Ahh, Star Trek… one of my favorites for several reasons.  What fun it would be to schedule holographic vacations where you could take trips to anywhere and dance with computer-generated figures of just the right build and character…  Then you could sit down to an actual meal of generated lobster with perfectly grilled asparagus…  What I’d really like to have, honestly, is a domestic android (ala Bicentennial Man) who not only dances well, but also enjoys removing spiders & dustbunnies and washing dishes.

That’s why we enjoy TV & movies, they feed our imaginations (which so often are starving these days because we’ve lost the art of exercising and feeding them ourselves).

It turns out, according to an article I just tripped over (and some overheard conversations), that we’ve made long strides toward making this fantasy a reality.  We have arrived at the place where, if you can imagine it, the computer can build it.  There are no food replicators yet, but as we continue converting to soy substitutes and making advances in 3D printing, it moves closer to the realm of possible.

We shouldn’t be surprised, because the Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9 records God as saying “nothing they plan to do will be impossible.”  (tangent available)

As with all creative efforts, we can applaud that science is making progress toward better prosthetics (reference my overheard conversation) and the ability to recreate outdated machine components (as opposed to storing them, just in case).  Someday, perhaps, everyone will be able to enjoy the flavor of lobster at the price of soy.

There’s always, unfortunately, a flip-side…a corruption of creativity that has existed since before Genesis…an exploitation of the possible in order to promote or keep a few people in the position of power, the image of God warped to the devil’s glee.  The ultimate illustration has been written down for a long time, in Revelation.  We’re closer than we may realize. When we get there, somehow, even dry bread will be an expensive delicacy.

Keep your eyes open, folks…even in the fantasy world of Star Trek, there are bad guys.