Aetheric Traveler
28th January 2012, 13:04
Why do real astronauts get taller due to lack of gravity during extended periods in space, while Star Trek actors who travel at warp speeds for decades of re-runs appear shorter in person than they do on TV?
Someday, I'm going to have the chance to pull this little quip on a Star Trek actor in person just for the fun of it. I have never been a person to go to conventions even though many would call me a Trekkie for my love of the original series. I dislike labels because they conjure up images in people's minds of the worst possible things sometimes associated with those labels and stereotypes of those images. Yet, I'm going to risk labeling people in general as you read this post, although, certainly not everyone is like the image the following paragraphs will paint. Bear that in mind as you read, using Star Trek as a comparison to today's life, because much of the toys of ST have become reality, while some of the lessons of "what not to become" are coming true, too.
Just because I believe in all the great lessons the Original Star Trek series taught, doesn't mean I wanna dress up as Mr. Spock and put on an Enterprise crewman shirt. Each episode seemed to have something important to say during a time of television programming when content was still a major priority, almost as much as the sponsor's message about why I should buy their product over the competitor's.
I suppose the real gist of this post is that today's internet and television programming is much less about content than it is about molding people's perceptions of the reality around them in relation to buying products and participating in a product driven society which is becoming more and more techno-fied every year.
A couple decades ago, if you saw someone walking down the street talking to what appeared to be just themself, you'd move over to the other side of the street. However, today, with our society becoming more and more Borg all the time, we harldy give it a second thought as we see the little Star Trek ear-piece hanging onto their head like Mr. Spock or Lt. Uhura.
If that was all we had to consider, it would be simple, but it's not.
Electro-Magnetic Radiation or EMR from these little headpieces and cel-phones is a proven source of cancer while the industries that make and sell them advertise them as safe. Yet, the problem is being given to little children like so much candy on a screen in the form of the latest generation of "connected" toys like iPads, Blackberrys, etc, so much so, that if you walk into any social spot, you'll see children of all ages, 5 to 75, absorbed (read that as assimilated) by their little glowing screens while they walk and text or scroll as the world around them drags them along like so much flotsam on an electronic tide of humanity. The world around them is ignored because their brain is "attached" to the little screen.
Problems like distracted driving never had entire public service commercials devoted to them. What's next, distracted walking? Distracted Injury Insurance Policies?
Sure there are great advantages to cel-phones and 4G Android and the like, but is it any different from when people's lives were being taken over by television programming to the extent that many folks would weave their schedules around being in front of the set to watch "All My Children" or "All in the Family" or "Wheel of Fortune" ???
What is the good of so much technology if it dehumanizes people into the lowest form of slaves----technobots? It's like living false realities that make our lives smaller and smaller, decade after decade, so that living life in person seems less big and less real, while the real people doing real things have become larger than life in people's eyes, whether it's sports or politics or activism or science or technology.
It's like real people get bigger for doing real things, while our lives, the viewers, are part of a never-ending series of TV re-runs, travelling at faster and faster warp speeds, with our lives getting smaller and smaller in person all the time.
What's my suggestion?
Turn off the Blackberry or Android at least once a day and put your bare feet onto Mother Earth for 30 minutes each day for some "REAL" electromagnetic radiation and get grounded back into reality.
This suggestion comes from a man who doesn't own one, but will have to get one someday when the necessity outweighs the resistance to buying one.
Happy life,
AT
Someday, I'm going to have the chance to pull this little quip on a Star Trek actor in person just for the fun of it. I have never been a person to go to conventions even though many would call me a Trekkie for my love of the original series. I dislike labels because they conjure up images in people's minds of the worst possible things sometimes associated with those labels and stereotypes of those images. Yet, I'm going to risk labeling people in general as you read this post, although, certainly not everyone is like the image the following paragraphs will paint. Bear that in mind as you read, using Star Trek as a comparison to today's life, because much of the toys of ST have become reality, while some of the lessons of "what not to become" are coming true, too.
Just because I believe in all the great lessons the Original Star Trek series taught, doesn't mean I wanna dress up as Mr. Spock and put on an Enterprise crewman shirt. Each episode seemed to have something important to say during a time of television programming when content was still a major priority, almost as much as the sponsor's message about why I should buy their product over the competitor's.
I suppose the real gist of this post is that today's internet and television programming is much less about content than it is about molding people's perceptions of the reality around them in relation to buying products and participating in a product driven society which is becoming more and more techno-fied every year.
A couple decades ago, if you saw someone walking down the street talking to what appeared to be just themself, you'd move over to the other side of the street. However, today, with our society becoming more and more Borg all the time, we harldy give it a second thought as we see the little Star Trek ear-piece hanging onto their head like Mr. Spock or Lt. Uhura.
If that was all we had to consider, it would be simple, but it's not.
Electro-Magnetic Radiation or EMR from these little headpieces and cel-phones is a proven source of cancer while the industries that make and sell them advertise them as safe. Yet, the problem is being given to little children like so much candy on a screen in the form of the latest generation of "connected" toys like iPads, Blackberrys, etc, so much so, that if you walk into any social spot, you'll see children of all ages, 5 to 75, absorbed (read that as assimilated) by their little glowing screens while they walk and text or scroll as the world around them drags them along like so much flotsam on an electronic tide of humanity. The world around them is ignored because their brain is "attached" to the little screen.
Problems like distracted driving never had entire public service commercials devoted to them. What's next, distracted walking? Distracted Injury Insurance Policies?
Sure there are great advantages to cel-phones and 4G Android and the like, but is it any different from when people's lives were being taken over by television programming to the extent that many folks would weave their schedules around being in front of the set to watch "All My Children" or "All in the Family" or "Wheel of Fortune" ???
What is the good of so much technology if it dehumanizes people into the lowest form of slaves----technobots? It's like living false realities that make our lives smaller and smaller, decade after decade, so that living life in person seems less big and less real, while the real people doing real things have become larger than life in people's eyes, whether it's sports or politics or activism or science or technology.
It's like real people get bigger for doing real things, while our lives, the viewers, are part of a never-ending series of TV re-runs, travelling at faster and faster warp speeds, with our lives getting smaller and smaller in person all the time.
What's my suggestion?
Turn off the Blackberry or Android at least once a day and put your bare feet onto Mother Earth for 30 minutes each day for some "REAL" electromagnetic radiation and get grounded back into reality.
This suggestion comes from a man who doesn't own one, but will have to get one someday when the necessity outweighs the resistance to buying one.
Happy life,
AT