Thoughts on the New Year
• The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The High Ground” (1990) predicted that Ireland would be unified in 2024 after a successful terrorist campaign. The episode created quite the controversy across the pond, where it was banned for years. In reality, Ireland is still divided into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, although there have been some recent calls for a referendum on reunification. The episode also featured a fictional drug called felicium, which was used to treat radiation poisoning. In reality, there is no such drug, but there are some treatments for radiation exposure, such as potassium iodide and Prussian blue. To Star Trek’s defense, it’s never stated that felicium existed in 2024, as the events in the episode take place in the twenty-fourth century.
• The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Past Tense” (1995) depicted a dystopian 2024 where the United States had become a police state with massive social inequality and homelessness, dare I say, a Trumpian society? Sisko, Dax, and Dr. Bashir travel back in time to this era and get involved in a violent uprising that led to the creation of the Sanctuary Districts, where the poor and marginalized are segregated from the rest of society. The heroes end up accidentally breaking history, and Sisko has to steal the identity of a historical figure to fix it. In reality, the United States is still a democracy—for now—with a mixed economy and a welfare system, although there are still issues of poverty, racism, and civil unrest. The episode also featured a fictional device called a neural implant, which allowed people to access the internet directly from their brains. In reality, there is no such device, but I’m pretty sure Elon Musk is working on it. There are some experiments with brain-computer interfaces, such as Neuralink and BrainGate. Count me out; resistance is not futile.
• The movie Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) showed a 2024 where the Earth’s ozone layer had been depleted by pollution, causing global warming and environmental disasters. The main character, Connor MacLeod, had created a shield around the planet to protect it from the sun’s radiation, but this also plunged the world into perpetual darkness and tyranny. In reality, the Earth’s ozone layer has been recovering since the 1980s thanks to the Montreal Protocol, which banned the use of ozone-depleting substances. The shield also violated the laws of physics, as it would have required an enormous amount of energy and material to maintain.
• The movie The Thirteenth Floor (1999) portrayed a 2024 where virtual reality simulations were indistinguishable from reality. The main character, Douglas Hall, discovered that he was living in a simulation of 1990s Los Angeles created by his colleague Hannon Fuller, who was actually from 2024. He also learned that 2024 was itself a simulation of 1937 created by another layer of reality. In reality, virtual reality technology is still far from being able to create such realistic simulations, although there have been some advances in graphics, sound, and haptics. The movie also raised philosophical questions about the nature of reality and consciousness, which are still debated by scientists and philosophers.
Science fiction books and movies have often used 2024 as a setting for their stories, sometimes with accuracy and sometimes with imagination. Just like Orwell popularized 1984 by just reversing the digits of the year in which he wrote the book (1948). Whether they are optimistic or pessimistic, realistic or fantastical, they reflect our hopes and fears for the future. What will 2024 will bring? Only time will tell, but sadly, a dystopian future where America has fallen into the rule of an autocratic dictator is still a very real possibility in the next 366 days….