The Mythology in Sci-Fi (Star Trek)

Ever wonder if the world of Star Trek holds deeper truths about our beliefs and the universe?  We kick off our 10th season with an exploration of the symbolic representations in one of the most iconic science-fiction films of our time. We dissect how these stories might reflect and shape our understanding of extraterrestrial life and humanity's place in the cosmos. This season's fresh format will have us pondering the connections between imaginative fiction and the symbolic truths embedded in mythology.

Join us for a nostalgic journey through the Star Trek franchise, from the artistic to the innovative technobabble. We explore the synergy between fiction and actual technological advancements, celebrating how human imagination has turned the dreams of yesterday into the realities of today. From smartphones to 3D printers, we marvel at how far we've come, inspired by the some of the visionary ideas presented in Star Trek. Tune in to celebrate the power of imagination and its profound impact on our future.

*The content of this podcast is based only on the views of the hosts and are not those of the motion picture corporations, franchises, or guilds; nor does it imply any endorsements from them.*

"Space Journey" by Geoff Harvey
Copyright © 2021 Melody Loops LP
Full License Royalty-Free Music 
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Transcript

Joe: 1:01

Hello everybody, thank you for joining us on Alien Talk Podcast. This is the show where we discuss all things about aliens and UFOs and, as always, where we push the limits of our understanding. We are Joe and Laurie, here to seek the truth and find the facts pertaining to highly discussed issues about the ancient astronaut theory and contemporary ufology, and we come to you today at the beginning of our 10th season of bringing you more informative and thought-provoking shows, with over dozens upon dozens of intriguing and fascinating topics that are currently on the forefront of internet stories and, I would venture to say, even on the forefront of the minds of most people. So we're back, laurie, after having a bit of a hiatus. Time does tend to slip away from us. Usually we don't go this long between shows, but you know a lot has been going on Well, everywhere, right.

Laurie: 1:53

Yeah, life does get in the way sometimes. So, right, I mean, we try to put out an episode every two weeks and this time it was three and plus we also ended the season, so so it gave us a little extra week here. But I mean, what can you say? It's just one of those things where family events and work gets sidetracked. But regardless, it's good to be back.

Joe: 2:20

You're right, that's the thing about this podcast being a side hustle for us is we have to make way for the primary commitments we have going on, mainly our busy jobs, as all of you out there are very busy with your lives as well your jobs, your families and all of that. So we really want to thank you for taking the time to tune into our podcast and making us a part of your listening routine. So, anyway, as it is, we're going into this season with a little bit of a different format. Some folks might think of it as lighter discussions, and that's because we plan to devote a good bit of time to talking about some of our most beloved and classic science fiction films, and we're going to probe into the storylines and the character arcs to see how they represent the mythologies and the metaphors that are deeply seated within the human psyche.

Laurie: 3:11

Yeah, that's right. So over the past couple of months we've been getting into how our planet Earth may stand in relation to other worlds that may possibly have intelligent alien life on them, and that those worlds may or might actually be part of a big planetary alliance, something like a galactic federation, of which we as humans may find ourselves on the brink of being brought into. On the brink of being brought into, and in our last episodes we shared about a super-secret cabal, a hidden shadow government, may possibly be leading us to where we take our place at the seat of such an alliance or federation or council of advanced extraterrestrials. So for this season, yeah, we want to spend time talking about our science fiction stories and films and, you know, asking ourselves if there could in any way be some kernels of truth found in them. For quite a while, joe, you and I tossed around the idea of doing a whole season devoted to analyzing some of our more profound and inspiring and dramatic science fiction stories, so as to possibly see truth in the fiction, which kind of sounds like an oxymoron. But not so much when what we mean and what we want to emphasize is the truth in the mythology, and we want to differentiate between the two terms, to show that fiction is written from the imagination, while mythology is told as a way to use symbolism that represents what people believe. So a s to seek the truth, and with that we have to ask, is there truth in many of the science fiction movies and books we've all grown up watching and reading that have made such impressions upon our minds that almost all of us make reference to in some way when we hear beam me up, scotty, or may the force be with you. We all know what is meant by those phrases and we know where they originated from. Right. And, first of all, we are going to have a well-developed plot, logical dialogue and action themes, relatable characters that we connect with, tension and conflict involving the elements of good and evil, and that appeal to our ideals and morals, at least on some level or to some degree. And what we're talking about are Star Trek, Star Wars, B attlestar Galactica, stargate, T the Day the Earth Stood Still the ones that have resonated with audiences for years in a way that has made them genuinely ponder the idea of alien life and our place in the whole universe. These have become very popular pretty much on a global scale, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office and ultimately becoming cult sensations. And we all know there are plenty of so-called low-budget movies that really don't fit that bill. So, you know I don't see us getting much out of a discussion about, say, M y F favorite Martian or K iller C lowns f rom Outer S pace or ones along those lines

Laurie: 6:48

Or y my tepmom stepmom An A lien, alien,

Laurie: 6:51

yeah. W W M C M C

Joe: 6:52

Dude, where's my car? That might be the worst one ever, at least in my opinion. P

Laurie: 6:58

Right, yeah, I tend to agree. Yeah, I tend to agree. The classic ones, though, like you mentioned, are really in a genre of their own, as they provide depth of soul and how the stories and the sagas all played out, and we plan on discussing some of these films in our own Alien Talk podcast style and the way you all like it, I guess. So it's going to be different, and if you want to see the whole list for this season I think there's only nine of them and just visit the website alien talk podcast dot com and check them out there, and you try and upload those tonight after the podcast. So if it's not there right away, but you can always check back later and see the whole list, for sure, you can always check back later and see the whole list For sure.

Joe: 7:43

And secondly, we're not here trying to say that any one of these novels or famous films in this genre are somehow impregnated with hidden codes that tell of conspiracies and elaborate secrets. No, these movies are fantasy, they are fiction, they are imagination, they are the products of very creative minds. We are not claiming that they are in some way a reality or an alternate world. We're not that far gone yeah, at least not yet yeah, right, give us another 20 years.

Joe: 8:18

No, what we are saying is that the creativity that comes from our minds is a reflection of the role that mythology and symbolism has within our mental schemata, whether or not we're even conscious of it.

Joe: 8:31

And this is actually the basis of a considerable part of Jungian psychology, in which memories, ideas, dreams can, in part, be formed from within the unconscious, in which images are inherited as the structure for conception of myths, ie stories, allegories. Carl Jung theorized this around 1916 that certain predominant symbols dwell deep in the thought processes of everyone through something called the collective unconscious, sort of a part of our minds that we share with one another as well as with our ancestors. And the manner in which we share in this process or processes is through the significance of images and what they mean to us as individuals within complex social groups. And we all experience this in how we are able to convey and comprehend concepts of truth, in the ways that different elements of stories are represented, both through the teller and the listener. I mean, just think about how we all know about the concepts of morality and justice, virtue, god. We have learned about these ideas that pertain to them through the vivid imagery which is embodied in our ancient traditions, namely that of religion.

Laurie: 9:50

Right. So every one of us who has been brought up in the Judeo-Christian faith understands the power of visualization what is told in the Bible and the symbolic meaning associated with the voice of God being communicated through the people and occurrences mentioned therein. And while fiction is not real, we know it can be based on some universal truths, such as good and evil, honor, love, integrity of character, and that it can directly represent or resemble something that is real. The parables of Jesus Christ are a good example of fictitious stories used to stretch people's imagination back in those days. A parable is just that it's a fictitious story, and Jesus used it as examples so the listeners could understand or get a better mental picture of what he was teaching. They were stories created by someone's imagination, perhaps even Jesus' imagination. Those may have been the lessons that he thought of so that he could use them in his sermons. And we've all seen those movies that are based on true stories. Even if the story itself is not a real one or an accurate one, it is based on that story, that event that occurred. And likewise we also have to remember that while it may be told that's fiction in the present time, it may at some point in the future become a reality. So sometimes our literary lines do get blurred, and we've all encountered that in what we've heard about and read about and seen in the cinemas.

Laurie: 11:33

So we must ask why do we have imagination, especially ones that are so powerful? I mean, really, there's no other way to describe the imaginative talent of many people. I mean, was it planted there? Was it instilled into our brains, like our consciousness, so we can ponder and create things to entertain ourselves and better our journey while on this planet? Was it programmed into our genome, perhaps by the gods from whom we descended from? Remember what we've been alluding to since our podcast began, that we are a species created in the image and likeness of our gods, our creators. So we must ask why is imagination only unique to humans? And this all goes back to our species being a creation by something bigger, something much bigger than ourselves, and there are too many aspects to the incredible mental capacity of almost sapiens to simply be explained as a product of natural selection. The other species have nothing that even comes close to it.

Joe: 12:39

Yeah, and this fabric of our imagination is the imprinted mythology of just about every culture on earth, this theme that something powerful and superior out there put us right here and that we are subject to that something through obedience and worship. Again, we are all acquainted with this notion through our individual beliefs that were taught to us. The Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans, the Norse, the Mayans, all of their mythologies tell of this similar tale, and it carries on in the human psyche to this very day, all over the world, in the practices of Christianity, islam, judaism, hinduism, buddhism and so many others.

Laurie: 13:20

Yeah. So when we say gods, we are referring to, possibly, the ancient extraterrestrials among whom we may have the respect of one day sitting at the seat of a highly advanced council with them, a federation of species from many different worlds, if not now, then someday. There would be no better movie franchise to discuss and compare this to than Star Trek, whether that's the original series, the next generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager Enterprise, it's actually my favorite.

Joe: 13:58

Picard Strange, New World, you know, along with a slew of books. That's right. Star Trek is in a class and genre all of its own, and it was created by Gene Roddenberry, a freelance writer and producer and a former military pilot, not to mention a cop with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Joe: 14:15

It first debuted in September of 1966 as a television series series and it really was, in many ways, the start of sci-fi shows of its type and instilling an excited wonder in audiences, with a sense of amazement at the creativity and the drama that it portrayed. And this is the one that we all know now as the original series, the ones with william shatner as captain kirk, leonard nimoy as Spock and DeForest Kelly as Dr McCoy the classics. I remember watching these as reruns in the 70s, when I was a kid. My dad liked to watch them and I would watch them with him. So it takes place in the future, about 300 years to around 2268.

Joe: 15:02

And in Star Trek, earth is a very different place. It is united and a desire for wealth and fame and power are pretty much non-existent on this planet. Humans have finally put aside their petty differences and placed their focus on space exploration along with humanoid aliens from other worlds, and at that point we have become part of the United Federation of Planets, and the characters you mentioned, laurie and many others, serve with a military organization called Starfleet and they're dedicated to exploring the depths of space aboard the starship USS Enterprise, and the story really is about that, about traveling across the galaxy and encountering all kinds of adventures.

Laurie: 15:47

Yeah, and you know, president Ronald Reagan probably thought of the Star Trek civilization when he made his address to the 42nd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City back on September 21st, way back in 1987, when he said this is his quote in our obsession with antagonisms of the moment, we often forget how much unites all members of humanity.

Laurie: 16:14

Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognized as Colin Bond, but it's what he said before. That that got me thinking of Star Trek, because Reagan said and think of Star Trek as I read this. So this is where this is Reagan speaking. So this is where I believe we can find a map to the world's future, in the hearts of ordinary people, in their hopes for themselves and their children, in their prayers as they lay themselves and their families to rest each night. These simple people are the giants of the earth, the true builders of the world and shapers of the centuries to come. And if indeed they triumph as I believe they will we will at last know a world of peace and freedom, opportunity and hope and, yes, of democracy, a world in which the spirit of mankind at last conquers the old, familiar enemies of famine, disease, tyranny and war.

Joe: 17:14

That is quite profound. That was a very great speech by Ronald Reagan and he may have been influenced by Star Trek because, as we know now, it has really left a big impression on our culture for many decades, become a major media franchise with newer series coming out regularly, movies also for the big screen, not only for television and Netflix, but also for the big screen. The first Star Trek movie I remember was in the early 80s and it was okay. I thought it first Star Trek movie I remember was in the early 80s and it was OK. I thought it was disappointing, but it was. It was. It was cool because it was a Star Trek movie.

Laurie: 17:51

Was that the motion picture or something? I think it's Star Trek the motion picture.

Joe: 17:55

Yeah, I think that came out in 1981. And it was kind of strange. I remember just, I mean it was looking back at it now I think it's kind of artistic, it had a lot of creativity. But I remember as a kid watching it thinking, yeah, I don't get it. The whole thing with Beeger they found the old Voyager spacecraft that was sent out in the 70s and then in the future they come across it on a different planet and they called it Beeger because they couldn't see the letters o and y, I guess. Uh, it was lost on me as a kid, uh. But also, you know plenty of reboots.

Laurie: 18:31

Uh did a star trek series as well yeah, well, don't forget that reagan was once an actor too, so I mean he is a famous movie star at that um, in the 1950s he he was cast in quite a few military dramas like Prisoner of War and Hellcats in the Navy, which are pretty obscure. I'm sure not too many people have heard of the old movies he was in, but it could be that by being in Hollywood that he was impressed by the Star Trek story in a profound way and that it is reflected in that speech he gave. Now we gave the year 2268 for the timeframe of Star Trek. However, remember we talked about dates for Judgment Day or possible the first contact dates in episode 13, called Judgment Day the Return of the Gods.

Laurie: 19:20

Episode 13 called Judgment Day the Return of the Gods, and there we explain that if we are looking to see if Judgment Day will be in our time, then a generation in Noah's time, as we explained, it would have to be like 64 years, and this was putting Judgment Day at approximately year 2066, which is a decade after World War III in the Star Trek story.

Laurie: 19:45

And if we are going by the Jewish calendar, where they expect their Messiah to return by the year 6000, which will be like 2240 on the Gregorian calendar, then a generation will have to be something like 66 years and this will be placing so-called Judgment Day around 2206 AD. So this is what you know we mean by there being. You know possible truths in a fictitious story like Star Trek. Like did Gene Roddenberry and the creators and other writers did they create this storyline? Like subconsciously, like, without knowing? Were they being led to write humanity's future? Because the dates used are not too far off, dates used in ancient texts? Now, of course, creators could also have studied ancient texts to create their storyline and timelines and, you know, based it off of the old text. Who knows?

Joe: 20:38

Yeah, as for me, I really didn't get into any of it until the Next Generation series, which is supposed to be like 100 years after the original series I guess it'd be the 2368 time frame and then that came out in the mid-90s with Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. I do like the original series, I like William Shatner, but all those other series, particularly the newer ones, I got to say I don't really care too much for them. I'm not a big fan. I really like the Next Generation.

Joe: 21:10

That was my favorite, and one of the things I think is cool, though, about Star Trek is the engineering technobabble that really almost puts the human innovation as it is now and accurately projects it to what it most likely will be or at least sounds like it will be when we reach that point in the future. You know things like the holodeck, the coaxial warp drive, the matter-antimatter reactor and all of that, and we see that our own technological development has indeed picked up at an unprecedented pace, certainly since the time that Roddenberry wrote the original storyline, and actually there are many articles out there that explain the principles of something like the Enterprise's warp engine in particular, and it describes how such a thing is theoretically possible to construct. This is an article that's found by Mike Wall on spacecom, dated just this past May the 7th.

Laurie: 22:10

Yeah, well, you know, it's like you know humans, the human mind. We talked about imagination earlier. It's like if we could think of it, eventually we can create it. And if you know, one guy told me one time, if we could see something like those distant stars that we see at night, if we can see it, we eventually will get there. Eventually will get there. And that's how powerful the imagination is, because we can create things out of nothing, like we can. The human mind is just so powerful, like you said earlier.

Laurie: 22:41

Now it appears that, like people like Elon Musk you know, we all know who he is, and at least we should by now I mean, he's leading the charge into the future of space exploration, you can't deny that. Into the future of space exploration, you can't deny that. And by he's wanting humans to colonize Mars, to be honest, you know, some time ago, long before I ever heard of Elon Musk, I wondered if NASA could invent a rocket that would lift off and descend back to Earth and be used again. And I bet you know a lot of us thought about this as well, and I'm sure we all had the same thoughts. And here we are, you know, we're watching it unfold before our very eyes, to, you know, to the stars right Ad Astra. So it makes you wonder when he, elon, invents an engine or some type of fuel that will propel, you know us, to Mars in half the time, which now is six months there and six months back, I mean a whole year of traveling into darkness of space. And a better rocket needs to be made that will cut six months down to like three months or even less.

Laurie: 23:49

If that happens, will we get the attention of a cosmic neighbor, like in Star Trek's plot in which Zephyr Cochran created a warp drive, that movie, star Trek First Contact. Well, we, or do we already have similar technology to this right now? And did we already get the attention of cosmic neighbors when we dropped nuclear bombs during World War II? The sad part of all this is that in order for the Star Trek universe to have peace and for the human race to become accepted into the Federation, at least as far as the overall plot is concerned, it had to go through a world war. You know that post-atomic horror talked about and you have to wonder if that is not a foretelling of what may happen at some point. Hopefully our civilization can obtain a Star Trek type of civilization without having to, you know, nearly wipe each other off the planet.

Joe: 24:48

And hopefully so.

Joe: 24:50

But if we learn anything from history, it's that mankind has suffered tremendous, devastating losses, catastrophic ones that have wiped out thousands upon thousands of people at a time, and we still continue on.

Joe: 25:03

I mean, we think of the Black Plague, the countless wars, the changes in global climate and ocean levels over the millennia, even the Great Deluge and the Younger Dryas period from 13,000 years ago, things that nearly eliminate us as a species, end up passing and we persevere, and I think, as horrifying of a hellscape as a nuclear holocaust would be, I believe that the human race will press on, and maybe that is why we want to examine the story in its intrinsic substance. Even though Star Trek is fictional, is there a message of truth to it and if so, what is it? Does Roddenberry and Musk for that matter know something about our human destiny, and are they trying to explain to the world this through storytelling, particularly Gene Roddenberry trying to tell us this story and reveal this kind of truth? Like we said, the imagination can reveal something deeper by way of archetypes and allegorical symbols, and it could be that the whole saga of Star Trek is meant to unfold our innate desire to explore and to go outside of the world.

Laurie: 26:16

That we know.

Joe: 26:17

And in doing so we know intuitively and instinctively that there is much more out there, much more than we realize, and that it will change our understanding of ourselves forever. And perhaps there is no more evident than in our actual quest to go into space and to reach the moon and the planets. And even though we have only just begun our space programs in the last 65 years, the pervasive and overwhelming sense of ad astra has always been with us.

Laurie: 26:46

Yeah, that may be true and it may be the basis and vision for the establishment of our future civilization, like we see in the Star Trek universe. And Elon Musk and SpaceX his company, one of his companies, if you notice, there have been more and more launches of the Falcon 9 that the media tells us of. Every time there is a launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, I'm always looking west from Arizona for the cool-looking display of a rocket's trail. And this is where the whole secret space program comes into play. It is possible for that to exist and I think it most likely does. I mean, we brought up Gary McKinnon several times now and his hacking into the Pentagon and NASA computers and he had discovered non-terrestrial officer information and naval type ships that did not match any known ships here on Earth.

Laurie: 27:43

So throw in the most recent talks by government officials. You know these past few years about UAPs such as the Tic Tac UFO, and you know that was reported to not be of this world. So it's most likely true that a secret space program does exist and this is only the beginning of our quest to reach the stars and travel among them. And you know, in an article that was published April 11th of this year, the 2024, by Space Launch Delta 30 Public Affairs. They wrote about a launch from Space Launch Complex 4 East which carried a US Space Force weather system follow-on microwave into low Earth orbit. Now, even a wording in this sounds scary.

Joe: 28:28

Yeah, it sure does. It makes you wonder what that is. I think most of it is considered classified. It makes you wonder what that is. I think most of it is considered classified. But yeah, microwave systems in low Earth orbit. It's hard to say what it could be, but it does go on to explain that the launch was coordinated by Space Launch Delta 30 and the Space Systems Command to support the new US Space Force and the Space Systems Command to support the new US Space Force. Of course, launches have continued to this day and become, since Vandenberg became part of the Space Force, became Vandenberg Space Force Base back in May of 2021.

Joe: 29:07

Before that, it was just Vandenberg Air Force Base, as it was established in 1957. And since then it has conducted more than 2,000 launches for the US Space Force, as well as the entire Department of Defense, NASA and even private contractors, just like SpaceX, which is probably the largest of the private companies that put assets into space, mostly sending up those Starlink satellites which you mentioned, and they are pretty spectacular to watch. We can see them here in Arizona whenever Falcon 9 goes up. You can see the exhaust trail because they seem to launch them in the evening so that it reflects or refracts the sunlight after it's set below the horizon. It looks really spectacular, uh, spectacular. And of course, eventually you see the the package of these satellites deploy and you see that long string of white lights like a train going through the sky and it freaks everybody out yeah it.

Laurie: 30:05

It freaked my daughter out the the last one that was launched from there, and she didn't know what to think of it. I had to explain it to her what it was well it.

Joe: 30:14

It was the one I saw a couple of years ago and it was like right around April of, I think, 2022. I was a little worried. It was right after the war and Ukraine started and things were kind of there was some talk going on between Russia and the West and I was like this isn't an ICBM. I hope You're like what is that? It could be the Falcon 9, or it could be the Russians watching an ICBM at us, hopefully. But yeah, a lot of people are probably thinking the same thing, yeah.

Laurie: 30:47

Yeah, all right. I mean, I sometimes question if they really are sending all those satellites or if it's just a cover for something else. And you know, this is only the beginning of our ingenuity, right, our imaginations can really go wild and create entire universes that you know. While they don't truly exist, they do occupy our thinking.

Joe: 31:10

If we can think about it, odds are, you know, it becomes reality later, and that is an important point, the story is fiction, it is not real, and there is no such thing as, say, the Borg in objective reality. It does exist within the schemata of our minds and, as such, is a manifestation, a synaptic substrate of our brains. Our brains do exist in objective, physical reality and our minds are processes of the neuronal networks that are within it. And our minds are so amazing and powerful that you can make the argument that our ideas formed are such that they are more real than the objects that are in the physical world. I mean, after all, it is ideas and our mental processes that give any meaning to those objects, at least as far as we perceive them. Is a tree, in its essence, real because it occupies space, or is it real because of the sensory information provided to our brains that tell us it's a tree? It's a difference between realism and ideism.

Joe: 32:19

Do things exist independently of the mind or does the mind precede the existence of things? Through our ability to understand and know truth as it forms within the constructs of our thoughts, what is meant by truth? Is it simply things that are demonstrated as being true in the physical world? And obviously there are things found to be true that are not or cannot be demonstrated as such, things like our innermost thoughts and our beliefs, our intuition and emotions. We know these are real because we experience them right in the physical world where we exist. So it's metaphysics versus science, dualism versus monism, realism versus ideism, spirituality versus corporality. Philosophers have been debating these kinds of concepts for centuries.

Laurie: 33:10

Yeah, I mean we can find many instances where the idea of something proceeds to something. Consider how, in the Next Generation series, which came out in the 90s, where there were flat screen television monitors and it wasn't too long after that that we were buying them, we now also have the across the forehead temperature readers, much like Dr Beverly Crusher used, and we now have body scanners just like that to look for obstructions in our bodies, like ground-penetrating radars. And we have the body scanners that look for the obstructions in our bodies. We have the flip phones. Now we have flat screen phones. When the next cell phones came out remember those? We were pretending to be like Captain Kirk, flipping them open and speaking Captain's Logs supplemental. I think I've discovered the answer, but to carry out my plan, oh yes, I do remember those days.

Joe: 34:12

It wasn't that long ago either. It really wasn't. I mean what, 15 years ago? Something like that.

Joe: 34:19

But, there are many more inventions of fiction from Star Trek that did become reality rather quickly and are used on a daily basis, such as the pad, the personal access display device. Those are the small flat handheld touch computers that are seen throughout, particularly the next generation. Now we use those daily, some hundreds of times daily. The Apple iPad or tablet. There's also that thing called a tricorder. That's pretty much the iPhone. Then there is Alexa um, just like the ship's computer, you talk to it, it answers you and you instruct it to to carry out some task and it does it. Uh, we now have that female tone voice interface in most of our homes, you know, sounding very much like the enterprise's ship's computer. And we we even have smartphone devices and systems that are called Android, much like data. The Android, all of the wireless and cellular telecommunication and computer processing is straight out of what I was seeing on those shows only 30 years ago, not a long time.

Laurie: 35:30

Yeah Well, you know. Speaking of Alexa?

Joe: 35:40

Yeah Well, you know if you speaking of Alexa, if you say Alexa engage, she'll respond and say, aye, aye, captain, that's clever, that's pretty cool actually.

Laurie: 36:01

But, and of course, there is the universal translators too. So I mean you can now use Google app. I mean I use it at work all the time and when I'm dealing with the public that you know, a lot of people you know are traveling back and forth, and you know I just used this app and it's got every language listed, a translator, and I mean you can communicate with every language on the planet. Now. And there is also the replicator, which can create food and other items on the spot. Well, I mean 3D printers, anyone. I mean we can't create food by them yet, but I mean that's coming, I'm sure that is coming, yeah.

Joe: 36:26

Yeah, that's coming.

Laurie: 36:28

And remember, captain Picard, you know T Earl Grey, and it just makes the tea right there for him. Um, yeah, I think that would be. That's almost like a, uh, a k-cup, or we call them the k-pods for the coffees. Yeah, it just needs to be, like you know, pre-selected and put in the wall or something like that, and then all of a sudden you know it'd be voice activated and you can say, yeah, folgers, coffee or something you know, right, um, yeah, and, and I mean we can't not forget about the, uh, the, the holodecks Um, we are not quite there yet, but we will be someday, because we already have virtual reality, like which some of them are so good that you actually feel like you are there Just watching some of these funny videos where people are playing a game and they're beating the place up or they're scared because something's chasing them, because it's so real, they're in another world or wherever, and yet the whole time you're still in your home.

Joe: 37:32

Right. I think the only thing that's different about what we have now with those virtual reality games is the headset. You don't need the headset. You just step into the room and there you are. You are in your virtual reality as if you were really there, with nothing encumbered. If we ever get to that point where you can just simply walk into a room and the entire program of imagery and sensory input is given to you without having to wear anything, yeah, then we're. Then we're on the enterprise at that point.

Laurie: 38:04

So and we know that that's coming, because just think of the green screens and movies. Already All you got to do is just put that in a room or whatever, and it's game on.

Joe: 38:13

Kind of is already there when we talk about that green screen um effect for giving that images, all that fancy scenery we see in the movies of things blowing up and buildings falling and if you ever watch, you know clips of how they they make these things. I mean, you see people running around and all there is behind them is a green screen, there's a green felt, there's nothing there that is running. And then all that other stuff is computer generated against you know, it's imposed on the green screen and it looks like you know they're in that city. That's, you know, has buildings crumbling and cars being flipped over and everything like that. So yeah, if we ever get to the point where you can make that like in your home, so you're not watching it on TV but you're watching it like right there in your house, that means we've invented the holodeck as they have it on the enterprise. So yeah, that may be too far away, no nope.

Joe: 39:07

So, for all you Trekkies out there, we hope you enjoyed this topic. We're wrapping up the show now. We do love Star Trek and science fiction. The whole franchise is showing no sign of slowing down. Whether or not the quality of the drama is what it used to be, that's up for debate, depending on your own personal opinion about that, but it's certain that the franchise is not slowing slowing down. Neither is the imaginative work going into making more episodes, and we are excited to see what other creations may one day turn into reality from it. Like with everything, only time will tell. So we hope that all of you are not just tracky fans, but everyone listening enjoy today's show. Um, be sure to join us again in two weeks, um, when we, just as we did today with star trek, we will discuss the epic theme and saga of a different movie, a different franchise, that one being battle star galactica yeah, very excited about that one too.

Laurie: 40:14

Remember everyone, if you and if you guys are looking to, you know, purchase our novel, the Battle Planet AD, relic of the Gods, you must go to Amazon Books. You know, not the typical Amazon site, that where you can get all the other stuff. Some people have been telling me that they couldn't find the book and that they can only find it on like Barnes and Noble until I had to show them to. You know, go to Amazon Books and then type in the title. So, you know, we hope that helps you if you've been having troubles with that.

Joe: 40:44

Yeah, yeah. Thanks, laurie, for explaining and clarifying that. Yeah, so until our next show, folks stay safe, stay cool and stay curious.