The Gene Roddenberry theory

[OBOLeader]

lol at spart and fraggle

[BFM_JANE]

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/591/01/

[jim360]

Ok 2 things. How do u know the life of an antiproton? and 2 this IS the future. nothing is impossible

Well technically if you held an antiproton in a perfect vacuum then it would last a good few million years. Since Space is not a vacuum, however, it's likely that many antiprotons will decay, and anyway if they are emitted frim an internal source (inside a ship engine) they will have a short half-life because there are too many protons to meet with and annihilate the antiproton. Dodging that technicality, since anyway antiprotons occur in cosmic rays you'd detect them as background noise in space regardless of the presence of a ship. Though even then it might be possible to detect fluctuations and so on.

Look the fact is that I didn't pick on the best "scientific mistake" in the show and if you read into it you'll see that my entire post oozes phail. But I don't intend to delve the internet in search of other mistakes.

But in the future there are certain things that are impossible, such as... well specifically crossing the light speed barrier in the manner suggested by the show is impossible. And if you did then time would go backwards. So there's a small error there.

[OBOLeader]

Ok... now can u do that in english please?
I understood about 1/10 of it...

And YOUR post oozes phail...

[MrMxyzptlk]

(TY for that post, JANE!   )


You guys got WAAAY of the mark by going into POST-Roddenberry episodes....

Gene Roddenberry, whom I've met and spoken with (in the past, of course!) was a gifted combination of Futurist and wannabe-scientist, a combination that was actually not-too-rare in the 60s-80s when folks were all about changing the notion of "science fiction" to one called "speculative fiction." (Note: My encounters with G.R. were mainly during a series of lectures by himself and other early members of the World Future Society, that were held at college campuses, etc. all over the US.)

Gene (and another of my favorites, Robert L. Forward) were about looking at near-term scientific and technological advances and "forecasting" them into our near-future mainstream.

Here's an excellent example of what I mean: When thinking upon the weapon of choice for his coming Star Trek series Gene Roddenberry went right to the scientists working on the new LASER technology that was just coming about. After getting the full lowdown on its workings and limitations, he asked them "So what are you working on next?"  They said that they were looking into a means to further increase the power of the LASER by using phased light, or even phased near-light spectrum waves.

So when Roddenberry named his "new weapon" for those in the next century or so, he called it a "PHASER." (PHased lASER.)

In other words, he gave it a name based upon it's actual, scientifically-feasible future existence, not just some "made-up word for a sci-fi show."

I think that I've mentioned it before here, but Gene Roddenberry said something very profound once, and it said a lot about just how "out-of-the-box" his forward-thinking was: When asked what fundamental aspect of humanity allows us to make these advancements so quickly in the future he replied something like "Until Humanity learns to live together without the need for personal material wealth, we'll never achieve our full potential.  In MY future we've stepped across that barrier and have fully focused our energies on exploration and self-improvement."


Can we, ourselves, today even IMAGINE that future?


Certainly G.R. was thinking WAY ahead of OUR time, no?

[swant]

three60, the way they described their wrap-travel it is possible if you have enough energy to travel in a ''warp''  since they say that light follows the rule of a wave and in warp they are ''surfing'' that wave. indeed the problem is getting there still yet the actual travveling is possible.

[jim360]

I'm with Mxy - why are we even discussing this? Technology is always second fiddle in the earlier episodes of Star Trek, and often ends up failing meaning that Kirk has to get into a fist-fight or plead compassion or something. Indeed often the superior technology of other starships is shown to be inferior to wisdom, wit and human characteristics.

Recall the episode "The Corbomite Manoeuvre" when the Enterprise is under the power of a vastly superior starship, and Kirk, facing the prospect of capture and death, bluffs his way out by pretending to have on his ship a substance, corbomite, that will destroy anyone that fires on him. It works, this despite there being no such thing.

[OBOLeader]

i acually wanted to know what u thought about it. not get rude replies saying that im crazy...

[BFM_Hydra]

Ladies and gentlemen, although the discussion is grand and it is sort of on topic, I'd like for the arguments to stop please. Yes, there are flaws, as with any movie ever written/directed, but if you are going to discuss the perfection vs flaws of Star Trek please do it civilly or through PM, not with abrupt or rude comments (whether the above comments fall into this category or not is irrelevant).

So, before anyone gets hurt or offended by the posting I am saying now that this is enough, and any more posts of the sort will result in the thread being locked and moved and the poster being warned for their inappropriate forum conduct.

Continued discussion in a civilised manner is encouraged.

Thanks everyone.
BFM_Hydra


PS. Thank you Mr Mxy for a very on-topic and well thought out post in the midst of prior discussions.

[Marty]

I think all these discussions about the possibilities and impossibilities are summed up in a question asked of Roddenberry and his answer to it.

FAN: Mr. Roddenberry, how does warp drive work?
GENE: It works very well, thank you.

As for going into the depth of things, I'd have to say that Lord of the rings goes into more depth. JRR Tolkien wrote two separate, and complete, languages (Quenya and Sindarin, respectively based upon Finnish and Welsh). He then decided that, as they were similar but different languages, he'd write a history explaining their differences. Into this history, which wasn't completed at the end of his life some 50 years later, he gave:

- Near-complete histories of his languages, explaining etymology, morphology and syntax;
- Completely original alphabets which follow a completely different system from both Arabic and  Cyrillic;
- Partially written languages for Ents, Dwarves, the Rohirrim, Orcs, and Hobbits;
- Complete family trees of the 'royal' families of Gondor, Rohan, Hobbits and the Dwarves, often including details about how, why, where and when they were born, lived and died;
- A history spanning some 6'000 years or so, from birth of the world to into the Fourth Age (after the One Ring is destroyed)
- Creation stories for all the main races of his world
- Vast amounts of poetry and folklore of these races
- Detailed maps
- Some of the best-loved and most-read books of all time, having sold around 150million copies since its publication in 1954. The only fiction book to have sold more copies is Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities with 200million copies since its publication in 1859. And, as that means A.T.O.T.C. has sold around 1.2million copies a year compared with L.O.T.R. selling around 2.7million, you could argue it's the best-selling fiction book of all time. PLUS if you include The Hobbit as well, that's another 100million copies. So that puts the L.O.T.R. books selling more than 250million copies, at about joint sixth on most-sold books of all time.

etc.

[MrMxyzptlk]

...But then there's the author's of interesting "SpecFic" stories that become good movies who wrote them at the age of 14 on a single sheet of paper with NO background whatsoever, too.... ("The Fifth Element" by Luc Besson, e.g.)

So ya, unless you're reading something like Dr. Robert L. Forward's "Indistinguishable From Magic" or his excellent book "Dragon's Egg" - within both of which he goes through all the science and physics involved in making the things in the story plausible - SpecFic is all about the story's MESSAGE, really.

Oh, and you misspelled "maneuver" back there, J-Threee-Sixteee....




 

[jim360]

Technically that is true, Mxy, since the show was Made In America. But I couldn't resist spelling the word itself correctly.

Also, for the umpteenth time, there is no apostrophe in "its" possessive form.

Fifth Element is also a good movie.

[swant]

thank you fore giving me some movies i could watch, some of them are new

and i like sci-fi

anyhow,  if that is true what is talked about from J.R.R.Tolkien about all those detailed info, i have a feeling she had something in the autistic spectrum namely Asperger Syndrom, just like a lot of others. In this also Gene Rodenberry could have had it.

heh, the list of people who have A.S. and were succesful is verry big, happy to also have it

[Marty]

Ne'er heard that Tolkien had any form of Autism...and neither has Wiki. Still, that doesn't prove anything.

[swant]

well, the stuff described, a complete world thought up until perfection, i  kinda have the same in some little form.