Period 4: New Beginning

Welcome to the Star Trek future (2050 onwards)

Tens of millions of people are already familiar with the overall shape of our future society, because it has been portrayed in the famous TV series that began in the 1960s, Star Trek.

Star Trek depicted an enlightened technologically advanced society, enjoying technologies that seemed like magic and were the province of science fiction until recently. It showed an ecologically restored planet Earth inhabited by a free and peaceful human population, using its technological power with wisdom for the benefit of the whole society

The Star Trek world was technologically highly advanced. It had futuristic clean energy sources and space travel based on exotic propulsion technologies more in keeping with UFOs than 1960s chemical rockets. It had advanced medical diagnostic and healing technologies based on electromagnetic fields rather than biochemistry.

A key quality of Star Trek that distinguished it from much other science fiction was its balance between advanced technology and spiritual maturity. It was not a warlike society, but one that was focused on exploring the universe and learning from other civilisations rather than colonising or conquering them.

Many people watching Star Trek felt an affinity with the society it showed, and a deep feeling that it was not only possible but even in some way familiar. It created a sense of hope, and a longing that such a world might be ours in the future. Now, almost seventy years later, that science-fictional world is about to come true. Echoing that distant dream, all the ingredients for a Star Trek future are now falling into place.