I'm going to say that Star Trek future is unlikely because the galaxy can't beas populated as it is shown. If the Alpha Quadrant was as busy as it is described to be in the shows, we'd know it.
While people can argue some form of enlightened 'Prime Directive' style argument, keep in mind that's incredibly stupid. Because you do not wait to announce your presence until after a society develops faster-than-light, time displacement-ignoring kinetic weapons. FTL is an arbitrary measurement, and there's nothing stopping a species who can travelgreat distances already from possibly colonizing even beyond its system, and sending probes out into space and accidentally finding you, or detecting transmissions or alien activity possibly well before they have it.
Given the fact that the energy requirements, and time displacement are things and FTL may be considered incredibly dangerous, by law they might not use craft that can achieve those speeds and still yet develop the type ofsociety that is hyper-advanced and is still sending out a bucket load of ships.
Hell, they might even harnass a localised ringularity event 50 years travel away to hyperaccelerate exploratory craft and a civilization might just simply rely on that to get them places even if no one else will be alive to know the craft will wreach its destination...
FTL is a stupid, arbitrary measure. And because it's a stupid, arbitrary measure ... it makes more sense to make contact with a civilization assuming you wish to condust peaceful cultural and diplomatic exchange before they decide to create a black hole-centric immortal empire that transgresses the boundaries of time itself, only for them to discover that aliens have already taken over everything they were pinning their hopes on to begin with. Whether or not they have FTL ...
So let's ixnay the idea right here and now and that whatever 'Star Trek future society' is it's just going to be us.
And yeah, there's probably a good chance we'll die before achieving a Star Trek style future.
Or more accurate to say, we'll achieve it ... it just won't be as ourselves, now.
I'm hoping for something more like the Borg, to be honest. The human hive of constant interactivity and sensory data sharing networks leading to a dissolution of the individual. When we're talking being able to build a Dyson sphere, individuals outside the hive are bad news.
Moreover, for us to achieve something so collectively in unison would likely require us to remove concepts of war and having a common, collective, incredibly advanced understanding of human pain and hardship that is both a combination of scientific understandings of neuroscience as well as elevated empathy.
And the best way to achieve that is through the dissolution of traditional concepts of physical isolation. Being able to feel another's pain, being able to feel the emptiness of their bellies, being able to see through another's eyes as that privately funded mercenary shoots a local who is pissed off that Royal Dutch Petroleum has poisoned their kids and is bankrolling a junta-style government that lets said mercenary shoot them...
Being able to instantly determine immorality of agency and very quickly penalize offending individuals...
As soon as you achieve that level of interconnectivity, suddenly it becomes the prime motivator of the collective to improve the living conditions of everyone within the human hive. It comes down to empathy. And nothing is more empathic than feeling that twisting bullet tear through human flesh as the person who is getting shot themselves.
While people can argue some form of enlightened 'Prime Directive' style argument, keep in mind that's incredibly stupid. Because you do not wait to announce your presence until after a society develops faster-than-light, time displacement-ignoring kinetic weapons. FTL is an arbitrary measurement, and there's nothing stopping a species who can travelgreat distances already from possibly colonizing even beyond its system, and sending probes out into space and accidentally finding you, or detecting transmissions or alien activity possibly well before they have it.
Given the fact that the energy requirements, and time displacement are things and FTL may be considered incredibly dangerous, by law they might not use craft that can achieve those speeds and still yet develop the type ofsociety that is hyper-advanced and is still sending out a bucket load of ships.
Hell, they might even harnass a localised ringularity event 50 years travel away to hyperaccelerate exploratory craft and a civilization might just simply rely on that to get them places even if no one else will be alive to know the craft will wreach its destination...
FTL is a stupid, arbitrary measure. And because it's a stupid, arbitrary measure ... it makes more sense to make contact with a civilization assuming you wish to condust peaceful cultural and diplomatic exchange before they decide to create a black hole-centric immortal empire that transgresses the boundaries of time itself, only for them to discover that aliens have already taken over everything they were pinning their hopes on to begin with. Whether or not they have FTL ...
So let's ixnay the idea right here and now and that whatever 'Star Trek future society' is it's just going to be us.
And yeah, there's probably a good chance we'll die before achieving a Star Trek style future.
Or more accurate to say, we'll achieve it ... it just won't be as ourselves, now.
I'm hoping for something more like the Borg, to be honest. The human hive of constant interactivity and sensory data sharing networks leading to a dissolution of the individual. When we're talking being able to build a Dyson sphere, individuals outside the hive are bad news.
Moreover, for us to achieve something so collectively in unison would likely require us to remove concepts of war and having a common, collective, incredibly advanced understanding of human pain and hardship that is both a combination of scientific understandings of neuroscience as well as elevated empathy.
And the best way to achieve that is through the dissolution of traditional concepts of physical isolation. Being able to feel another's pain, being able to feel the emptiness of their bellies, being able to see through another's eyes as that privately funded mercenary shoots a local who is pissed off that Royal Dutch Petroleum has poisoned their kids and is bankrolling a junta-style government that lets said mercenary shoot them...
Being able to instantly determine immorality of agency and very quickly penalize offending individuals...
As soon as you achieve that level of interconnectivity, suddenly it becomes the prime motivator of the collective to improve the living conditions of everyone within the human hive. It comes down to empathy. And nothing is more empathic than feeling that twisting bullet tear through human flesh as the person who is getting shot themselves.