The world is a strange place. It's also wonderful. I love how diverse it is, but I wonder if this is a problem for our future.
Please, hear me out.
When you watch shows like Star Trek, it seems as though the human race is united and well defined. We all speak one language (maybe there's a ship-wide translation system?). I don't think religion or politics are an issue. Neither is race. Though the humans aboard these ships have differences, the issues that currently divide us are not dividing them. They meet different alien species who war with each other, but most Klingons aren't killing other Klingons, nor Romulans other Romulans, etc.
But if Star Trek is an example of what the future of humanity is, will we have to approach a singularity as this person suggests in their article?
If this singularity is needed, does this mean that we must eradicate all cultural, religious, political, and language differences to get there? Do we need to adopt one language? Do we redefine culture by taking only some aspects from each culture to make one super culture? Do we need to leave all spiritual thought on the curb and decide we just happened and it doesn't really matter how we came to be? Do we need to become a people of Earth rather than remember which countries we are from?
How can we truly unite when we spend so much time deciding which political ideology we identify with and attack others who think differently? This question applies to religion also.
How will we present ourselves to aliens as a unified species?
Do we need to?
In many of our fictional representations of aliens, we assume they are one unified species. They all look similar and they don't appear to have as much division as we do on our planet. Alien Nation did touch on some different views as some frowned upon mating with humans. They also talked about different physiology as the alien women needed to mate with more than one male to become pregnant. Of course, the human male wasn't happy about this and needed time to accept that he had to share his bride. Yes, I realize that sounds bad given that women are all too often thought of as the property of their father or husband still today. It was an 80s show, so give it a break.
Can we ever overcome our issues with gender?
V is rather like our nightmare situation. Aliens come to convince us that they are here to save us, but they really just want to take our planet from us.
I haven't watched much Star Trek. I loved The Next Generation, but Deep Space 9 didn't captivate me. I'm interested in Discovery and thinking that while I wait for it to come, I'll watch Beyond.
Maybe the aliens are as messed up as Earth and that's why they haven't made contact yet. Maybe they're just as scared as we are that we'd just want to conquer them. Our history as a species really doesn't help us in this regard.
The Doctor would eradicate the Daleks if a human companion didn't stop him. Are some differences impossible to overcome?
Is total forgiveness for past atrocities really possible?
I have no idea where humanity is really headed, but I hope we sort some of this out before we populate the galaxy with more humans.
Salut,
R~
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