I’ve been saying for years now that all of this technology is great, but I am holding out for a transporter. Or a replicator.
I was raised with a healthy dose of Star Trek The Original Series. I hated Captain Kirk but loved Bones and Spock.
Then The Next Generation came out and I was to be a Trekkie forever.
I fantasized about being a crew member in the United Federation of Planets, flying around space at impluse warp drive and telling a panel computer, “Earl Grey tea, hot”, and having it materialize before my eyes. I would be transported all over the place in seconds and spend the bulk of my free time in the holodeck.
Never did I once ask for a phaser.
The US government has unveiled a “non-lethal” laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm. But the device will require close scrutiny to ensure compliance with a United Nations protocol on blinding laser weapons.
The Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response (PHASR) rifle was developed at the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico, US, and two prototypes have been delivered to military bases in Texas and Virginia for further testing.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) believes the weapon could be used, for example, to temporarily blind suspects who drive through a roadblock. However, the DoD has yet to reveal details of how the laser works and has yet to respond to New Scientist’s requests for further information.
[Source: NewScientist.com via Slashdot]
I don’t like the idea of my government, or any government for that matter, developing a phaser weapon. You and I both know it will not just be used to deter folks who run roadblocks. Do you think this sort of technology will be available to the general public? You think they’ll allow citizens to run around town, setting their phasers to stun? I think not.
Who knows what sort of “testing” the government will do with these things. But if you’re casually walking around minding your own business and suddenly fall to the ground having lost control of your body, I would suspect you’ve just been shot with a PHASR rifle.
Where the fuck is my transporter?
Ahhh, exactly what we need – more ways to hurt one another!
Well, I certainly feel less dorky for proclaiming I was ready to pay cash money to buy downloads of Star Trek episodes the other day
You’re right, though. It is funny that after full generations of Star Trekky-eyed kids, the only fucking thing we have from those dreams are microwaves with touch-sensitive panels and phasers. No communal sense of ethics or responsibility, no respect for all peoples and all forms of life, and no way to ensure that every woman on the bridge is an alien or at least amply buxom.
OK, so maybe Star Trek isn’t the perfect world, but a lot of the aspirations are still good.
Well said, Chuck. And if anyone wants to call me a dork for liking TNG, there is no shame in my game. I’ll be downloading episodes right with you.
Huge fan myself, although DS9 is my favorite show.
Think the US will embrace the Prime Directive? No, I don’t think so either (Nio using her Betazid telepathy to read Anne’s mind).
I could never get into DS9, myself, although if it was on I would watch it.
Shit, the US can’t even embrace the Kyoto Protocol.