If you’ve been even remotely nerd-culture adjacent, then chances are pretty good you’ve seen an episode or twenty of Star Trek, in the case of this example the fan-favorite “Next Generation” series…
See, this re-imagining of Gene Roddenberry’s original vision from the 1960’s of a distant future of galavanting space cowboys had a pretty tall order to fill… be respectful of the original material, chart a wholly new path forward, and do it on the shoulders of a mostly unheard-of cast of actors running around in multicolored pajamas waiving handheld vacuum cleaners at aliens that almost always spoke perfect English…
Well, one of the ways The Next Generation’s writers found to tell the “same old story” in some new and interesting ways was by leaning in on the technology of this fantastical future, and as one of those kids with his eyes glued far too close to the screen for more hours than my mother ever knew about… the best expression of that even-more-future tech was this black cube of a room, criss-crossed with neon yellow lines that, at the mere prompt of a request, would place you in a perfect reproduction of just about any place you could imagine. It was called a Holodeck and, well, it was magical!
Want to see the explosion of Pompeii from a mostly-safe distance? No problem. Get in some light cardio doing hand-to-hand combat with never ending waves of vampires? Coming right up. Walk across the moon in shorts and flip flops just because you can? Okay, now this is starting to sound more like a Doctor Who episode, but I digress…
See, even in this world of fictional teleporters, Warp Drive, and 3D printers (AHEM), I mean Replicators… I was still most fascinated by a room what could place you anywhere, in any time, in the blink of an eye.
So, rewind and fast forward to 2024 and sitting on the table in front of me is a metal, glass, and fabric pair of glorified ski googles that, among many other things, claims to be able to transport me to distant worlds, see timeless pieces of art, or kick back with a re-run of Red Dwarf… all from the comfort of my living room. Is this the beginning of my childhood Holodeck dream, or an overpriced express of technology hubris over-reaching itself. Battery’s finally recharged, let’s go find out…
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