Some of you know that I have always been a big Star Trek fan.
So I was so excited to learn that NASA honored the 100th birthday of the creator of Star Trek, the late Gene Roddenberry, with a broadcast into space of a 1976 recording of Roddenberry’s remarks on diversity and inclusion. The broadcast was made into space using the agency’s Deep Space Network of radio antennas and will allow, as the NASA statement says “the legacy of inspiration, hope, and diversity fostered by the creator of Star Trek to live long and prosper.”
The words that were broadcast were from a talk that Roddenberry did concerning what he desired for Star Trek. Here are the words that were broadcast:
The whole show was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day that it begins, not just to tolerate, but to take a special delight in differences in ideas and differences in life forms.
If we cannot learn to actually enjoy those small differences, take a positive delight in those small differences between our own kind here on this planet, then we do not deserve to go out into space and meet the diversity that’s almost certainly out there.
NASA and the Roddenberry Foundation did a panel broadcast titled, Celebrating Gene Roddenberry: Star Trek’s Bridge and NASA. The panelists told how Star Trek served and still serves as an inspiration to generations of scientists, engineers, and sci-fi fans around the world. (https://youtu.be/2-3MTPMBLDw)
I know Star Trek inspired me, not only to press on to work in the space program but also with its vision of a world that managed to rejoice in its differences and seek out others in the galaxy and delight in their differences as well.
Rod Roddenberry, Gene’s son, spoke about his father’s vision, “He (Gene) experienced a lot of life and saw the beauty of humanity and its darkness. And I think that really gave him the perspective to look at humanity in the future and come up with this idea of Star Trek.
And it was really built on sort of a backbone philosophy or a principle of IDIC, which stands for infinite diversity in infinite combinations.
And in Star Trek, it wasn’t about a group of people going out to seek weird-looking aliens. They were going out to find creatures in our universe that looked at the universe in a different and unique sort of way, because we had reached a point in our intellectual evolution where we understood that we had to experience things that were different, to grow and evolve, to live the same and only hear the same, and not try to hear things that challenged our intellect, that challenged the way we saw things, we would never advance as a species.
So Star Trek was much more than just a sci-fi show, it was about humanity’s future.
And you guys [the panelists] are incredible.
And to hear what you have to say, you are helping us work towards a better future, and you are the inspiration for other people to want to make that better future a reality.
So I can’t thank you enough.
I can’t thank NASA for letting me and the Roddenberry Foundation talk to you all.
I thank you. And I’ll do this. Live long and prosper, everyone.[as he did a Vulcan salute]”
Star Trek allowed people, like me, to see that we could overcome differences and work together. It showed that amazing diverse and capable crew all working together to achieve their purpose and mission.
As a little girl, I was told by my teachers that the Star Trek future was wild speculation and could not be accomplished. It was not possible.
It was so wonderful to listen to this panel of people who see the possibilities and are working toward them.
Happy 100th, Gene Roddenberry.
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NOTE: my podcast about this panel and NASA will soon appear on the About Space Today Libsyn page https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/aboutspacetoday and I invite you to listen
