Star Trek has provided viewers with many fascinating insights into what the future could bring. Among them, there’s an episode that famously takes place in 2024. Does this show’s vision of the year look anything like what we’re living right now?
When Did the Characters Go Back to 2024?
You may recall that earlier shows had spoken about massive events in the 21st century that helped shape the world we see in the future centuries where most of the Star Trek franchise is set. However, a Deep Space Nine episode from 1995 lets us see how 2024 was also a key year on the path to a more peaceful future. The subject was covered in the Past Tense episode that was aired in two parts.
Commander Sisko and his crew member Dr. Bashir accidentally end up in San Francisco in 2024 and are taken to the Sanctuary District by police officers, where the unemployed are kept apart from the rest of the population. Sisko reveals that all the big American cities have this type of facility, causing some commentators to discuss their idea of how close the show now is to reality. We don’t hear a lot more about 2024’s history in the episode, but it feels like it was a crucial year on the path to the peaceful future that the show generally represents.
What Else Has Star Trek Predicted?
During its decades on the air, Star Trek has famously predicted several new types of technology that later entered our lives, including tablets, communicators, and voice-activated computers. The Emergency Medical Hologram in Vovager is another good example, with hologram doctors now bringing medical attention to people who live in remote locations. The game of 3D chess is another example from the show that reached real life although it’s not based on exactly the same gameplay we’ve seen on our screens.
The crew often played games on the Holodeck and engineers have been attempting to use AI to recreate this environment in real life. They also often played games of chance using cards and dice, with a look at the games currently available in Bitcoin casinos revealing similar games. Cryptos like Bitcoin and Litecoin can be used in these casinos although Enterprise crew members might be confused since money no longer technically exists in their universe. However, they would recognize the card and dice games as being similar to the games they play.
What Other Predictions to Look Out for?
Star Trek has raised plenty of eyebrows with a series of bold predictions about what will happen on Earth at certain times. It’s predicted that baseball will no longer be played after the 2040s!
The way that Star Trek looks into the future can provide us with fascinating coincidences as we get closer to the period that older episodes regarded as distant in time. For the moment, the series has shown us some interesting pieces of technology close to objects that now exist, but there are still some interesting predictions that fans will want to keep an eye out for.
