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Star Trek

In the daunting arena of space exploration, there is a tendency to wonder where the path that humankind is taking will lead us. Does the future hold the promise of fantastic new technologies that will be used peacefully for the benefit of humankind? Or will those technologies end up in the hands of a society that is not mature enough to wield power responsibly? The Star Trek television series and movies conceived by Gene Roddenberry participate in this debate by providing an optimistic view of humans in the future. In Star Trek's version of history, humankind achieved an end to war, poverty, and disease on Earth shortly after the invention of warp technology, the principle that made it possible to travel faster than light.

Throughout history, people have built bigger and better telescopes and seen farther into the universe, but despite all of these exploration attempts, humankind has not made contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. People look into the night sky and wonder whether there are other civilizations out there. If there are, the vast distances between worlds make it seem unlikely that it will ever be possible to interact with those civilizations. Since Albert Einstein's theories suggest that it is impossible for a person to accelerate to the speed of light, it would take hundreds to thousands of years for people on a spacecraft to reach a planet in another star system by conventional means.

The warp technology of Star Trek, however, allows a spacecraft and its inhabitants to travel many times faster than light by moving through subspace, a theoretical parallel universe in which Einstein's theories do not apply. In a matter of hours or days it is possible to travel from one star system to another by creating a warp field that allows a spacecraft to slip into subspace. With the immense distances between civilizations no longer an issue, humans on Star Trek interact within a universe populated by an array of alien species.

The success of the Star Trek series and movies reflects genuine public interest in humankind's future in space. The writers added realism by weaving plausible scientific theories into the fabric of the Star Trek universe. The technologies behind the warp engine-powered starship, wormholes (theoretical bridges between two points in space), and transporters (devices that can convert matter to energy and vice versa) are all based on scientific theories. For this reason, it is natural for the audience to view these things as believable future manifestations of today's science.

Another key to Star Trek's appeal is that it presents such an optimistic view of human society's future. It shows a world in which humans are no longer at war with each other. Food, resources, and transportation are available at the touch of a keypad. This hopeful portrayal shows a human civilization that has survived its technological adolescence, matured, and been enriched by alien cultures, one that thrives in a well-populated intergalactic neighborhood.