Last night while watching "Star Trek Continues" with my boyfriend...
I made a comment about how I would love a holodeck. In the particular episode we were watching Captain Kirk was dealing with "ghosts" from his past that he felt very guilty over and never healed from and to fix this he went to the holodeck, simulated realities with them in it, and was able to say his final words to them, get reassurance, and finally let go. I said how I would love to go back to before my best friend died in the simulated reality and tell her all the things I haven't. Greg said "Yeah, for 15 years" and later made a comment about how I would never leave the holodeck and I realized he was right.
I would want to stay in the reality with my dead bestie forever.
He also pointed out how unhealthy it would be and I reluctantly agreed. I have already blogged some about how I use escapism to cope with things so the holodeck would, no doubt, become the ultimate form of escapism. I am honestly not sure how most everyone could stay out of the damn thing. I mean sure, Star Trek universe as part of the Enterprise is infinitely cooler than living on actual Earth (though we are catching up, technology wise not morality wise) but there would still be regrets, lost loves, loneliness
The episode also briefly hinted at Captain Kirk's loneliness. Imagine if you could go into a simulated reality and find "love"? I mean, it wouldn't be actual love but, for myself, it would be easy to convince myself it was and get lost in a completely fictional reality where unrequited love is a thing of the past and I can happily tell my no longer dead best friend all about the cute things my simulated boyfriend did last night. Yeah, Greg's right, I would never leave the holodeck. He would be my simulated boyfriend though. I told him that. He would just be unrealistically, passionately into me like a character in a fictional romance. XD He was also right about how that would not be healthy.
So, as badass as a holodeck seems I am, grudgingly, thankful for the fact that they don't (yet) exist.
It is fun to think about but in reality I would most certainly be lost if I had a holodeck. It is similar to how I felt when I watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". I was like "Oh fuck, I would use the shit out of that memory erasing service" and then realized if I did I would be fucked. I would want to erase so much of my past that I would lose myself in the process and wander around as a shell of a person, completely naive and without passion. I'll stick with my books, netflix, and video games for my escapism.
If you haven't seen Star Trek continues you should.
The episode I referenced is "White Iris" and it is good, as every episode I have seen has been. The show is created by fans who found a loophole to be able to use copyrighted content because they are a non-profit organization. A lot of the people involved in the show were in actual Star Trek shows. They do a fantastic job with the episodes honestly. There are only currently 6 episodes, one coming out next month, and you can watch them online for free.
crud, accidentally put a space in between "star" and "trek" tag and now the main tag on this post is "star" and I wasted a tag. Woops. XD