Tonight I watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the entertainment of the future was explored. The spaceship on which the characters live is equipped with rooms called holodecks. These function as more elaborate movies; one can program them to align to certain scenarios and even walk through the scenes. Instead of watching characters and plots unfold, those wishing to be entertained take part in the story. In this particular episode, “Elementary, Dear Data”, Data and his friends create a program capable of defeating the android. This program, in the form of a Professor Moriarty, then gains access to the ship’s computer and real danger ensues.
Although the world of Star Trek seems far away, the invention of a working holodeck is closer than I originally thought. The technology exists to match real-world movements to those in a videogame with commercially-sold game consoles. This is something I plan on exploring more as a possible topic for my paper.
What I really took away from this episode was how the writer explores the ever-present concern that the ability of technology will surpass that of humans. Instead of posing the conflict as one between a human and a computer, Roddenberry pits the program of the holodeck against the whole crew of the ship, and specifically against a human-created android. In the end, he seems to suggest that the human collective mind will always be able to overcome such obstacles; at the same time the success of Data leaves the boundaries of human creation open to interpretation.
I would have to agree. It is very amazing that we are so close to what was thought of during the filming of this episode as somewhat impossible to achieve. Technology is continuously advancing and its remarkable what the human race can come up with.
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