The conscious denial of the Melville template continues throughout the films. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, with its whale motif, avoids any Moby Dick references except a silly question from a clueless tourist at the Cetacean Institute (although D. H. Lawrence, who is quoted, wrote on the literary merits of Moby Dick). In Star Trek: First Contact, Picard makes the clear choice to abandon Ahab’s path while quoting him. Rather than, like Khan, blindly following a literary framework, Picard makes the choice to learn from literature and to choose to do better than its characters do.13
This optimistic choice illustrates, perhaps better than anything else, why these historic texts are included in the world of Star Trek. Like the Great Books, Star Trek invites us to take part in “humanity’s great conversation about the most important questions in life [on] subjects such as the existence of God, the nature of love and justice, the possibility of immortality, the achievement of freedom.”14 Every Star Trek crew looks like an illustration of diversity in motion, yet many of the books that remain relevant in the hands of crewmembers of different races, genders, and even species are those of the Western canon, the Great Books, written by the notorious dead Europeans, who despite their whiteness and their maleness, seem to have something to say to everyone: “We need the provocative questions, images, and debates provided by the Great Books, for in these, as in nothing else, we are free to experience what is essential to our lives . . . they also teach us something about genuine and thoughtful human existence.”15 Like the Great Books, Star Trek asks those questions, promotes those debates, and makes us all, even the Klingons, a little more human.
Notes
1. Some such studies are by David Reinheimer, “Ontological and Ethical Allusion: Shakespeare in The Next Generation,”Extrapolation 36, no. 1 (1995): 46–54; Larry Kreitzer, “The Cultural Veneer of Star Trek,” Journal of Popular Culture 30, no. 2 (Fall 1996): 1–28; and the numerous entries for specific authors at the Star Trek wiki, Memory Alpha, http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Category:Authors.
2. See Krietzer, “The Cultural Veneer of Star Trek.”
3. Technically, Lewis claimed that the minority of readers, those who read great works, “will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life.” C. S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism (London: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 2. By extension, the great works are those that can engage readers on multiple reads.
4. “To the Memory of My Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare, and What He Hath Left Us,” in The Harvard Classics: Vol. 40, English Poetry from Chaucer to Gray, ed. Charles W. Eliot (New York: P. F. Collier and Son, 1910), 308–310.
5. For a meticulous analysis of Captain Picard’s Shakespeare books, including to which page the edition under glass is turned in specific episodes, see “Picard’s Shakespeare Books,” by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider at Ex Astris Scientia, http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/shakespeare_books.htm.
6. Leslie S. Klinger, “The World of Sherlock Holmes,” in The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (London: W. W. Norton, 2005), xxxii.
7. Robert McCrum, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil, The Story of English (New York: Viking, 1986), 99.
8. Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (New York: Riverhead Books, 1998), 17.
9. Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (New York: Signet, 1980), 13.
10. John Granger, Harry Potter’s Bookshelf: The Great Books behind the Hogwarts Adventures (New York: Berkley, 2009), 246.
11. “Milton,” in Paradise Lost, ed. Scott Elledge (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 504.
12. Denham Sutcliffe, ed., “Afterword,” in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (New York: Signet Classic, 1980), 541.
13. Ironically, in the 1980 CBS miniseries A Tale of Two Cities, Lucie Manette, for whose love Sydney Carton goes to the guillotine, was played by Alice Krige, who went on to play the beautiful and disturbing Borg Queen. Patrick Stewart, who portrays Captain Picard in addition to his impressive resumé of Shakespearean and Dickensian roles, played Captain Ahab in the celebrated 1998 miniseries Moby Dick.
14. Arthur W. Hafner, “In Defense of the Great Books,” American Libraries 22, no. 11 (December 1991): 1062–1063.
15. Mark L. Thamert, “A Jesting Pilate: The Great Books and Today’s Students,” Academic Questions 2, no. 2 (Spring 1989): 40–48.
Chapter 12
Information Technology in Star Trek
Android versus Android, iPads versus PADDs, Facebook versus the Borg
Brent McDonald
The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.
—Arthur C. Clarke
Take a look around your house. Do you have a personal computer? How about a cell phone? What about a Bluetooth headset, commonly associated with business leaders and other important people? Gene Roddenberry first envisioned all of these devices in Star Trek. He observed the technology around him, and then he advanced them beyond their current limits. Even the simplest inventions demonstrate this, such as the automatic sliding doors seen throughout the original Star Trek series. Roddenberry used the trends that were current during the 1960s to create more advanced technology within the show, such as making phones cordless (and flippy). These and other impressive predictions about the future we see in the original Star Trek series have now come to pass over forty years later.
Star Trek’s twenty-third century contains both simple and advanced computers. These include voice-activated supercomputers that can give crewmembers (almost) any information they require. These same supercomputers operate massive spaceships that soar through the sky, most of which soar at impossible speeds.1 While these ships and their occupants do not have cell phones, their similar wireless communicators can transmit messages across impressive distances. These ships also carry lasers and phasers.
Roddenberry’s contemporaries saw him as more than an author of science fiction. He was a futurist—someone who is seen as knowledgeable about future technological advancements. His papers on the future of technology opened doors for him and brought prestigious invitations in their wake. NASA invited him to speak on his thoughts and ideas, and he gave lectures at universities and colleges. Roddenberry also was well known at the Smithsonian Institution.2
He received some impressive awards and honors for creating Star Trek, several of them after his death. In 1993, NASA awarded him with a posthumous Public Service Medal for creating real interest in space exploration and for sparking enthusiasm in the field.3 Similarly, in 2002, the Space Federation gave Roddenberry and his wife the Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award for “making significant contributions to the public awareness of space programs.”4 NASA honored Roddenberry by naming their first space shuttle Enterprise after the iconic ship from the show. He received a Best of Career award in 1980 from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films. Roddenberry also received a star on the Walk of Fame in 1985.5
In the original Star Trek series, Roddenberry created for the show many things that we currently take for granted. One important example of this is the plasma-screen television. In the 1960s, television sets were smaller than what we’re used to today, and the color quality of them was subpar compared to modern screens. Yet whenever the crew hails another ship, they receive a crisp, clear, real-time image of whoever they are speaking to. Not only does this mean that the bridge of the Enterprise has a large plasma-screen TV but also that Roddenberry envisioned the creation of teleconferencing.
Another example of futuristic Star Trek technology that proved possible offscreen was the Bluetooth-like headset. Often used by Lt. Uhura, this device is essential for any serious communications officer. A trade association comprised of many companies formed the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Incorporated, and they created Bluetooth in the 1990s. The first Bluetooth wireless headset was created in 2000, almost forty years (our time) after Uhura wore the similar product.
The communicators Starfleet used in the origin
al series were ahead of their time, but their use was not as far away as the other uses of technology mentioned. In the 1960s, phones were tethered down in one spot by a cord, with limited mobility. In 1965 (a year before the release of Star Trek), Teri Pall invented a “cordless” phone.6 Several other inventors worked on the problems inherent in using radio waves to carry out private phone calls, and cordless phones were finally marketed to consumers in the 1980s. A few major patents and modifications of phone technology then led to the development of the Motorola StarTAC, released in 1996 as the world’s first cellular phone, which had a clamshell flip design.7 Motorola had developed a mobile phone in 1996 with abilities comparable to the communicators in the original series’ twenty-third century. However, that was just the beginning. The devices we classify as phones today have evolved far beyond distant verbal communications. We expect our communicators to play music, to support multiple file types, and also to convey written messages. Not only can the higher-end products handle these various tasks but also they can output so much more. Applications have been developed for forecasting the weather, finding local eateries, watching television, and handling a nearly inexhaustible cavalcade of other interesting (and often useless) tasks.
Roddenberry also foresaw Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), BlackBerrys, and Android phones (a product name that Data would find entertaining). These technologies did not exist by name, of course, but the technology itself existed in the Star Trek universe. The PADD (Personal Access Display Device) is a standard-issue device that members of Starfleet and many other groups in the Star Trek galaxy use. They have the ability to store and play back audio and to upload and display schematics and blueprints, among other uses. These devices possess touch screens, another characteristic far ahead of its time. While screens that responded to touch existed in the late 1960s, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that multitouch tablets similar to Star Trek’s PADDs emerged.8 These had very basic touch screens that led to the creation of PDAs. Another unique feature that PADDs have is the ability to automatically complete words and sentences when given minimal information, a technique first shown in the Deep Space Nine and Voyager series. Currently, this type of technology is often found in cell phones and search engines. The use of autocompletion algorithms has been common in these types of devices and engines since the 2000s. As a clerical tool, the PADD is a Starfleet yeoman’s best friend, but it can also be used for artistic purposes.
Something many people use every day is removable computer memory. While this was done by using crystals and 3x3-inch squares in Star Trek, similar devices were invented in our timeline to do the same thing. In 1963, IBM released the first-ever hard drive that used removable storage disks. Similar to the 3x3-inch squares were floppy diskettes that were used in the 1970s.9 Now, instead of the crystals used in Voyager, we have small devices known as flash drives, which were first available commercially in the year 2000.10 We now have flash drives that hold 128 GB, many times more than the original limit of 8 MB.
Star Trek has planted many images of new technology in the minds of future scientists, engineers, and inventors who saw Star Trek in the 1960s. An example of such a scientist is the chief propulsion engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dr. Marc Rayman. In the documentary How William Shatner Changed the World, Rayman explains that Star Trek was the reason he became interested in propulsion. The documentary also explains that the original series episode “Spock’s Brain” was the inspiration for NASA’s deep-space probe’s ion propulsion. It also tells the story of Mae C. Jemison, who was inspired by Star Trek to be the first African American woman in space.11 While some outright predictions about the future turned out to be false, some speculations implicit in this popular television show influenced what really happened. Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise is historical proof that science fiction can sometimes be the precursor to scientific fact.
I Can Has Internet?
The Internet is just a world passing around notes in a classroom.
—Jon Stewart
Congratulations! You just saved the Federation of Planets from a Romulan onslaught! Now if only you could share the news by updating your status or “tweeting” to your followers. It’s the twenty-third century, but where is the Internet?
The Internet began in 1969, just as the original Star Trek series was ending, as a network that connected four computers from different universities across the United States. The network was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which was a department of the U.S. Department of Defense. The network was aptly named “ARPANET.” The original goals of ARPANET were to create a network that could maintain its functionality even if parts were destroyed or corrupted and to allow scientists to connect with one another over long distances to collaborate on various projects to help the Department of Defense. The Internet slowly evolved from this network over the next few years before becoming explosively popular in the 1990s.12
Deep Space Nine and Voyager are the only Star Trek series to mention the Internet being used on Earth between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and it is only mentioned in a few episodes. Other than those times, however, it is rarely (if ever) spoken of again. The Deep Space Nine episodes “Past Tense, Part I and II” involve the use of “the Interface,” which allows user access to the Net. It is a much more restrictive system than the modern-day Internet, to the point where it is almost a different entity altogether. People can access the Net only when they sign in to interface terminals while using a unique ID number. The Interface combines the Net with television, and it is known to broadcast news reports and other television shows (DS9, “Past Tense, Part I”/“Past Tense, Part II”). Since this episode was produced in 1995, it was still ahead of its time. Currently we have millions of websites that report news and stream television shows. Compared to the limited selection the Interface had, the Internet in our timeline is vastly superior.
Techies for Trekkies
“Check the circuit!”
“All operating, sir.”
“Can’t be the screen, then.”
—Spock and Tyler, TOS, “The Cage”
It takes a steady hand and a level head to be an information technician. Who better to fit that bill than Spock? Yet he’s not really much of an information technology (IT) guy, is he? Even so, Spock informs another character that he holds an “A7 computer expert classification” (TOS, “The Ultimate Computer”) and that he is handy with machines, but he seems to do more work in the field of natural sciences than in computer sciences. Still, he performed the role of a techie more than any other crewmember in the original series, even more so than Montgomery Scott. Spock finds computers “fascinating,” even finding the Enterprise being taken over by a rapidly learning computer “interesting” (TOS, “The Ultimate Computer”).
We used the term “IT guy” above, but this is not an all-encompassing title. When the “computer boys” started emerging in the late 1960s, software engineering was one of the most gender-neutral fields around. In the early 1970s, between 30 percent and 50 percent of the field was comprised of female programmers and engineers. While the number of women in the computer business has been dwindling since the 1980s, there are still many in the field today.13 It is interesting that the number of women entering the field has declined since the 1970s, however, even as the number of women represented in IT roles on Star Trek in the later series was increasing.
In the original series, Scotty is an engineer, but he does manage to help Spock with some of the technological problems on board. While Scotty knows more about engines and their warp drive functions than information technology, Spock regards Scotty as intelligent enough about computers to work with them when necessary. When any physical repairs need to be done to parts of the ship, Scotty is usually the one called to fix it. While he focuses on engines, he can and does fix other parts of the ship when needed, often getting the warp engines online in the nick of time to perform a miraculous escape.
In later series,
such as The Next Generation, IT people become more necessary and common (probably because in our world and timeline, when the later Star Trek series were being produced, computers were becoming much more popular and widely used). Three excellent examples of this evolution of IT people are Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, Ensign Wesley Crusher, and Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres.
La Forge is, like Scotty, an engineer. Despite his title of chief engineer and his extensive knowledge of warp drives and the ship’s engines, La Forge has the heart of an information technologist. On numerous occasions he proves his skill with the holodeck and its many programs, creating some programs himself. When the Enterprise-D is ensnared in an enemy’s trap, La Forge creates a holographic program of Dr. Brahms, an engineer who helped create the warp drive systems for galaxy-class starships like the Enterprise-D. Together with the holographic program created for data in the ship’s files, La Forge manages to free the ship (TNG, “Booby Trap”). In another episode, La Forge works alongside Data and manages to free the Enterprise from a destructive Trojan-like virus that enters the ship’s computers through logs received from the USS Yamato (TNG, “Contagion”). La Forge does much more work with the ship’s computer systems than anyone else before him, and that alone makes him worthy of being Star Trek’s first real information technician.
Wesley Crusher is also skilled with computers. While performing a science experiment, he creates nanites, minuscule robots that reproduce at an alarmingly swift rate. They quickly become sentient and begin attacking the Enterprise. The fact that they are eventually powerful enough to stand a chance against the ship is a testament to their skillfully created design. Although the nanites do more harm than good, Crusher created an impressive piece of equipment (TNG, “Evolution”). Another good example of Crusher’s aptitude is when an upgrade to the warp drive accidentally sends the Enterprise-D into another galaxy. Crusher, with the help of “the Traveler,” manages to get the ship back to the Milky Way (TNG, “Where No One Has Gone Before”).
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