The Next Few Generations

Compelled for some reason to watch a few old Star Trek episodes rather than escape the shrieking voices with heavy drink, I found myself fascinated anew- not by the plots, which are as ingrained as Beatles lyrics, but by the rare hits and mostly misses of the technological future the franchise predicted. Of course the toggle switches of the original show gave way to the holograms and touch screens of subsequent series- but we have that stuff now which I would assume means that the 24^th century is beyond anyone’s grasp as to how humans will traverse time, space and dimension.

But what is truly archaic from a 24^th century standpoint, if I may be so presumptuous, is the relationship between the sexes. Yes, the progressive nature of the concept had females and males working side by side from the start, but I would bet both of the ship’s nacelles that three hundred years from now not only will humans not be using gadgets that squeak and light up, but there will be no real distinction between the genders.

There is an old assumption regarding man’s evolution- that he will slowly work towards becoming a non-physical mass of energy that will be the final point at which mankind achieves union with the divine. An episode of the original series posited something like this as a race of beings called Organians- represented by a council of feeble old men in hospital smocks that I guess were supposed to read as flowing white robes- turned out to be “pure energy” as Mr. Spock explained, continuing “they are as far advanced from us as we are from the amoeba.”

Whether this forward moving narrative of human evolution is actually the path we’re on or not, the question to ask in watching this show is what will we be like just 300 years from now? The corporeal dissolution thesis would, I think, first require that men and women merge into androgynous indistinction, which would change the way we do reproductive business, to say the least.

Another hypothesis would mirror a hive-like development where specialization within an integrated whole would allow a queen to replicate the species while a good portion of said species would evolve sideways into other, sexless support tasks. How that insect-like devolution scenario gets us closer to pure energy is beyond me.

The major point I want to make, however, is that the idea of the individual has profoundly changed in the last quarter of a century. The notion of individual sovereignty has been giving way to the integration of the single component into a system where personal interest has been replaced by coordinated effort. You know: collectivization. With this integration, the unique traits that go into constructing an individual are falling by the wayside. With that inexorable process underway, gender defining characteristics will also dissolve. Three centuries from now the crew of the Enterprise will look more like Ziggy Stardust (providers) and Marilyn Manson (carriers) (or vice versa) than bald continental effetes, cock-sure matinee idols, earth mothers in Versace and pasty faced logicians.