I remember when Star Trek: The Next Generation, aka the best Star Trek, came out. First season. Hated Riker right off the bat although he later grew on me, especially in the “Riker goes nuts” episode, and I thought Data was just a cheesy update of Spock, which he was, but he grew on me, too. I didn’t like Geordie LaForge and his stupid glasses, and that bias remained for the length of the show, even though we see, with Google Glasses and their imitators, that the science was not far off. I liked the idea of an old, bald guy as Captain, approved of the upgrade in Klingon makeup, and accepted the made up version of human history which had led Humans and Klingons being on the same side. It’s not like there’s any shortage of villains out there.
This could be the start of a beautiful friendship
But, it was some of the new, high-tech gadgetry that impressed me the most. Specifically, the holodeck. Remember? It was a bare room. It was a Wii, with lamer graphics. But that was back before Wii, so nobody knew they were lame graphics. I was totally knocked out.
However, by the 2nd season, everybody knew that computer technology was overtaking the show, and they gave the holodeck a makeover, turning it into a full immersion experience and an excellent plot device when you want to have star fleet officers prancing around in18th century France, with fully inter-reactive characters. I didn’t blame the writers for the sudden, unexplained change. As fast as technology is changing in our century, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t change equally fast 400 years from now.
Which brings us to this article.
Wow!
This is one of those technological developments, like anti-gravity or time travel, that I never expected to see happen. (I’m still holding out hope for contact with extra-terrestrials, and immortality) A Dolphin to Human translator! So far, they’ve only got about 8 words, but it’s a start. In a few years, we’ll be able to say “Hey, Dolphins, we’ve got a missing plane, any idea where it’s at?” and the dolphins will say “How about first you stop killing and eating us,” and we will have the beginnings of negotiations.
If we can communicate, in language, to another species on Earth, we will some day be able to communicate with species from other planets.
www.gurukalehuru.com 