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Will we still boldly go? By Michael C. Guilmette Jr. Originally published on May 14, 2009, in the Connersville News-Examiner. For more than 40 years, Star Trek has been an iconic part of our culture. Gene Roddenberry’s unique vision of the future has endured since 1967, only being exceeded in longevity by the BBC’s Doctor Who.
This past weekend, I took in Star Trek, the latest movie in that august franchise. The movie, quickly becoming a blockbuster, is intended to tell a story predating the original series, which it did masterfully. Out of respect for anyone who has yet to see the movie, I won’t give anything away. I will say, however, that the story is bold, and J.J. Abrams, the director, will either be one of the most loved or most hated men in all of the Star Trek mythos. But Star Trek has been more than simple entertainment. Aside from turning obscure 1960s actors into typecast stars, the show has helped shape our very culture, and many of Roddenberry’s innovations were practically prophetic. The ubiquitous flip phone, according to its inventor, was inspired by the Star Trek communicator. Virtual reality and other forms of immersive entertainment are similar in principle to the holodeck made popular in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Some scientists have even postulated that warp drive, the show’s fictional faster-than-light technology, may eventually be the technology that allows us to sidestep the light speed barrier and brings is to the stars. Roddenberry’s vision obviously wasn’t entirely accurate, as he vastly underestimated the advance of computer technology. Watching an episode as a teenager in the 1980s, I had to chuckle when William Shatner’s James T. Kirk referred to a 1960s era computer system as something he had seen “in a museum” — at the time, I could have said the same thing. To take it a step further, the venerable Commodore 64 I owned back then is itself eligible to be a museum piece. Regardless of accuracy, Roddenberry’s story shows us what is possible if we unleash our inventiveness and the power of our imagination. But will we aspire to advance, or will we sacrifice our progress to placate our growing sense of entitlement? Last Thursday, the day before Star Trek premiered nationwide, the Associated Press reported that President Barack Obama has ordered a full review of NASA, specifically concentrating on the agency’s planned spacecraft being built to replace the space shuttle — which will be retired next year — and to carry astronauts back to the moon and then on to Mars. Prudence appears to be driving the review. White House science adviser John Holdren said in a letter to NASA that given the moon program’s size, “it would be only prudent for the new Administration to review the array of challenges in the program.” The heart of the Constellation program — the name for NASA exploration program President George W. Bush called for in 2005 — are the Ares rockets. The Ares V is a hybrid of the original Saturn V design and the space shuttle launch system, and if built, it will be the largest heavy-lift rocket built to date. The Ares rockets will also replace the aging space shuttle fleet, which has been in service since 1981. Bush’s ambitious goals would put astronauts on the moon in June 2019, mere days before the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s historic first step onto lunar soil. The Orion 15 mission — Orion being the name of the Apollo-style capsule being built — would be followed by three further missions to the moon planned through 2021. The AP article did not hint at whether cutbacks were on the table, but given Obama’s increasingly massive budget proposal, the possibility of the moon program ending up on the chopping block becomes all the more likely. The sad part in that scenario is many Americans would likely support the move, especially if it was framed as a measure to provide funding for a “single payer” government-rationed health care system. Day after day, we hear about how Americans are entitled to health care and that the government should pay for it — an attitude akin to a children who throw temper tantrums and scream “I didn’t ask to be born!” when their parents don’t give them what they want. Putting that aside, favoring health care over space exploration is fundamentally wrong on a number of fronts. Space exploration has led to numerous discoveries and breakthroughs that have not only increased our understanding of the universe, it has given us many of the tools that we have used to create our modern society. Hundreds of satellites allow us to communicate quickly, directly and inexpensively with others all over the world. Government-rationed health care and programs like it only serve to maintain the status quo — it could even retard our society, since expanding services removes an individual’s incentive to work hard and provide these services for himself. Furthermore, the constitution does not explicitly allow for the government to provide health care, but it does specifically state one of the powers of government is to “promote the progress of science.” Obama paid lip service to science on March 9 when he lifted the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research — a combination of quackery and a thinly veiled attempt to legitimize abortion, and of questionable scientific value. “It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda,” Obama said. President John F. Kennedy said his immortal words on Sept. 12, 1962, that launched this nation toward the moon: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win …” Nearly 50 years later, we find ourselves at a crossroad. Will we continue to accept and demand bread and circuses from the government at the expense of our progress, or will we choose to pursue the hard tasks so that we may boldly go to the stars, and beyond? • Guilmette is managing editor of the News-Examiner. He may be contacted at mguilmette@newsexaminer.com. |
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Copyright © 2009, Michael C. Guilmette Jr. |
Generations have been amazed and inspired by the short-lived series that spawned a franchise including four subsequent television series, an animated series, 11 movies, hundreds of books and legions of dedicated fans.
