A 42 Year Anniversary In The Future

Today’s a special day. Well, it will be a special day 42 years from now. You might wonder how I can predict such an event so many years in the future? I can predict it because it’s already happened.

April 5, 2063 will be First Contact Day. The day when citizens of planet earth first make contact with an alien species. The events are depicted (documented?) in the movie Star Trek: First Contact.

So, what makes me so sure that an event depicted in a movie will actually happen? Because it’s Star Trek.

Did you know that the first Space Shuttle was named Enterprise? It was named after the USS Enterprise in Star Trek. Incidentally, the USS Enterprise was/will be named after the first space shuttle.

One of the most uncool things you can have is a flip phone. Smart phones aren’t flip phones. Do you know why flip phones actually flipped? Because on Star Trek the communicators have flip up screens.

The iPad was the initial tablet PC. Did you know that when the iPad was first announced Apple and Steve Jobs were ridiculed for the name? We had seen tablets before the iPad. Star Trek is a paperless society. But, several times we see them use tablet devices.

We are experimenting with teleportation. We are a long ways away from the transporter, but we continue to work on it.

We all know what warp drive is. Is it possible to travel faster than light? The Enterprise can do it. And physicists are doing some tantalizing theoretical experiments around faster than light. The theory might prove impractical or impossible, but we are working on it.

So, don’t be surprised when Star Trek and science fiction fans celebrate First Contact Day April 5 for the next 42 years.

Stranger things have happened.

Stay safe

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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