size they are today.

The engineering areas of various Starfleet facilities and even the new Enterprise were even worse; some of those scenes could have been filmed in a 19th-century boiler room (or maybe brewery) with a new coat of paint.

I also noticed a very futuristic forklift truck in the movie, but it turns out that too (the exact product) is an early 21st-century product.

But generally, life in the Federation does seem to be much more relaxed than life on our Earth, and technology presumably plays a role in that, even if it's usually behind the scenes. I wouldn't mind living there.

Actually, there are the occasional planet-shattering alien attacks. I wouldn't like those. Maybe I'd be happier somewhere I can combine 21st-century technology with a mellow 23rd-century lifestyle, like Marin County.

[rshelton3000]

As far as the communicator is concerned you have to take into account that it can communicate over vast distances, through solid rock, with clear reception, and fairly instantaneously. None of these things are possible with our current cell phone technology.

The PADD I would assume could be encrypted, locked to a DNA sequence, extremely durable, hold thousands of terrabytes of information, and have the computing power of today's supercomputers.

So, no, I don't see any problem with the 'backward' technology found in the movie.

[Peter N. Glaskowsky]

Yes, I thought about the subspace-related issues for the communicator, but as I said, they were using communicators in the movie to talk within the ship. Also, there were actual radio antennas on the bridge! Several of them.

Remember, PADDs are used mostly as just "data display" devices. If they have any computing power, it usually isn't used. Today's tablet PCs can be encrypted, locked to a fingerprint, durable, hold half a terabyte of information, and have the computing power of 1993 supercomputers. That's pretty good, isn't it? Certainly on track to surpass any PADD functionality long before the end of the century...

Anyway, thanks for the comment. :-)

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[E6ajc]

I agree. Marin is where it's at! Plus, technically Starfleet Academy is located in Marin (Fort Baker). So there you go.

[Been_there_Saw_it_before]

Reminds me of a magazine article about 20 years ago reporting on the short-term and long-term projections made 10 and 20 years before. The optomistic short-term (five-year) projections all were nowhere ready, they were taking about ten years. The long-term (20 or more years) were actually ready in about ten years.

The result seems to be that predicting the future is no better than rolling the dice. When Star Trek was launched in 1966 it was considered too far out to be believable. Uhura's earpiece had to be big enough to see on the small screen, and the transporter was concocted as a time saving device; shuttle craft were too slow.

Also, consider the audience; old old movies had elevators, but the people were always shown getting on, the floor indicator moving, and the people getting off. Now the elevator is not even shown, the people walk in off the street, talk to the receptionist, and magically appear in Mr. Big's office on the 50th floor without the benefit of an elevator.