Image (Credit): William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson on TheLate Show with Stephen Colbert. (CBS)
This week’s image comes from an episode of TheLate Show with Stephen Colbert, which aired earlier this week. Mr. Colbert was interviewing William Shatner and Neil deGrasse Tyson about the absurdities on Earth and in the galaxy.
In an odd twist, Dr. Tyson was generally quiet on the sofa while Mr. Shatner carried the show with his antics. The image above shows one of the few times Dr. Tyson had a chance to explain a point. It is worth watching.
Shatner and Tyson will soon be on the road together with their own show. It is a live stage event on Wednesday, June 18, called ROCKING: The Universe is Absurd.
Credit: Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay
If you do not usually visit the stories in Aeon, you may want to make an exception and check out a new article titled “Extraterrestrial Tongues.” It discusses the ways science fiction have portrayed different languages and how it may be too simplistic considering all of the possibilities for “communication” with an alien civilization.
The author cites a few examples from Star Trek, including the Klingon language as well as one episode with Captain Picard (the “Darmok” episode) where the alien speaks in allegories. Of course, any language that makes reference to an unknown history will be almost impossible to understand.
I expect mathematics will probably come to the fore as the primary language from the start. Moreover, I think it is more likely that AI machines will be communicating between the stars rather than humans, but time will tell.
Given our communication problems here on Earth when the underlying language is well understood by all, we will have a mighty challenge in the future surviving an encounter with alien intelligence. We can only hope that the alien civilization does the hard work beforehand to ensure they have a chance to be understood.
Image (Credit): Crew from the Netflix series “USS Callister: Into Infinity”. (Netflix)
It’s hard to believe that we first met the crew of the USS Callister back in late 2017. The Black Mirror episode was a dark parody of the Star Trek universe where one twisted employee trapped the DNA clones of other employees in his make believe world. It was a typical twisted warning about technology in a way that one Black Mirror can deliver.
Well, the USS Callister crew is back in season 7 of the series in a new episode called “USS Callister: Into Infinity.” It do not want to give too much away, but most of your favorite characters have returned – both copies.
Some critics are skeptical about the returning episode, claiming the creators of Black Mirror have run out of ideas, yet I bet many will agree that it was a great idea back in 2017, and catching up with our old friends is fun.
A lot has changed in the real world with the rise of AI, so the central plot may be a bit out of date, but that make it more of a retro future, if that makes sense.
If you forget some of the first episode, check out this recap from Netflix.
And if you still want more, don’t worry, there is a chance that a third episode will be produced to complete the trilogy at some point, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
So sit back and enjoy the second episode. We can only hope we don’t need to wait another 7-8 years for the final episode to drop.
Note: Check out this video from Netflix as well showing the actors returning to the set for the second episode so many years later.
While we await the return of the series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a new Star Trek film will premiere later this month, and this time it focuses on the dark side of the Federation.
On January 24, Star Trek: Section 31will premiere on Paramount+. If you anything about Emperor Philippa Georgiou from the television series Star Trek: Discovery, you will know she came from a mirror universe and found her home in the United Federation of Planets’ black ops division where she thrived. Later in that series, she was sent to another timeline and disappeared from the show. Well, she is back, this time running a night club.
The trailer for the new film promised plenty of action, as well as the trademark humor that follows Philippa Georgiou. She was one of the brighter spots in the Discovery series, where everyone else was usually too stressed out to have any fun.
The idea of another film or series involving the secret Section 31 has been rolling around for some time now. While a new series may have been preferable, a film is better than nothing. Moreover, maybe it will lead to more.
Just expect some fireworks from Trekkies because the film plays with the Star Trek timeline and emphasizes the dark side of the United Federation of Planets. I am not so concerned about the timeline since that was destroyed sometime ago when the films were rebooted, but the critics may have a point about the focus on the dark side. That said, we have at least two more seasons of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds to look forward to with its hopeful vision for the Federation.
I am okay with the balance. We all need some escapism, but we cannot banish the real world forever. It will leak in one way or another.
“NASA has received hundreds of thousands of letter from the space-oriented “Star Trek” group asking that the name “Enterprise” be given to the craft. This group comprises millions of individuals who are deeply interested in our space program.”
-Statement in a September 3, 1976 letter to President Richard Nixon from the Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Affairs regarding the naming of the nation’s first space shuttle. If they space shuttle had been delayed until after 1977, maybe the “Millennium Falcon” would have been on the list of top names as well.
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