Star Trek Amusement

Probably most of you know that we don't have tv reception or cable here at our house (by choice) and even though we have a nice "tv" screen, we only watch movies ocassionally. But every now and then we get hooked on a particular tv series and enjoy watching them whenever we have a spot of time. We either get dvd's of the shows, or we find it online and watch on our computer monitor. (Yes, I know we can feed it to the large screen, but we generally don't.) Lately, our amusements have turned to the original Star Trek series. These shows ran from 1966-1969 and we enjoyed watching them (over and over) when we were kids. What a kick it has been to rediscover these "old friends" and laugh over what we used to think was so amazing.

In the late 60's the concept of doors that automatically opened when a person approached was thrilling. How cool would that be, we thought. However, now that it is part of our reality, I don't find myself walking through doorways and saying, "wow......that's awesome!"

Communicators? Pretty nifty idea back then. Well, now our "communicators" also function as computers and so many other things (that I can't keep up with) as well as a means to talk. Yes, I am amazed daily, but also confused a lot, too. There are so many varieties of hand-held devices that I'm never really sure what it is when I see it.

Uhura (and sometimes Spock) often had metal communication devices hanging out of one of their ears. Wierd, right? Now it is common to see people walking around seemingly talking to themselves, but with a gadget attached to their ears.

All this technology (and much more!) has really happened, and in not so many years. It's not even surprising anymore. I am still waiting for the best thing, however. Can you just imaging being able to "beam" to wherever we want to go? Yes, we've come a long way from pioneer-style travel, but we're still mostly attached to our metal cages. Yesterday, I would love to have beamed a few long-distance grandkids over for some storytime and or even a cuddle!

I wonder if the people on the future earth (according to Star Trek creators), who had transporters, had to pay for each use? Or maybe they had a monthly plan?