# Trek Nerds: Is Star Trek set far enough into the future? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502 "2006-09-05T14:09:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/1 "2006-09-05T14:09:47Z")
This is a pet peeve of mine. I wonder if anyone else shares it. Do you think the setting for Star Trek is set far enough into the future? (Any series of course) I think NOT!! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/2 "2006-09-05T14:14:23Z")
A lot of sci-fi movies/shows have already missed their marks. Technology just never made it there. **Space: 1999** **2001: A Space Odyssey** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/3 "2006-09-05T14:34:39Z")
> [@](#): > > A lot of sci-fi movies/shows have already missed their marks. Technology just never made it there. > > Space: 1999 > > 2001: A Space Odyssey One of my first posts was to lament the lack of **Space:1999** and **2001** calendars, not to mentioned **deathrace 2000**. I’m still hopin’ they get their act together for the calendar for **2010: The Year We Make Contact**. They’ve got four more freakin’ years! As far as Star Trek goes, we’ve clearly missed the events of Gary 7 and the Eugenics Wars of “Space Seed”. They’re clearly in a different time continuum. And one with more rapidly-moving events. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/4 "2006-09-05T14:56:29Z")
Zooming around the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds? Any year is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/5 "2006-09-05T14:58:57Z")
Well, “technically” they’re not zooming around the galaxy at FTL speeds. They’re “warping” outside of space. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/6 "2006-09-05T15:05:10Z")
Well, we missed the whole Eugenics War. That can’t be bad. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/7 "2006-09-05T15:10:55Z")
[QUOTE=Bryan Ekers] Well, we missed the whole Eugenics War. That can’t be bad. [/QUOTE] According to the spin-off novels, we just didn’t notice. And to answer the OP, no. I don’t believe effectively-FTL star travel is impossible, but it won’t be happening 50-60 years from now the way it did in the Star Trek universe. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/8 "2006-09-05T15:34:02Z")
I think if we had continued, at the same rate of progress, our development of space technologies after the Apollo program ended, certain elements of the ST timeline would be more in sync: Zefram Cochrane, for example, being able to build a small-scale space ship that’s launched by a Titan, or whatever it was. Whether or not it would have been warp-capable is more speculative, but it would be consistent for him to have been able to launch _something_. As it stands in our timeline, following a global war, there’s no way. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/9 "2006-09-05T17:20:39Z")
Oddly enough, they got the moon launch right - 1969, on a Wednesday. The missing piece is that we don’t know how hard warp drives are to build, given the insight into the physics. Maybe they’re fairly simple. In that case, the universe could be right on track, since Earth would have been given a tremendous boost from contact with the Vulcans. (All the physics would be done, after that it’s engineering.) Are there any books covering the time between First Contact and Enterprise? Those would be interesting times indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/10 "2006-09-05T17:22:02Z")
> [@](#): > > A lot of sci-fi movies/shows have already missed their marks. Technology just never made it there. > > Space: 1999 > > 2001: A Space Odyssey The TV series _Lost in Space_ set the launching of the Jupiter 2 to Alpha Centauri in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/11 "2006-09-05T18:06:56Z")
According to Blade Runner, we will have flying cars and android AIs by 2019. My general rule for setting a date is to at least double the timeframe originally selected. Star Trek’s timeline may be a little slow, but it is by no means the most egregious example of bad planning. Although I suppose we could have rapid technological expansion if the Vulcans or whoever come and help us. Dune had the right idea. It takes place something like 20,000 years in the future, and at that point one could say anything about technological progress. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/12 "2006-09-05T18:58:28Z")
I don’t know how you can possibly say that. If the things Star Trek covered, about the only thing that hasn’t kept up is the pesky space stuff. Computers, medicine, communications, social interaction, etc. have all outstripped what ST thought we wouldn’t see for another 300 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/13 "2006-09-05T19:29:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Computers, medicine, communications, social interaction, etc. have all outstripped what ST thought we wouldn’t see for another 300 years or so. Yes and no, on the computers… Ra power now is more than what Roddenbery envisioned, but the interfaces are still far behind. “Computer… Computer? Hello, computer.” And if we’re discussing other shows, I seem to recall that the Jetsons took place in the 1990s, and Buck Rodgers launched in 1984, but I’m not sure I can find a cite for either. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/14 "2006-09-05T19:39:04Z")
The Jetsons was originally supposed to take place in the year 2062, which is a hundred years after the show’s debut. Jetsons: The Movie pins the series as taking place “late in the 21st century.” ---
**Author:** ![2lazy2pee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/4bbf92/32.png) [@2lazy2pee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2lazy2pee)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/15 "2006-09-05T19:39:16Z")
The Jetsons takes place in the 21st century. A humorous example of this takes place in a Harvey Birdman episode takes place when George tells Harvey, “Greetings, friend. We come from the far-off year of 2002.” Harvey checks the date on his desk calendar and notices it’s 2004. We’ve caught up with the Jetsons in some areas, too. We don’t have domestic robots as sophisticated as Rosie. But we have Roomba vacuum cleaners and robotic lawn mowers. Remember the episode where Elroy’s friend was watching the Flintstones on a wrist TV? We have those now. And George would turn on a viewscreen to read his newspaper. Somewhat like the way we get news off the internet. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/16 "2006-09-05T19:41:00Z")
And Buck Rogers isn’t from 1984 either. The character first appeared as Anthony Rogers, the central character of Philip Francis Nowlan’s novella “Armageddon 2419 A.D.”, which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. In other words, Buck Rogers is from the 25th century. ---
**Author:** ![2lazy2pee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/4bbf92/32.png) [@2lazy2pee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2lazy2pee)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/17 "2006-09-05T19:45:55Z")
[QUOTE=aegypt] And Buck Rogers isn’t from 1984 either. The character first appeared as Anthony Rogers, the central character of Philip Francis Nowlan’s novella “Armageddon 2419 A.D.”, which first appeared in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories. In other words, Buck Rogers is from the 25th century. [/QUOTE] Yes, his adventures take place in the 25th century. But Rogers was born in the 20th century. After losing consciousness from the mine gas, he awakes in the 25th century. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/18 "2006-09-05T20:28:21Z")
According to the Buck Rogers TV series, “in 1987 the U.S. sent out the last of its deep space probes.” ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/19 "2006-09-05T20:47:55Z")
A phrase I’ve heard tossed about in discussions like this is “people tend to overestimate change in the short term and underestimate change in the long term”. (Not sure who first said it. Google shows lots of hits on variations of the phrase but most of them are unattributed. One site says it was first used by Robert Cringely in “Triumph of the Nerds” but I can’t find confirmation of that.) It’s only been 40 years since TOS aired and we still have 200 or more until the TOS timeframe. Given the quote above, it seems reasonable that the series would have missed a lot of near-future projections (overestimating the short term) but that by the time the 23rd century actually arrives we may find that it is far ahead of what Star Trek predicted. (Well, there is of course that annoying fact that FTL travel is actually impossible, but beyond that anyway…) ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502/20 "2006-09-05T20:56:22Z")
Well, I would say that the Star Trek concept that all of humanity living in harmony is more out there in terms of timing than the technological aspect. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trek-nerds-is-star-trek-set-far-enough-into-the-future/371502.md?page=2)