The World of Tomorrow

Predicting near-future potentials based on current trends is always a risky business—it’s one of the reasons why “The Wrath of Khan” fails modern audiences—the original Star Trek’s core audience lived to know there was no “Eugenics War” in the 1990s, no race of genetically-engineered “supermen,” no “sleeper ship” technology, and thankfully, no preponderance of chest-baring, aging actors wearing mullets—perhaps Gene Roddenberry should have placed the origin scenario from “Space Seed” a hundred, rather than 30 years into the future.

So this flash presentation, set 9 years from now, is going out on a limb—but it does seem to posit a pretty likely scenario. On the one hand, I am drawn to the potential like a moth to a flame—which means, as attractive and compelling as I find certain generalized “predictions,” it’s dangerous to disregard that invoking the name “Winston Smith” is purposeful.