Live Long and Let Live

While searching for generic nerdy pictures for a recent post, I ran across a lot of pictures of folks dressed up as Star Trek characters.

Why should Google equate “Star Trek” with “nerd”? I asked myself.

Star Trek is not inherently nerdy, but has attracted types that are associated with nerdiness.

I think the answer is (partly) that most people that feel at home in the Star Trek universe tend to want to talk about, learn about, and educate others about Trek themes and concepts, while the rest of the world would rather leave them on the theater floor with the popcorn and pop and Good & Plenties.

A Trekker can go on for hours about the technology behind phasers and tricorders and transporters. “Future science” is rich with accessible personalities who speculate about parallel universes, entangled electrons, dark matter, and other fascinating things that arise from String Theory and Quantum Mechanics. (Brian Greene➚ and Michio Kaku➚ are two of my favorites.)

I am part Trekker, but I also embraced the counter culture that competed with the Star Trek world at the time. I identified with Adam as much as I did Scotty (who just shook his head, like my parents did).

It’s okay to be ambivalent about those times. Everyone was. Everyone is. We sometimes just don’t realize we are seeking the same things. We let hair or music or language get in they way, instead of celebrating a new path the next generation is forging.

Peace.

Started: 2012-02-01