Make it SO!

Captain Picard used this command to initiate action. The other day when a Cessna training plane strayed into DC airspace causing the keystone cop event that demonstrated our collective incompetence I kept asking myself,

Don’t they have a hailing frequency? I mean Captain Picard did. If he wanted to talk to any non-federation ship he would say, “open a channel on all hailing frequencies.” The problem it turns out is that the little plane (like my wife flies) wasn’t tuned to the right channel. 121.9 or something. If Picard could do this can’t the US Government blast an all possible little plane channels an emergency communication and hail that errant pilot without scrambling the Air Force or causing the white house staff to (Mostly) evacuate?? Am I missing something here? Could someone explain? Doesn’t anyone in government watch Star Trek Next Gen?

Another thing. In a post a couple days ago I postulated that the blog in whatever permutation it ends up will change everything. Newspapers are static non-dynamic unplugged blogs you can carry; magazines because of their narrower interest are interest specific static portable blogs. Talk radio had a big influence in the last century. Does anyone really believe this will continue exponentially? So, look at Star Trek again. Remember, “Personal Log, Star Date 4538-2”.

Will there be personal logs posted somewhere just like on Star Trek? Will it become a form of interpersonal relationship with people “Conversing face to face but not in real time”. Is that where it’s all headed? Or is it like in Logan’s Run where the “Machine” gins up someone who has entered the system looking for a relationship. Reading science fiction imaginings helps us understand where we could be heading.

I have seen every single Star Trek Next Gen. Some several times. Many are profound and a few are moving. And sadly are too many I think are just stupid. Star Trek comes out of my long-term love affair with Sci Fi. I confess much of what passes for Science Fiction today in literature and movies is banal. TV writers for the most part don’t get it. They don’t ask the questions that Star Trek or the Matrix did. Read some of the really old Science Fiction (Pre 1950) and you will see what I mean. Before it became profitable and commercial.

As I think about a book written in the early 50’s called “One Child Too Many”. A fictional story of a futuristic world where the population police will put you in jail for having too many children and contributing to the population problem. The saga had to do with the protagonist and his wife and child escaping capture. CHINA ANYONE?

Or consider the story, “The Machine Stops” written in 1909 where Lazy Boy Lardos live in a virtual machine controlled environment of space and relationships. The net goes down, they are stuck. So in desperation they emerge to the outside to discover the world is in fact a beautiful place. X-Box, Internet, TV, the World of Blog and therefore not having any actual personal relationships, how far are we from that today?

I won’t mention 1984, Animal Farm, War of the Worlds, Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 leagues under the Sea, The Martian Chronicles, and hundreds of others. They contain clues to what could be. They are not only cautionary but also helpful in understanding where we are. They contain specific “Prophetic” clues. Not Biblical but societal in prophetic terms.

I am teaching the Old Testament Prophecy of Zechariah right now. I am always amazed at how precise Biblical Prophecy is. Daniel, Zechariah and Revelations are The Drudge Report written thousands of years in advance of real time events; almost to the letter. We need to have ears to hear and eyes to see what the Spirit says.