Star Trek Future (+/- Dilbert)

From: Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Date: Mon Jul 14 1997 - 10:18:59 MDT


     Michael Lorrey wrote:
     
     "Read Scott Adams new book, Dilbert Futures, in which he states "The
     future will NOT be like Star Trek." because people will still be as
     screwed up as they are now, they'll just have cooler high tech toys to
     be screwed up with."
     
     Rick responds:
     
     While I enjoyed the excerpt I read (Scott's wit is amazing), I purpose
     that the mass process of "getting a clue" may not be so unreasonable.
     Yes, we're our culture is rather tweaked but compared to our our
     ancestors of just a few hundred years ago, nevermind a millenium or so
     ago, we are demonstrably less savage (explicitly anyway), there is
     more agreement, more focused devotion to progress and many levels.
     
     Now, while wanton hedonism and narcissism still have negative impacts
     on our culture, I rather like the notion of the "1% for Peace"
     movement. At least they have the intention that a critical mass
     paradigm shift that elevates consciousness could occur. It's rather
     dismaying to hear people talk about great technological leaps where
     they don't even include the possibility that we may become responsible
     stewards of our creations and new illumination.
     
     I'm going to peak at the new Fox show "Roar" not for it's
     entertainment value but because I find it curious that a network has
     decided that serialization of (an interpretation of) 5th century
     Celtic culture is something of broadband interest. There is something
     archetypal and possibly significant here. To me, it's not just a
     commercial whim that millions of dollars get pumped into these media
     memes ($90US million for "Contact"!) and fed en masse to us. We are
     creating agreement and we all know that enough agreement becomes
     truth, maybe not absolute truth (whatever THAT is) but accepted truth.
     
     The bulk of this century has been an interesting segment in our
     gestation period as a species. Like a human fetus, all our brain
     cells are being developed and connected as we become more
     interconnected, awash in boundless amounts of information and the
     invisible waves on which it increasingly travels.
     
     Something's cooking and it smells good.
     
     Rick



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