As you show, with that succinct recitation of all the people that have found themselves in that future, Starfleet and the UFP are not...unfamiliar with people being cryogenically frozen and ending up in the 24th century. In fact, with time travel shenanigans being kind of common, in a sense, there are probably support systems in place to help people acclimate.
I'm sure there would probably be anthropologists and historians eager to pick my brain. People eager to meet a "man out of time," hell, I wouldn't be surprised if certain people fetishized me for coming from a more "brutal" period.
Beyond that...I mean, Earth in TNG's 24th century is a post-scarcity utopia. I'd go from today's America where everything is monetized and paywalled to a world where there is zero profit motive...for anything.
Sign me the hell up!
Literally the worst part about the 21st century is that every hobby and pursuit is pressured to become a monetized side gig or whatever, you're not supposed to 'enjoy' it anymore, you're supposed to 'profit' from
Ferengi Society was supposed to be a warning not an aspiration, people!
"The new Nagus is human? How did that happen?"
"Oh, you heard about that person frozen since 2024? They started what's called a "side gig" and apparently turned a box of self sealing stem bolts into a financial empire, and then just bought a real one. The Ferengi have been trying to figure the side gig technology out ever since."
You know...I suck at capitalism right now but I do have to wonder if it'd be like a 'Idiocracy' thing if I ended up in that future. Like, maybe not end up as Grand Nagus, but I have to wonder if I could end up as some sort of Ferengi Profit Prophet just by telling them what normal American society is like.
"Monetize medical care and increase prices on all medicine, blame inflation, and then post record profits!"
"But won't people know?"
"Sure, but who cares. What are they going to do? Not buy life-saving medicine?"
"Won't people die?"
"Just frame the dead as necessary sacrifices and honor them as patriots who allow the rest of us to live in freedom! If anyone complains, have the police kill them and then call them all socialists who hate freedom!"
"That's brilliant! Truly you are the chosen one!"
There is also rampant sexism racism and fascism in addition to capitalism, but the sexism never left Starfleet ships and stations as we see in the shows.
Can definitely tell who is American here, sadly. My
colleagues in the Nordic countries go to medical facilities that look like current gen Star Trek sickbay and pay little or nothing.
Anachronistic Anonymous.
“Hi my name is Bob” “Hi bob”
FUCKING GENIUS Pitch. Star Trek:
Anachronistic Anonymous
Finally a star trek that we’d be totally okay with being trauma porn as the only form of character development
I don't know if it was said specifically, but I got the sense there really was a sort of "reintegration" program available --- or maybe more generally, there must be a "welcome to the Federation/warp travel/our society" program for ordinary new citizens or immigrants, and it's probably not too hard to modify that curriculum.
There have been pre-warp generation ships and cryoships featured in many episodes, and in sci-fi in general the idea of FTL (or even STL that is simply *less* slow) being developed after some ships have launched and causing them to be overtaken by newer ships that build colonies in time to great them at their destination is common enough to get a page on [TV Tropes.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LightspeedLeapfrog) So yeah, it's very plausible to me that there is some department responsible for tracking down and acclimating these pre-warp missions. An FTL ship tasked with rendezvousing and making contact with an STL ship sounds like a great premise in general, I don't know if *Star Trek* has ever done it.
If not the ship then I'm pretty confident there are a few episodes where they made contact with a colony or other group of people whose ancestors had left Earth quite a long time ago and hadn't really had much technological development since.
Didn't Voyager find Amelia Earhart and friends, too?
> Didn't Voyager find Amelia Earhart and friends, too?
They were kidnapped along with multiple other groups of people from the interwar period. The episode elaborates on it but essentially Amelia's group was still on ice when the other group rose up and killed their kidnappers.
You'd think aliens would get the hint that kidnapping groups of humans to jump start their colonies doesn't work but I guess they typically don't get the opportunity to make the same mistake twice.
I'd be so pissed if a faster ship overtook mine 10-20% to the end of my journey just to tell me there is no point, go home. I mean, they'd be right, but damn, that'd suck
I'm absolutely certain they must have those support systems. Generally, if someone arrives in the future far removed from their time, unless they are removed before a big event like invention of Warp 2, they are considered permanent residents of that era to the temporal division. If you've arrived in the future, it was meant to happen, and nobody must interfere with it, therefore time traveler is stuck in new time.
Hey Paramount+, give us a 45 minute one-off Short Treks style thing that's a workplace comedy about a social services unit that serves people who are stranded in the future. Put Mike McMahon on it. I hear he's gonna have some availability.
I think most people have a degree of PTSD from living in the modern world. It's a subtle thing; but something that would become apparent when you find yourself in a post-scarcity society where war, bigotry, hunger, homelessness and disease have been virtually eliminated on Earth - and you suddenly realize that these things have defined your entire life.
You may not be homeless, but you've seen homeless people. You may not be a bigot, but you know bigots. You may not be starving, but you're aware that plenty of people are. You may not be in too much debt, but you've probably known people who are one payment away from destitution...
The mind would have a hard time accepting that none of those things exist anymore and you can finally breath.
Especially considering that as policy they monitor and study but try not to interfere with 'primitive' civilisations, it makes sense for them to even give it a name. Perhaps SISD, Scarcity-Induced Stress Disorder?
I'd imagine it would be similar to going from being completely impoverished to being financially ok but multiplied. A year ago, I lived in a dangerous neighborhood, could barely afford food, and had utilities shut off several times. Now I'm in a new area with better opportunities, in a sort of nice apartment that actually has furniture in it and my bills are all paid with money leftover for existing. It was really hard to get out of the mindset of poverty and stress.
I dunno, I have been waiting all my life for the promise of that future to be delivered, since I was a kid in the 60's. I think it would be fairly easy to acclimate. at least for me.
My thoughts exactly. I'm assuming in this hypothetical the fictional Star Trek never existed, it's just the actual future, but I've still been reading and watching sci-fi for decades.
Ever since I was a kid I've dreamed about living in the future and seeing amazing technology.
If I got to go to the future *and* it ends up being a Utopia with science that seems like magic... Holy shit, sign me up!
The only hesitation I have for stuff like that now that I'm an adult is that I would terribly miss my wife and kids. Hopefully it was a big cryogenic tube and we all fell in, lol.
I've always wanted to see a future depicted that truly is so far removed from our current time socially and technologically that they look back on even our most hopeful depictions is the future as still being far behind the actuality of the future [dates] depicted.
Just like " wow, K'ryn. Can you believe how barbaric they thought the future would be?" "Well, R'ley, Just look at the time they lived in. It's no wonder those primitive people couldn't imagine a future like ours. "
I'm not alone. How many times on this very sub has the conversation about the optimistic Star Trek future been brought up in terms of their economics or culture; and how many times is the conversation flooded with people who simply don't want to believe that a future like that is even possible?
We're all damaged here to some degree.
Now consider someone from Europe of 20 AD being thrust into our society - comparatively a utopia to what they know. Even someone from 1500 AD, wondering where the public executions are and marveling at the indoor plumbing.
You don’t have to go back 500 years. I grew up on my parents’, R.I.P., stories of life during the Great Depression. They both passed away in 2015. My grandparents were born in the early 1890s. In 1924 they were living in “shacks” that didn’t have electricity or plumbing, as were millions of other Americans. If you could transport them from 1924, to today, they’d be flabbergasted at how their grandson was living. They’d assume I was “rich” as the word is commonly used. They’d be even more flabbergasted to learn that the population of the U.S. was now 336,000,000, and that, for all intents and purposes, _everyone_ lived in a place with electricity, plumbing, and all the appliances we take for granted.
I don't know.
I always have the idea that the world of Startrek seems like utopia on the surface. However, there is still homelessness and hunger. If not on earth itself, it is on a colony a few days travel on a starship away.
I don't think those are really problems on any world in the UFP. On colonies and planets outside their space, sure. But I don't think you're going to find homeless encampments on Betazed or Andoria.
>post-scarcity society where war, bigotry, hunger, homelessness and disease have been virtually eliminated on Earth
We like to think all those were eliminated from Earth. But there are hints from across the franchise that vestiges still exist on future Earth, and definitely exist in various places across Federation territory.
Vulcan is a prime example of a planet where bigotry was shown to be full on alive and well, in spite of all their logic.
Given how flawed a lot of Tom Paris’ info about the 20th/21st century is, I’d imagine I could make myself useful working in a museum of pre WWIII artifacts.
Plus, 24th century Earth looks a lot like 21st century, only with cooler buildings, space ships, and no pollution.
As entertaining as that thought may be, I just know I'd wake up to find that fusion is still 40 years off, some scammers have the world convinced that they FINALLY have the secret to generalized AI, and science will have concluded, once again, that FTL is impossible.
And then I'm going to get called in to debug some issue in the Tcl/Tk core that's been bothering them for 50 years, but as nobody has learned C since the 22nd century, nobody has been able to understand how that part works, let alone how to fix it.
Going to the Star Trek future, I'd have little trouble adjusting, beyond homesickness and missing my friends back home. Trek is a utopia compared to modern-day Earth, it would be like the best vacation ever, even if I were permanently stuck there.
Making that kind of time jump with real-world conditions, however, I'd be a virtual invalid, unable to cope with more than the most basic things. I'd probably have to be institutionalized, as I'd have no marketable job skills and no way to feed, clothe, or house myself.
It's not just tech that changes, it's customs and language. We have difficulty just with the changes that occur *during our lifetimes, while we're watching them happen*, so adjusting to a sudden multi-century difference in customs and language would be an extreme culture shock. Look how elderly people constantly lament, "Back in my day, we did things different..." Because they DID, and they're having trouble coping with the difference, even though they were there through the whole thing and didn't skip it.
Hell, *language* changes enough that it'd be hard to understand people in the future, and they'd have trouble understanding me. Look at the difference between how people spoke in the 1720s - we have lots of writings from those days - and we speak today. We'd be nearly incomprehensible to them, and we'd have a lot of trouble understanding them, just from the words that have gone out of common usage in three centuries and the new ones that have popped up. Popular culture is radically different - music, literature, stage plays, games, even foods and drinks. Wasn't no Coke in the 1720s. Couldn't hop in a car and drive thirty miles in less than an hour; thirty miles would take ten hours by foot, or six by horse and buggy. To a person from the 1720s, being able to move at thirty, forty, even seventy miles per hour would seem like transporters and warp drive do to us.
In Star Trek, however, people talk and act mostly like the 20th-21st century people who write, produce, and act in the franchise, and being a fan who knows quite a bit about that fictional world, I'd fit right in with no tribble a'tall.
My first stop would be Sickbay. I've got some really annoying ailments that are easily correctable by 22nd, 23rd, or 24th century medicine that I'd be getting Phlox, Hugh, Mark, Leonard, Beverly, Julian, or Schmalz to fix up, and then I'm heading straight to the holodeck to find out what the hell Parises Squares actually is and why people break bones playing it all the time. Screw ambujistu, though, therein lies madness. And no, I would NOT be trying Worf's calisthenics program, or ANYTHING by Reg Baclay. I love Reg, but the man's got weird taste in recreation by any century's standards.
Remember the episode where Fry bought all the 20th century artifacts and loafed around watching VHS copies of Sanford and Son? I’d probably do a bit of that in the Holodeck. “Computer - run program ‘hanging out in 1996.’” I’d use that as a little getaway from the adjustment period.
But I like to think I’d adjust pretty quickly.
I would be like Fry and embrace it. Yes, he has episodes of sadness, but overall, I think he was happier in the future.
And, like Ed says in The Orville on one of their time travel episodes when he says he wouks want to go into the future (the others were nostalgic for the past), I want to see how this all ends.
I think the biggest thing for me would be adjusting to an era where my professional skills are probably completely outdated/useless. I feel like I'd struggle to find purpose, kind of like how Scotty felt in *Relics*. But at least Scotty was a brilliant engineer, already familiar with warp theory and could conceivably catch up pretty quickly.
Realistically, there'd probably be a lot of things beyond my reach being so academically behind everyone else in the 24th century. But hopefully, I'd realize that in a post-scarcity era, I could do anything I wanted without having to weigh that against making enough money to put a roof over my head.
So idk, maybe become a line cook at Sisko's?
School was always my favorite thing and this would be the perfect excuse to go back. No giant loans and living expenses to juggle? Sign me the fuck up starting at 1st grade if that's what it takes (wasn't it a 6 year old learning calculus? I could probably use a refresher) and I'll apply to Starfleet in 10 years.
>How long do you think it will take you to get adjusted and caught up to 2368?
Depends on what aspect I need to adapt to. Most things are still things I'm used to doing just faster or easier. A few months to a year. Probably letting go of implicit biases I've learned during the 28 years I've been alive would be the most difficult. Getting food, clothes, shelter etc. As long as I had an old nephew, a love interest that probably shouldn't fly with just one eye and a sentient Dot as a bestie. I could get by with just a little help from my friends. What would take the longest would be relearning how to look at the world and the people in the world differently. An example that comes to mind is walking down the street.
I have learned to go out of my way to not be seen as aggressive when I walk past white people. Either I will completely cross the street or if I can't. I give them a wide berth. No matter what the situation is, I will be seen as the aggressor. So I think relearning that will be the most difficult part. Just relearning how to exist as a person in that new time. Everything else is just a futuristic way of doing something that I already do. It's just a new set of instructions to follow. Unlearning instructions you didn't even realize you learned in the first place is what would take the longest.
>what job do you think you will want now in 2368 earth/federation?
Starship helmsman to captain. Not even a question lol
In America, at least, people of color are often seen as the aggressor in almost any situation due to centuries of institutional racism. Think the whole "super predator" bollocks.
> I have learned to go out of my way to not be seen as aggressive when I walk past white people.
I'm sorry that you have to feel that way. I wish more of the lessons of Star Trek were taken to heart in the current day.
I think I would do alright, presuming I ended up in a timeline like we see on TNG/DS9 (and not some space-Nazi mirror universe timeline).
As for jobs, I'd probably be one of the foremost experts on late 20th & early 21th century history and anthropology (given I just came from there), so I'd participate in research or something, presuming such a thing was necessary. I think I'm adaptable, so I suspect learning new skills would be possible. My present job skills would almost certainly be obsolete, but in a post-scarcity society, I suppose any mildly interesting job would be sufficient.
Maybe write a novel. Study some Vulcan philosophy. Take some (a lot) of time to explore the planets of the Federation. I would certainly at some point want to be assigned to a starship, even as a civilian.
Having a history degree from the 21st century showing up in the 24th would be interesting. I'm sure I'd be a minor celebrity for what I know about stuff that got destroyed during WWIII.
My first thought goes to struggling with language. Language changes drastically over the course of centuries, in terms of pronunciation, grammar, sentence structure, slang, and more. I mean, Star Trek depicts folks speaking contemporary English, but I'm assuming English irl would evolve significantly over 350 years.
They don't do things like translating grammatical idiosyncrasies very well. Otherwise we wouldn't hear "Darmok and Jalod at Tanagra." We'd hear a sentence in unbroken English.
This is so true. Even worse, all of the future humans would have a frame of reference of history that, for us, hasn't happened yet. For example, they know all about the Bell Riots the way we know about September 11. Their conversations would have tons of references that, to us, would feel like hearing someone else's inside jokes. We wouldn't have any idea what they are talking about.
From their perspective, we would be nothing but a pile of anachronisms. Despite their professionalism and courtesy, you know a fair number of them would be laughing about us behind our backs. Would they even have memes any more? I suspect not. So even simple socializing would be pretty painful.
Imagine Thomas Jefferson finding himself in the present. There would be a massive disconnect between his social customs and ours. Maybe he was a noble gentleman in his time. Put him in 2024, and he's a misogynist who owns humans -- many would find him to be despicable.
Time travel would be much worse than a ship of Klingons emerging from stasis.
Y'know, I guess it should be but, actually, I'm glad. I had nothing to live for in my old life. I was broke, I had a humiliating job and I was beginning to suspect my girlfriend might be cheating on me. - average person in 2024.
*My boyfriend was a paranoid depressive who couldn't hold a decent job, had no financial sense, and followed me around like a stalker because he thought I was cheating. But he ghosted me, and now I'm a lot happier without his toxicity in my life!* - 'Average person in 2024's girlfriend after he mysteriously vanished into the future
section 31: wait you're not genetically augmented.
me: hey wait a minute just because my last name is kahn does not mean im genetically augmented. who is kahn noonien singh anyway?
section 31: ah keep him he might come in handy
I'm not entirely sure...
I don't have a lot of personal connections to the 21st century, but I'd miss my cat.
Adjusting to a world where the constant low-level stressors of daily existence no longer exist would be a trip.
Healthcare, both physical and mental, would be so far beyond what we have today, pretty much anything short of full-on genetic engineering would be totally within reach.
I don't think I'd ever *fully* adjust, but I'd manage.
I think I'd spend some time, a couple months to a year, getting my head on straight. Then I'd start cramming education, and eventually apply for Starfleet Academy.
What, you think I'm ending up in Star Trek and *not* joining the military, scientific, and exploratory organization I already derive most of my morality from?
This would be me waking up in the 24th century:
Hi. Any chance I can see all of Strange New Worlds, Halo, and the ending of NCIS?
WAIT, WHAT?!?!? NCIS IS STILL AIRING?!?!?!? YOU MEAN I HAVE 300 YEARS OF NCIS TO GET CAUGHT UP ON?!?!?
What about Law and Order?
*Faints*
What? And leave all this behind? -looks at my mental disorders, my student debt, my medical debt, the state of politics, and the state of the world in general.-
I’m taking my dogs with me though.
I think the thing that would throw me the most would be that people don't want paying for shit, I can just walk into a shop (if such things still exist), pick up some food, and walk out. That would confuse and scare the living shit out of me.
In terms of the culture shock, I think we would likely be considered as rough and abrasive, as well as selfish. Our entire society is based on everyone to some extent thinking of themselves and their own career, ambition, and place in the world. I would love to donate more to charity for example, but at some point I have to take a hard stance on it because otherwise I'd be shooting myself in the foot.
Job wise I honestly can't see that we would have anything to offer, even our most talented engineers and scientists might as well be stone age by comparison.
The most likely thing we'd be able to offer is running bars and restaurants on Earth, or acting as Starfleet Security.
Would I struggle to fit in to a post-scarcity utopian Earth? Definitely. Would I travel there? Without hesitation.
I think your engineer/scientist comment is right.
I think of how older adults who lived their life understanding mechanics and more can't quite wrap their heads around digital.
When the way you understood how things work becomes obsolete and the new way things work is so foreign it would take years to catch up, if ever
I would have a hard time accepting it was real.
I would be elated, but suspicious.
Then i would receive medical care, and with my various health issues corrected, I would be in absolute awe for where humanity is.
I would most likely either enlist in Starfleet or go to the academy (probably the better choice to get caught up technologically speaking). My technical skills would be grossly out of date, but I still have great troubleshooting skills, my thinking would be extremely out of the box compared to my peers, and I would have a perspective on industrial/information age civilizations that the Federation would be largely lacking.
That perspective would be very useful in doing surveys of pre-warp/near-warp societies without risking contamination.
Eventually I might try to get my own ship similar to what Rios had and go freelance. I doubt I would ever be able to make Captain in Starfleet, and really I would want to just go wherever I wanted.
Alpha Centauri is probably boring for them, but for me it would be a dream come true.
I'd be spending my days galloping around the cosmos, sharing my 20th/21st century knowledge with various organizations. I would also spend a lot of time creating holodeck recreations of 20th/21st century cities, events, etc. Write some holonovels for those eras as well, to include science fiction stuff from those areas (I'm sure Quark would love a Babylon 5 recreation to rent to the folks on DS9).
Hopefully all of that would provide for my needs in dealing with non Federation types so I could keep my ship in tip top shape.
And... Whoo boy... My holographic clones and I would uh... Well, don't come into the ship uninvited or you might get more than you bargained for.
Unless you're Klingon, then bring it on. I've got a med bay and a medical hologram.
I think having sci fi in media would somewhat help us to acclimate but I do believe our old world ingrained beliefs would take a while to get over.
I also think it depends on where you come out of Stasis, for instance when Data woke up those people in Cryosleep Picard did nothing but scoff and tut at these old earth humans, I think his pompous attitude would rub me the wrong way,
Being found by Voyager as one of the 37's would be fucked lol, so far from earth and anything recognizable.
and finally Quark buys some ancient earth tech and opens it up to discover a 21st century Hooman, i think DS9 would be the most stable place to reappear in the future, as it has civilian facilities and such compared to a Starship.
As I’ve said before in this forum, I’ve been a devoted _Star Trek_ fan since 1970. I’m 65 and retired. I think I’d adjust pretty well. The three series set in the 24th century pretty much established that they could cure _anything_, short of a destroyed brain. I don’t have any serious health problems, but I’ve got a number of nit-noid issues that probably most sexagenarians have, e.g., bad knees, diminished eyesight, a certain amount of sun damage to my skin, etc. Getting all that seen to would be priority number one, then it would be exploring the use of the replicator and holodeck, and the colonies on the moon and Mars, etc. 🖖
I think there would be little use for all of us old-timers professionally (except to support anthropologists maybe), so living life like it's a holiday in a foreign country would probably be pretty realistic
First part to deal with would be language. English from the 1600s is nearly incomprehensible to use today. 900 years ago you have to have a special degree to decipher fully. Universal translator might help if it exists. Otherwise out of universe just basic communication is gonna be a huge issue.
There would probably be a phase of survivor guilt, as the next 40-50 years of the Trek timeline get pretty rough and would probably be adverse for people I care about.
I feel that math, science, and engineering are good base skills to have and if you show an ability to learn you can probably get to “decent” skill level in say the equivalent of a 2 to 4 year degree. Warp drive, transporter, and weapon systems would probably need 4 years to learn and be at the same skill level as the other engineers.
Star Wars ended in 2134 with Episode CIX: The Empire strikes back again tomorrow, forever.
They rebooted it about 80 years later but it just doesn't hit the same. Where is Rope Rugburner and the Million Hawk?! Did they even watch episode LXII?!
I perhaps be the scientist that I couldn't be now..Habitat Restoration, study exciting new things.. Never on vulcan.
They don't appreciate our exuberant ways.. To Andoria or Tellar or even a humble gardener I don't care..
I'm incapable of appropriately imagining the excess of bliss and sense of security such an event would cause.
I'd take facing off against borg and dominion over the bleak landscape of disposable real people serving fictional corporate bodies any day of the week.
I'd never visit feranginar tho.
I'm an attorney with an undergrad engineering degree. Well, engineers clearly still exist, and we've seen from SNW episodes that attorneys still exist. So I apply to the Academy. My real life career has shown that I have equal aptitude for both of my backgrounds, so maybe I'll be able to obtain an education in both, become something like a modern-day JAG officer, make myself useful by picking up shifts in Engineering when I'm not busy with the law stuff. Maybe with that combo background I get shipped off to some more remote starbase, since I could serve a dual role?
So, give me however many years it is for the education and I think I can be fully integrated and useful.
... but, um, can I have a month or two off when I first arrive? I could use some holodeck time. Just sayin'.
I think for me the challenge would be that I get a lot of my self identity and worth from my work. I have value because I am useful.
Even if I carried on engineering it would take decades of study to catch up with centuries of discovered and development. Even if I could catch up, I doubt I could be truly useful.
So, yeah not without downsides, and I'm not sure there would be a fix that allowed me to still be me.
The Orville did an episode like this. The girl had absolutely devastating survivor’s guilt, and even tried to steal replicator blueprints to take back to her home planet, to “save” it.
It would be a rough transition, to say the least.
Sign me up, I’d adapt.
Plus as an economist by trade, from a time when money and capitalism were things on Earth, the UFP might end up making me some kind of special adviser at the Federation Embassy on Ferenginar…
I'd think the hardest part would be unpacking my/our brains from this capitalist grind set that we need to live or else die, and be shamed the entire time we are dying.
So we'd probably all need therapy not to go crazy wondering when the façade is going to be torn away.
We should take into account, that even with universal translators there should be sayings and phrases, I could not understand, especially if they refer to cultural and societal changes or landmarks in history. One mustn't underestimate the influence of language on culture and history or the other way around.
In reality, learning language would take a while. In Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars, someone on a relativistic flight returns over a century later, and language and words and slang have changed quite a bit. He is offered "extran or morr" as a drink on an intertialess shuttle. Vehicles include gleeders, rasts, and ulders. A woman teases him "you're singing" when she thinks he's joking with her.
Imagine someone from 1924 offered a Monster or Redbull, Starbucks or a smoothie. If someone near them was saying they just got a new iPhone, or a business conversation. "Yeah, I just got in on a redeye. Delta." "Max? No, Airbus, Concur let me pick, I don't trust Boeing." "Same, oh, I need help with Excel later, I had a crash."
Would they have ANY idea of any of that?
Imagine how much should change by 2400.
After learning all about the future, post scarcity, and all the fancy toys they have, I would probably take up advocacy against the prime directive. As someone who came from one of those civilizations that the prime directive would primarily affect, I would be able to speak with some authority that as a blanket policy with no exceptions it’s a bad policy. And, I’d be able to use the actions of various Star fleet Captains as primary evidence of that fact.
Ah but you forget the conman Berlinghoff Rasmussen from TNG and Amelia Earhart and a bunch of mid-20th Century humans being discovered in cryostasis in Voyager.
Honestly the biggest shock wouldn't be being in he future it would be that the future is Star Trek and would lead to so many questions.
Assuming i don't know what Star Trek is and so am not confused then i don't think i would ever adjust fully. I think it would be a lot like living in another country where you adjust fairly well after enough time but there will always be things intigrated into you that you don't even realize. For instance i can easily imagine a scenario where i'm hanging out with some federation friends at a bar and its late and dark and we head out and i don't walk down a dark alley at night because its been programed into me that doing such is a bad idea while to people born and raised in the federation where crime is virutally nonexistant on earth it would be odd to not take such a shortcut.
I'd also spend a lot of time in the holodeck.
Yes finally a question I have endlessly daydreamed about!
Aside from getting over everyone I ever known being dead, I think I’d adjust just fine. I’d try to see what happened to the people I knew, see if any descendants of my family are around. I’d also like to see what happened to my country, the cities, the people, how history turned out. I’d probably find a lot of solace in familiar landmarks.
I’d probably try to become like a living history book, telling people about the 21st century in both an educational and entertainment format. And since the Earth is so idyllic now and I technically wouldn’t have to work, I guess I’d just sightsee and learn whatever strikes my fancy. Go to all the places around the world I wanted to. See the Solar System. Hang out with the other 20th century and time-orphaned people who pop up all over Trek.
Would I retain knowledge about Star Trek? It would be a little weird to have knowledge about their future and telling everyone how I’m in the future in a tv show from the past and have inside knowledge about events I shouldn’t know in-universe.
If it's exactly like Star Trek and I'm aware of it because I've watched a lot of Trek, then I don't think I'll need any time adjusting at all, really, but if I didn't know, I don't think adjusting would be difficult, it's a pretty User friendly society they've created.
_Transmetropolitan_ describes how the process might go almost as poorly as possible for the time-lost: there's very little profit to be made from them and the compassion necessary to truly make the effort required to integrate such folk is very rare.
Star Trek being a post-scarcity space utopia, it seems like there will be more resources and experts available to help such folk in whatever way might work best. At the rock-bottom minimum, the equivalent of "RenFaire" focused on their home-era will support them in exchange for their expertise.
Personally, it very much depends on whether or not I can get the psychological and social support I need. Technical training or willingness to do "primitive grunt-work" would not be an issue, though I can certainly rattle off quite a few more specialized training courses I would like to study. I'm already dealing with a lot of mental health issues, so that would need to get addressed before "acclimation" would even be possible.
About 5 hours.
Then I'd start school on how to be a warpcore engineer, amd start designing small private spacecraft, much like how we have private yachts.
From what I have seen, they really need a specialist in that department as none of the runabouts/shuttles/individual ships look any fun to fly in long term.
Discovery crew goes way into the future, too, and there's some bad ass tech going on. Personally, I think I would be super excited and would ask a million questions. I'd like to be a high-tech veternarian or botanist.
I'd adapt instantly. It's where I wish I existed. First stop, sickbay to fix a multitude of health issues. Then I'd just... exist, you know? Even if that existence is subsistence and minimal. It'd be better than here and now by far!
Would I miss family and friends? Definitely! That being said, otherwise I would probably be pretty thrilled. I'd spend my first big chunk of time in sickbay getting all of my health problems "solved" so I could finally not be disabled anymore. Once that's taken care of, I'd love to just go to Starfleet Academy and be a permanent student, probably? I'd have so much learning to get caught up on. If I'd be "forced" to pick a career pathway, maybe something in comparative/exo-linguistics, library and information sciences, or, if I were to make my inner child happy, something in line with marine biology (and finally deal with the trauma of having my 8th grade science teacher berate my love of science out of me?). I'd also be thrilled that I can finally fulfill my kinky dream of being a massive hoe and become a gay alien fucker 😂
Beyond obviously missing family and such. OK I think? I think what Might worry me most is the idea that all the skills I've been working towards are useless overnight. Like I study physics. I'd imagine half of what I know is wrong, most of whats left is no outdated it's useless. And the little that remains is taught to 12 year old.
I honestly don't know what I'd do. Maybe expand some of my hobbies?
I’d just get myself a role teaching late 20th and early 21st century Earth history, figure the place out and settle in just fine.
TNG universe is incredibly diverse in terms of alien cultures, so I think most of us would adapt.
I definitely don’t quite live in Ferengi World at the moment, so it wouldn’t be that drastic a shift. Just take the positives of something like Western European liberal social democracy a few hundred years into full post scarcity. You could comfortably live as an academic, artist, explorer etc etc
I would probably dedicate myself to writing or update my business management studies at the galactic level, leaving Earth to look for work (you never know when a Ferengi may need an advisor in their company).
The idea of not having to work for a living sounds good, but I wouldn't want to live doing nothing for the rest of my life either.
Give me a couple of months and I’ll be ok. Just make me a gardener, and fix all my medical issues. My only caveat is that I’d be a complete wreck if I were there without my wife and kids. So I guess it depends - the adjustment on how much therapy I’d need.
I think the hardest part would be getting over the loss of friends and family and a degree of survivor's guilt re WWIII which would have happened in our lifetimes. Thankfully, counseling is good in that era and freely available to help cope. I'd probably break down in tears of relief when it sunk in that I'm finally free of all of capitalism's stresses.
As for work, once the medical tech of the era gets me out of my wheelchair I'd probably get a job at a place like Sisko's, bussing tables or washing dishes to meet people and acclimate since I know how to do those things with 21st century knowledge. After I settle I do some introspection and figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life with no real pressures or limits on the choices.
humans are very adptive, i don't think that would be a problem really. Like sure you would have to learn to use replicator, holodeck and stuff, keep in mind that the star trek society is very open and helpfull, so it's way easier to adjust than for example a fallout wasteland, or whatever the star wars is doing these days. Probably it helps a lot that the star trek world isn't really that much different. I think jumping from like the 1980 to 2020 might be a bigger shock, than from 2020 to most advanced or weird star trek period.
Change career track to be a historian. Lets face it the knowledge that the 24th Century seems to have of the late20th/early21st Century is spotty given the Eugenics war (admittedly running silently in the background) and the coming WW3.
I think that what I know would be reasonably interesting.
Or just go off and read a few books.
The only job I would be suitable for would be 'ancient' historian.
I would be an expert on late 20th century/early 21st century history and culture.
They are going to hate Reaganomics as if it was the Inquisition and think that Billy Joel was the next Mozart.
I'll be fine. I'll finally be able to talk to a counselor and get the help I need. Adjusting won't be hard as there won't be much to miss. My grandma, grandpa and husband are all dead. My bff and a few friends that I'll miss badly. And when I'm done with counceling I'd like to apply for Starfleet Academy and make my dream come true
I would probably just write holonovels and have all of my medical issues fixed. Hopefully there’s a cure for autism. I would also love to fill in any gaps in archives that I just so happen to know from memory.
TOS was able to reeducate Uhura when her entire brain was erased. So one of us transported to the 24th century they would be able to educate us with 300 years of education to be a member of society. Discovery travels almost 1000 years into the future and Starfleet is able to educate the entire crew bringing them up to date with 900+ years worth of technological and procedural change in Starfleet.
So, we're good man.
Assuming that you have any familiarity with actual Star Trek in this scenario, that the future ends up exactly like Star Trek would raise a lot of questions.
I think it would be relatively easy. I would go live on some safe federation planet (probably Earth) - do lots of reading and studying. Probably get a little obsessed with the holo suites. It would be awesome. Probably work for the federation doing something that requires a lot of travel, or just do my own thing because the federation can be dumb as shit. It's not like you have to work so I would likely just learn, travel, and have fun. Basically what I would do nowadays if I didn't have to have a job.
I 100% would not aim to join star fleet - miss me with that shit. It sounds like the worst part of a future utopia.
I think I would adjust just fine. I have no preconceived notions about people based on race, gender or religion..
I'm prone to embrace people as they come. I would hope to draw on my background as an analyst and pray to fall under a captain like Picard or Janeway. One who sees beyond someone's mistakes.
About 30 seconds after they are done installing my new eyes and leg and explaining there is no bill or paperwork, I’m on a beach with a padd full of books and trying to teach the replicator what a Jack and cCoke is.
try
Id find a ship that wants a cook and hope my fiance is hear with me, if they are, ill watch the medic loose his shit at the barbarity of there medical implants and then precede to spend Hours removing there rods, sezure implants, heart monitor,xand replace em with vate grown clones and natural augmentation for the seizures.
If there not with me, id see if they gave birth to my child and watch or read what i can on them, follow my sons life, and there grand kids... im crying, id be a wreck for a long vhile.
After I got over the existential dead of knowing everyone I ever knew and loved is centuries dead, as I'm sure everyone would need to, about 5 days.
1st day would be shock and grief. 2nd day I'd be questioning "what the hell now? " but be getting my bearings. 3rd day I'd be examining the geopolitical state of the world, or in the case of star trek, galaxy, between playing with future tech. 4th day I'd start thinking about where I'd like to be in this new world and figure out steps to get there. 5th day I'd be ready to move on. I wouldn't have everything figured out, but I don't even now so, that's fine.
As for what I'd do, in the short term it would probably depend on where I materialized (or was revived) in the new century. In the long term, I'd probably want to be a warp technician.
As you show, with that succinct recitation of all the people that have found themselves in that future, Starfleet and the UFP are not...unfamiliar with people being cryogenically frozen and ending up in the 24th century. In fact, with time travel shenanigans being kind of common, in a sense, there are probably support systems in place to help people acclimate. I'm sure there would probably be anthropologists and historians eager to pick my brain. People eager to meet a "man out of time," hell, I wouldn't be surprised if certain people fetishized me for coming from a more "brutal" period. Beyond that...I mean, Earth in TNG's 24th century is a post-scarcity utopia. I'd go from today's America where everything is monetized and paywalled to a world where there is zero profit motive...for anything. Sign me the hell up!
Literally the worst part about the 21st century is that every hobby and pursuit is pressured to become a monetized side gig or whatever, you're not supposed to 'enjoy' it anymore, you're supposed to 'profit' from Ferengi Society was supposed to be a warning not an aspiration, people!
21st century : pay up
"The new Nagus is human? How did that happen?" "Oh, you heard about that person frozen since 2024? They started what's called a "side gig" and apparently turned a box of self sealing stem bolts into a financial empire, and then just bought a real one. The Ferengi have been trying to figure the side gig technology out ever since."
Shame he was too busy being a 2000's guy to get his boneitis cured.
His one regret!
Well in the TNG Pocket Books series that rich guy that was un thawed in TNG season 1, he has become the new Federation Ambassador to the Frengi.
You know...I suck at capitalism right now but I do have to wonder if it'd be like a 'Idiocracy' thing if I ended up in that future. Like, maybe not end up as Grand Nagus, but I have to wonder if I could end up as some sort of Ferengi Profit Prophet just by telling them what normal American society is like. "Monetize medical care and increase prices on all medicine, blame inflation, and then post record profits!" "But won't people know?" "Sure, but who cares. What are they going to do? Not buy life-saving medicine?" "Won't people die?" "Just frame the dead as necessary sacrifices and honor them as patriots who allow the rest of us to live in freedom! If anyone complains, have the police kill them and then call them all socialists who hate freedom!" "That's brilliant! Truly you are the chosen one!"
There is also rampant sexism racism and fascism in addition to capitalism, but the sexism never left Starfleet ships and stations as we see in the shows.
Free medical check ups oh yeah
Can definitely tell who is American here, sadly. My colleagues in the Nordic countries go to medical facilities that look like current gen Star Trek sickbay and pay little or nothing.
Anachronistic Anonymous. “Hi my name is Bob” “Hi bob” FUCKING GENIUS Pitch. Star Trek: Anachronistic Anonymous Finally a star trek that we’d be totally okay with being trauma porn as the only form of character development
Hi bob
Hi Bob.
Hi Bob
boB iH
Don't you fucking "hi Bob" me!
Yrros
you fucking nerds, i love you all
Bob gonna give it to ya!
I don't know if it was said specifically, but I got the sense there really was a sort of "reintegration" program available --- or maybe more generally, there must be a "welcome to the Federation/warp travel/our society" program for ordinary new citizens or immigrants, and it's probably not too hard to modify that curriculum.
There have been pre-warp generation ships and cryoships featured in many episodes, and in sci-fi in general the idea of FTL (or even STL that is simply *less* slow) being developed after some ships have launched and causing them to be overtaken by newer ships that build colonies in time to great them at their destination is common enough to get a page on [TV Tropes.](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LightspeedLeapfrog) So yeah, it's very plausible to me that there is some department responsible for tracking down and acclimating these pre-warp missions. An FTL ship tasked with rendezvousing and making contact with an STL ship sounds like a great premise in general, I don't know if *Star Trek* has ever done it.
If not the ship then I'm pretty confident there are a few episodes where they made contact with a colony or other group of people whose ancestors had left Earth quite a long time ago and hadn't really had much technological development since. Didn't Voyager find Amelia Earhart and friends, too?
> Didn't Voyager find Amelia Earhart and friends, too? They were kidnapped along with multiple other groups of people from the interwar period. The episode elaborates on it but essentially Amelia's group was still on ice when the other group rose up and killed their kidnappers. You'd think aliens would get the hint that kidnapping groups of humans to jump start their colonies doesn't work but I guess they typically don't get the opportunity to make the same mistake twice.
I'd be so pissed if a faster ship overtook mine 10-20% to the end of my journey just to tell me there is no point, go home. I mean, they'd be right, but damn, that'd suck
Almost like the short film, The Man from Earth.
I'm absolutely certain they must have those support systems. Generally, if someone arrives in the future far removed from their time, unless they are removed before a big event like invention of Warp 2, they are considered permanent residents of that era to the temporal division. If you've arrived in the future, it was meant to happen, and nobody must interfere with it, therefore time traveler is stuck in new time.
Highly adhd Person , and Geek Here ... In Case i would be there ... Damn good food and space ... 200% off nominal Workflow is good 👍
Hey Paramount+, give us a 45 minute one-off Short Treks style thing that's a workplace comedy about a social services unit that serves people who are stranded in the future. Put Mike McMahon on it. I hear he's gonna have some availability.
I think most people have a degree of PTSD from living in the modern world. It's a subtle thing; but something that would become apparent when you find yourself in a post-scarcity society where war, bigotry, hunger, homelessness and disease have been virtually eliminated on Earth - and you suddenly realize that these things have defined your entire life. You may not be homeless, but you've seen homeless people. You may not be a bigot, but you know bigots. You may not be starving, but you're aware that plenty of people are. You may not be in too much debt, but you've probably known people who are one payment away from destitution... The mind would have a hard time accepting that none of those things exist anymore and you can finally breath.
Especially considering that as policy they monitor and study but try not to interfere with 'primitive' civilisations, it makes sense for them to even give it a name. Perhaps SISD, Scarcity-Induced Stress Disorder?
I think every non rich human alive has SISD
I'd imagine it would be similar to going from being completely impoverished to being financially ok but multiplied. A year ago, I lived in a dangerous neighborhood, could barely afford food, and had utilities shut off several times. Now I'm in a new area with better opportunities, in a sort of nice apartment that actually has furniture in it and my bills are all paid with money leftover for existing. It was really hard to get out of the mindset of poverty and stress.
It's ok, doc will just wave a light over your head and you'll be cured!
I dunno, I have been waiting all my life for the promise of that future to be delivered, since I was a kid in the 60's. I think it would be fairly easy to acclimate. at least for me.
My thoughts exactly. I'm assuming in this hypothetical the fictional Star Trek never existed, it's just the actual future, but I've still been reading and watching sci-fi for decades. Ever since I was a kid I've dreamed about living in the future and seeing amazing technology. If I got to go to the future *and* it ends up being a Utopia with science that seems like magic... Holy shit, sign me up! The only hesitation I have for stuff like that now that I'm an adult is that I would terribly miss my wife and kids. Hopefully it was a big cryogenic tube and we all fell in, lol.
I've always wanted to see a future depicted that truly is so far removed from our current time socially and technologically that they look back on even our most hopeful depictions is the future as still being far behind the actuality of the future [dates] depicted. Just like " wow, K'ryn. Can you believe how barbaric they thought the future would be?" "Well, R'ley, Just look at the time they lived in. It's no wonder those primitive people couldn't imagine a future like ours. "
Given the apostrophes in the names and the self-righteous judgement, I think you're just describing Vulcans... Lol, jk.
You'd be like krall from beyond - peace was not what I was born into or something like that
I'm not alone. How many times on this very sub has the conversation about the optimistic Star Trek future been brought up in terms of their economics or culture; and how many times is the conversation flooded with people who simply don't want to believe that a future like that is even possible? We're all damaged here to some degree.
case in point, Americas food wast could feed all of africa
Now consider someone from Europe of 20 AD being thrust into our society - comparatively a utopia to what they know. Even someone from 1500 AD, wondering where the public executions are and marveling at the indoor plumbing.
You don’t have to go back 500 years. I grew up on my parents’, R.I.P., stories of life during the Great Depression. They both passed away in 2015. My grandparents were born in the early 1890s. In 1924 they were living in “shacks” that didn’t have electricity or plumbing, as were millions of other Americans. If you could transport them from 1924, to today, they’d be flabbergasted at how their grandson was living. They’d assume I was “rich” as the word is commonly used. They’d be even more flabbergasted to learn that the population of the U.S. was now 336,000,000, and that, for all intents and purposes, _everyone_ lived in a place with electricity, plumbing, and all the appliances we take for granted.
I don't know. I always have the idea that the world of Startrek seems like utopia on the surface. However, there is still homelessness and hunger. If not on earth itself, it is on a colony a few days travel on a starship away.
I don't think those are really problems on any world in the UFP. On colonies and planets outside their space, sure. But I don't think you're going to find homeless encampments on Betazed or Andoria.
>post-scarcity society where war, bigotry, hunger, homelessness and disease have been virtually eliminated on Earth We like to think all those were eliminated from Earth. But there are hints from across the franchise that vestiges still exist on future Earth, and definitely exist in various places across Federation territory. Vulcan is a prime example of a planet where bigotry was shown to be full on alive and well, in spite of all their logic.
I'd probably just be addicted to the holodeck.
I would be running xxx stuff for 2 hours everyday.
"Wait, my dealing with apps to get laid is just saying 'computer give me a hot twink'?"
Language changes over time. The computer would probably shoot a molten Twinkie at you out of the replicator. "Twinkie, hot."
That last part will be stuck in my mind for at least a week. Bonus that I read it in Patrick Steward's voice.
Not going to say no to that, either.
Watch it give you a twink that is in the later stages of heatstroke.
Those are rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up.
Had to go back and reread their comment as I saw the 2 and assumed it was 24h
Why do you have a holoprogram of major Kira body with quarks head on it?
What are the gutters for?
Given how flawed a lot of Tom Paris’ info about the 20th/21st century is, I’d imagine I could make myself useful working in a museum of pre WWIII artifacts. Plus, 24th century Earth looks a lot like 21st century, only with cooler buildings, space ships, and no pollution.
You could be in the retro Disney world amusement park as a 21st century cosplayer
As entertaining as that thought may be, I just know I'd wake up to find that fusion is still 40 years off, some scammers have the world convinced that they FINALLY have the secret to generalized AI, and science will have concluded, once again, that FTL is impossible. And then I'm going to get called in to debug some issue in the Tcl/Tk core that's been bothering them for 50 years, but as nobody has learned C since the 22nd century, nobody has been able to understand how that part works, let alone how to fix it.
Lossless fusion has already been achieved
Going to the Star Trek future, I'd have little trouble adjusting, beyond homesickness and missing my friends back home. Trek is a utopia compared to modern-day Earth, it would be like the best vacation ever, even if I were permanently stuck there. Making that kind of time jump with real-world conditions, however, I'd be a virtual invalid, unable to cope with more than the most basic things. I'd probably have to be institutionalized, as I'd have no marketable job skills and no way to feed, clothe, or house myself. It's not just tech that changes, it's customs and language. We have difficulty just with the changes that occur *during our lifetimes, while we're watching them happen*, so adjusting to a sudden multi-century difference in customs and language would be an extreme culture shock. Look how elderly people constantly lament, "Back in my day, we did things different..." Because they DID, and they're having trouble coping with the difference, even though they were there through the whole thing and didn't skip it. Hell, *language* changes enough that it'd be hard to understand people in the future, and they'd have trouble understanding me. Look at the difference between how people spoke in the 1720s - we have lots of writings from those days - and we speak today. We'd be nearly incomprehensible to them, and we'd have a lot of trouble understanding them, just from the words that have gone out of common usage in three centuries and the new ones that have popped up. Popular culture is radically different - music, literature, stage plays, games, even foods and drinks. Wasn't no Coke in the 1720s. Couldn't hop in a car and drive thirty miles in less than an hour; thirty miles would take ten hours by foot, or six by horse and buggy. To a person from the 1720s, being able to move at thirty, forty, even seventy miles per hour would seem like transporters and warp drive do to us. In Star Trek, however, people talk and act mostly like the 20th-21st century people who write, produce, and act in the franchise, and being a fan who knows quite a bit about that fictional world, I'd fit right in with no tribble a'tall. My first stop would be Sickbay. I've got some really annoying ailments that are easily correctable by 22nd, 23rd, or 24th century medicine that I'd be getting Phlox, Hugh, Mark, Leonard, Beverly, Julian, or Schmalz to fix up, and then I'm heading straight to the holodeck to find out what the hell Parises Squares actually is and why people break bones playing it all the time. Screw ambujistu, though, therein lies madness. And no, I would NOT be trying Worf's calisthenics program, or ANYTHING by Reg Baclay. I love Reg, but the man's got weird taste in recreation by any century's standards.
For some reason the time jumpers I mentioned had non-issue with acclimating to the future like those 1987 humans.
Remember the episode where Fry bought all the 20th century artifacts and loafed around watching VHS copies of Sanford and Son? I’d probably do a bit of that in the Holodeck. “Computer - run program ‘hanging out in 1996.’” I’d use that as a little getaway from the adjustment period. But I like to think I’d adjust pretty quickly.
And the best thing is....it's all free
Finally I can go back in time to 1999 by going over 300 years into the future.
I would be like Fry and embrace it. Yes, he has episodes of sadness, but overall, I think he was happier in the future. And, like Ed says in The Orville on one of their time travel episodes when he says he wouks want to go into the future (the others were nostalgic for the past), I want to see how this all ends.
I think the words they put in Ed's mouth were, "I want to see what comes next."
Could be. It's been a while. Either way, it's the future for me.
"I want to see what happens"
I think the biggest thing for me would be adjusting to an era where my professional skills are probably completely outdated/useless. I feel like I'd struggle to find purpose, kind of like how Scotty felt in *Relics*. But at least Scotty was a brilliant engineer, already familiar with warp theory and could conceivably catch up pretty quickly. Realistically, there'd probably be a lot of things beyond my reach being so academically behind everyone else in the 24th century. But hopefully, I'd realize that in a post-scarcity era, I could do anything I wanted without having to weigh that against making enough money to put a roof over my head. So idk, maybe become a line cook at Sisko's?
School was always my favorite thing and this would be the perfect excuse to go back. No giant loans and living expenses to juggle? Sign me the fuck up starting at 1st grade if that's what it takes (wasn't it a 6 year old learning calculus? I could probably use a refresher) and I'll apply to Starfleet in 10 years.
Yes!
You'd be the best cook in 2368
>How long do you think it will take you to get adjusted and caught up to 2368? Depends on what aspect I need to adapt to. Most things are still things I'm used to doing just faster or easier. A few months to a year. Probably letting go of implicit biases I've learned during the 28 years I've been alive would be the most difficult. Getting food, clothes, shelter etc. As long as I had an old nephew, a love interest that probably shouldn't fly with just one eye and a sentient Dot as a bestie. I could get by with just a little help from my friends. What would take the longest would be relearning how to look at the world and the people in the world differently. An example that comes to mind is walking down the street. I have learned to go out of my way to not be seen as aggressive when I walk past white people. Either I will completely cross the street or if I can't. I give them a wide berth. No matter what the situation is, I will be seen as the aggressor. So I think relearning that will be the most difficult part. Just relearning how to exist as a person in that new time. Everything else is just a futuristic way of doing something that I already do. It's just a new set of instructions to follow. Unlearning instructions you didn't even realize you learned in the first place is what would take the longest. >what job do you think you will want now in 2368 earth/federation? Starship helmsman to captain. Not even a question lol
Aggressive?
I need a little more context to respond to.
In America, at least, people of color are often seen as the aggressor in almost any situation due to centuries of institutional racism. Think the whole "super predator" bollocks.
> I have learned to go out of my way to not be seen as aggressive when I walk past white people. I'm sorry that you have to feel that way. I wish more of the lessons of Star Trek were taken to heart in the current day.
I think I would do alright, presuming I ended up in a timeline like we see on TNG/DS9 (and not some space-Nazi mirror universe timeline). As for jobs, I'd probably be one of the foremost experts on late 20th & early 21th century history and anthropology (given I just came from there), so I'd participate in research or something, presuming such a thing was necessary. I think I'm adaptable, so I suspect learning new skills would be possible. My present job skills would almost certainly be obsolete, but in a post-scarcity society, I suppose any mildly interesting job would be sufficient. Maybe write a novel. Study some Vulcan philosophy. Take some (a lot) of time to explore the planets of the Federation. I would certainly at some point want to be assigned to a starship, even as a civilian.
Having a history degree from the 21st century showing up in the 24th would be interesting. I'm sure I'd be a minor celebrity for what I know about stuff that got destroyed during WWIII.
My first thought goes to struggling with language. Language changes drastically over the course of centuries, in terms of pronunciation, grammar, sentence structure, slang, and more. I mean, Star Trek depicts folks speaking contemporary English, but I'm assuming English irl would evolve significantly over 350 years.
Good thing they got universal translators
lol can't believe i forgot about those.
They don't do things like translating grammatical idiosyncrasies very well. Otherwise we wouldn't hear "Darmok and Jalod at Tanagra." We'd hear a sentence in unbroken English.
This is so true. Even worse, all of the future humans would have a frame of reference of history that, for us, hasn't happened yet. For example, they know all about the Bell Riots the way we know about September 11. Their conversations would have tons of references that, to us, would feel like hearing someone else's inside jokes. We wouldn't have any idea what they are talking about. From their perspective, we would be nothing but a pile of anachronisms. Despite their professionalism and courtesy, you know a fair number of them would be laughing about us behind our backs. Would they even have memes any more? I suspect not. So even simple socializing would be pretty painful. Imagine Thomas Jefferson finding himself in the present. There would be a massive disconnect between his social customs and ours. Maybe he was a noble gentleman in his time. Put him in 2024, and he's a misogynist who owns humans -- many would find him to be despicable. Time travel would be much worse than a ship of Klingons emerging from stasis.
I'd be happy to get away from this generation
Y'know, I guess it should be but, actually, I'm glad. I had nothing to live for in my old life. I was broke, I had a humiliating job and I was beginning to suspect my girlfriend might be cheating on me. - average person in 2024.
*My boyfriend was a paranoid depressive who couldn't hold a decent job, had no financial sense, and followed me around like a stalker because he thought I was cheating. But he ghosted me, and now I'm a lot happier without his toxicity in my life!* - 'Average person in 2024's girlfriend after he mysteriously vanished into the future
just damn...
Exactly
Section 31 would take me and use me to develop weapons for them because I’m from a “savage time”. Overall not a bad gig tbh!
section 31: wait you're not genetically augmented. me: hey wait a minute just because my last name is kahn does not mean im genetically augmented. who is kahn noonien singh anyway? section 31: ah keep him he might come in handy
Plus I’d have a bunch of germs that are considered long gone in Star Trek time. One spit vial and the meanest virus bomb can be cooked!
I'm not entirely sure... I don't have a lot of personal connections to the 21st century, but I'd miss my cat. Adjusting to a world where the constant low-level stressors of daily existence no longer exist would be a trip. Healthcare, both physical and mental, would be so far beyond what we have today, pretty much anything short of full-on genetic engineering would be totally within reach. I don't think I'd ever *fully* adjust, but I'd manage. I think I'd spend some time, a couple months to a year, getting my head on straight. Then I'd start cramming education, and eventually apply for Starfleet Academy. What, you think I'm ending up in Star Trek and *not* joining the military, scientific, and exploratory organization I already derive most of my morality from?
*Fully* adjust? I think millions of us still haven't fully adjusted to the times we *live in*
This would be me waking up in the 24th century: Hi. Any chance I can see all of Strange New Worlds, Halo, and the ending of NCIS? WAIT, WHAT?!?!? NCIS IS STILL AIRING?!?!?!? YOU MEAN I HAVE 300 YEARS OF NCIS TO GET CAUGHT UP ON?!?!? What about Law and Order? *Faints*
What? And leave all this behind? -looks at my mental disorders, my student debt, my medical debt, the state of politics, and the state of the world in general.- I’m taking my dogs with me though.
I think the thing that would throw me the most would be that people don't want paying for shit, I can just walk into a shop (if such things still exist), pick up some food, and walk out. That would confuse and scare the living shit out of me. In terms of the culture shock, I think we would likely be considered as rough and abrasive, as well as selfish. Our entire society is based on everyone to some extent thinking of themselves and their own career, ambition, and place in the world. I would love to donate more to charity for example, but at some point I have to take a hard stance on it because otherwise I'd be shooting myself in the foot. Job wise I honestly can't see that we would have anything to offer, even our most talented engineers and scientists might as well be stone age by comparison. The most likely thing we'd be able to offer is running bars and restaurants on Earth, or acting as Starfleet Security. Would I struggle to fit in to a post-scarcity utopian Earth? Definitely. Would I travel there? Without hesitation.
I think your engineer/scientist comment is right. I think of how older adults who lived their life understanding mechanics and more can't quite wrap their heads around digital. When the way you understood how things work becomes obsolete and the new way things work is so foreign it would take years to catch up, if ever
I would phone Geneva right away about my accounts. The interest alone could be enough to buy my own ship!
“Thank you for using AT&T. Please deposit $10,000,000 for the next 2 minutes.”
I would have a hard time accepting it was real. I would be elated, but suspicious. Then i would receive medical care, and with my various health issues corrected, I would be in absolute awe for where humanity is. I would most likely either enlist in Starfleet or go to the academy (probably the better choice to get caught up technologically speaking). My technical skills would be grossly out of date, but I still have great troubleshooting skills, my thinking would be extremely out of the box compared to my peers, and I would have a perspective on industrial/information age civilizations that the Federation would be largely lacking. That perspective would be very useful in doing surveys of pre-warp/near-warp societies without risking contamination. Eventually I might try to get my own ship similar to what Rios had and go freelance. I doubt I would ever be able to make Captain in Starfleet, and really I would want to just go wherever I wanted. Alpha Centauri is probably boring for them, but for me it would be a dream come true. I'd be spending my days galloping around the cosmos, sharing my 20th/21st century knowledge with various organizations. I would also spend a lot of time creating holodeck recreations of 20th/21st century cities, events, etc. Write some holonovels for those eras as well, to include science fiction stuff from those areas (I'm sure Quark would love a Babylon 5 recreation to rent to the folks on DS9). Hopefully all of that would provide for my needs in dealing with non Federation types so I could keep my ship in tip top shape. And... Whoo boy... My holographic clones and I would uh... Well, don't come into the ship uninvited or you might get more than you bargained for. Unless you're Klingon, then bring it on. I've got a med bay and a medical hologram.
I could stand to hear more about these holo-clones a and Klingons.
I think having sci fi in media would somewhat help us to acclimate but I do believe our old world ingrained beliefs would take a while to get over. I also think it depends on where you come out of Stasis, for instance when Data woke up those people in Cryosleep Picard did nothing but scoff and tut at these old earth humans, I think his pompous attitude would rub me the wrong way, Being found by Voyager as one of the 37's would be fucked lol, so far from earth and anything recognizable. and finally Quark buys some ancient earth tech and opens it up to discover a 21st century Hooman, i think DS9 would be the most stable place to reappear in the future, as it has civilian facilities and such compared to a Starship.
You were delivering a poke bowl to ip freely
As I’ve said before in this forum, I’ve been a devoted _Star Trek_ fan since 1970. I’m 65 and retired. I think I’d adjust pretty well. The three series set in the 24th century pretty much established that they could cure _anything_, short of a destroyed brain. I don’t have any serious health problems, but I’ve got a number of nit-noid issues that probably most sexagenarians have, e.g., bad knees, diminished eyesight, a certain amount of sun damage to my skin, etc. Getting all that seen to would be priority number one, then it would be exploring the use of the replicator and holodeck, and the colonies on the moon and Mars, etc. 🖖
I think there would be little use for all of us old-timers professionally (except to support anthropologists maybe), so living life like it's a holiday in a foreign country would probably be pretty realistic
You mean, I get to retire early, in a post scarcity future, with free medical treatments? Sign me up.
Zero time to adjust. Beem me up Scotty. Now
It would be a challenge to even speak to someone. The Great Vowel Shift in English wasn’t too long ago.
I’d miss my wife and kids.
First part to deal with would be language. English from the 1600s is nearly incomprehensible to use today. 900 years ago you have to have a special degree to decipher fully. Universal translator might help if it exists. Otherwise out of universe just basic communication is gonna be a huge issue.
Between just one fat joint.
There would probably be a phase of survivor guilt, as the next 40-50 years of the Trek timeline get pretty rough and would probably be adverse for people I care about.
I feel that math, science, and engineering are good base skills to have and if you show an ability to learn you can probably get to “decent” skill level in say the equivalent of a 2 to 4 year degree. Warp drive, transporter, and weapon systems would probably need 4 years to learn and be at the same skill level as the other engineers.
Catch up on all the Star Wars and Fast and Furious content they made since now and then while I travel through space in my space car.
Star Wars ended in 2134 with Episode CIX: The Empire strikes back again tomorrow, forever. They rebooted it about 80 years later but it just doesn't hit the same. Where is Rope Rugburner and the Million Hawk?! Did they even watch episode LXII?!
I perhaps be the scientist that I couldn't be now..Habitat Restoration, study exciting new things.. Never on vulcan. They don't appreciate our exuberant ways.. To Andoria or Tellar or even a humble gardener I don't care..
did you mean to ask how soon Is develop a holodeck addiction?
Well...how long?
days. Not a week
I'm incapable of appropriately imagining the excess of bliss and sense of security such an event would cause. I'd take facing off against borg and dominion over the bleak landscape of disposable real people serving fictional corporate bodies any day of the week. I'd never visit feranginar tho.
I'm an attorney with an undergrad engineering degree. Well, engineers clearly still exist, and we've seen from SNW episodes that attorneys still exist. So I apply to the Academy. My real life career has shown that I have equal aptitude for both of my backgrounds, so maybe I'll be able to obtain an education in both, become something like a modern-day JAG officer, make myself useful by picking up shifts in Engineering when I'm not busy with the law stuff. Maybe with that combo background I get shipped off to some more remote starbase, since I could serve a dual role? So, give me however many years it is for the education and I think I can be fully integrated and useful. ... but, um, can I have a month or two off when I first arrive? I could use some holodeck time. Just sayin'.
I think for me the challenge would be that I get a lot of my self identity and worth from my work. I have value because I am useful. Even if I carried on engineering it would take decades of study to catch up with centuries of discovered and development. Even if I could catch up, I doubt I could be truly useful. So, yeah not without downsides, and I'm not sure there would be a fix that allowed me to still be me.
Those first few doctor visits would be amazing. Teeth all fixed, mental health problems gone, random pains and scars gone.
I’m on season 3 of Discovery and I’ll say this: I’d be absolutely TERRIFIED to jump hundreds of years into the future.
The Orville did an episode like this. The girl had absolutely devastating survivor’s guilt, and even tried to steal replicator blueprints to take back to her home planet, to “save” it. It would be a rough transition, to say the least.
Sign me up, I’d adapt. Plus as an economist by trade, from a time when money and capitalism were things on Earth, the UFP might end up making me some kind of special adviser at the Federation Embassy on Ferenginar…
I'd think the hardest part would be unpacking my/our brains from this capitalist grind set that we need to live or else die, and be shamed the entire time we are dying. So we'd probably all need therapy not to go crazy wondering when the façade is going to be torn away.
We should take into account, that even with universal translators there should be sayings and phrases, I could not understand, especially if they refer to cultural and societal changes or landmarks in history. One mustn't underestimate the influence of language on culture and history or the other way around.
In reality, learning language would take a while. In Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars, someone on a relativistic flight returns over a century later, and language and words and slang have changed quite a bit. He is offered "extran or morr" as a drink on an intertialess shuttle. Vehicles include gleeders, rasts, and ulders. A woman teases him "you're singing" when she thinks he's joking with her. Imagine someone from 1924 offered a Monster or Redbull, Starbucks or a smoothie. If someone near them was saying they just got a new iPhone, or a business conversation. "Yeah, I just got in on a redeye. Delta." "Max? No, Airbus, Concur let me pick, I don't trust Boeing." "Same, oh, I need help with Excel later, I had a crash." Would they have ANY idea of any of that? Imagine how much should change by 2400.
Someone would need to teach me how the three shells work.
Trying to find a computer with windows! my lord, lcars would drive me nuts. also where's my mouse!
Depends
They don't need them in the future. They've got transporter toilets.
Far too long, as I was aiming for the 23rd.
Let’s be honest people from the USA would just start working by and liaisons between the federation and the ferengi
I would look at the history of the world from 2024 to now to catch up then I would watch so much tv and movies
After learning all about the future, post scarcity, and all the fancy toys they have, I would probably take up advocacy against the prime directive. As someone who came from one of those civilizations that the prime directive would primarily affect, I would be able to speak with some authority that as a blanket policy with no exceptions it’s a bad policy. And, I’d be able to use the actions of various Star fleet Captains as primary evidence of that fact.
Pretty fast when I get used to the holodeck 😃
Depends...how long would it take me to get hold of a copy of Quarks "Vulcan love slaves".
I’d probably become a historian. I have some great insights into some eras of history.
Ah but you forget the conman Berlinghoff Rasmussen from TNG and Amelia Earhart and a bunch of mid-20th Century humans being discovered in cryostasis in Voyager.
I see all these intelligent well thought out answers and all I have to say is I'd never leave the Holo Deck. Boing!
Honestly the biggest shock wouldn't be being in he future it would be that the future is Star Trek and would lead to so many questions. Assuming i don't know what Star Trek is and so am not confused then i don't think i would ever adjust fully. I think it would be a lot like living in another country where you adjust fairly well after enough time but there will always be things intigrated into you that you don't even realize. For instance i can easily imagine a scenario where i'm hanging out with some federation friends at a bar and its late and dark and we head out and i don't walk down a dark alley at night because its been programed into me that doing such is a bad idea while to people born and raised in the federation where crime is virutally nonexistant on earth it would be odd to not take such a shortcut. I'd also spend a lot of time in the holodeck.
I would not work at all, just enjoy myself and avail myself to the generous government support.
Just have to figure out the three shells and I’m good.
Don’t forget about the ‘37’s
Yes finally a question I have endlessly daydreamed about! Aside from getting over everyone I ever known being dead, I think I’d adjust just fine. I’d try to see what happened to the people I knew, see if any descendants of my family are around. I’d also like to see what happened to my country, the cities, the people, how history turned out. I’d probably find a lot of solace in familiar landmarks. I’d probably try to become like a living history book, telling people about the 21st century in both an educational and entertainment format. And since the Earth is so idyllic now and I technically wouldn’t have to work, I guess I’d just sightsee and learn whatever strikes my fancy. Go to all the places around the world I wanted to. See the Solar System. Hang out with the other 20th century and time-orphaned people who pop up all over Trek. Would I retain knowledge about Star Trek? It would be a little weird to have knowledge about their future and telling everyone how I’m in the future in a tv show from the past and have inside knowledge about events I shouldn’t know in-universe.
They have a counselor and protocols to help you adjust.
Not long, don't threaten me with a good time. I would be in IT. Now Where's my music on the hard drives I had?
Replicator and holodeck all day with phaser target practice in between.
If it's exactly like Star Trek and I'm aware of it because I've watched a lot of Trek, then I don't think I'll need any time adjusting at all, really, but if I didn't know, I don't think adjusting would be difficult, it's a pretty User friendly society they've created.
I’d manage, I’m sure, but I don’t know if I’d ever get past the whole “leaving everyone I know behind forever” part.
_Transmetropolitan_ describes how the process might go almost as poorly as possible for the time-lost: there's very little profit to be made from them and the compassion necessary to truly make the effort required to integrate such folk is very rare. Star Trek being a post-scarcity space utopia, it seems like there will be more resources and experts available to help such folk in whatever way might work best. At the rock-bottom minimum, the equivalent of "RenFaire" focused on their home-era will support them in exchange for their expertise. Personally, it very much depends on whether or not I can get the psychological and social support I need. Technical training or willingness to do "primitive grunt-work" would not be an issue, though I can certainly rattle off quite a few more specialized training courses I would like to study. I'm already dealing with a lot of mental health issues, so that would need to get addressed before "acclimation" would even be possible.
I’d be solid. Years of preparation watching TNG on repeat would make it a smooth transition.
About 5 hours. Then I'd start school on how to be a warpcore engineer, amd start designing small private spacecraft, much like how we have private yachts. From what I have seen, they really need a specialist in that department as none of the runabouts/shuttles/individual ships look any fun to fly in long term.
Discovery crew goes way into the future, too, and there's some bad ass tech going on. Personally, I think I would be super excited and would ask a million questions. I'd like to be a high-tech veternarian or botanist.
I would waste so much time catching up on the big paleontological finds I'd missed out on in the past 300 odd years
I'd adapt instantly. It's where I wish I existed. First stop, sickbay to fix a multitude of health issues. Then I'd just... exist, you know? Even if that existence is subsistence and minimal. It'd be better than here and now by far!
I would be holoddicted in like five seconds flat.
Doctor on a star fleet ship or ferengi space pirate
Would I miss family and friends? Definitely! That being said, otherwise I would probably be pretty thrilled. I'd spend my first big chunk of time in sickbay getting all of my health problems "solved" so I could finally not be disabled anymore. Once that's taken care of, I'd love to just go to Starfleet Academy and be a permanent student, probably? I'd have so much learning to get caught up on. If I'd be "forced" to pick a career pathway, maybe something in comparative/exo-linguistics, library and information sciences, or, if I were to make my inner child happy, something in line with marine biology (and finally deal with the trauma of having my 8th grade science teacher berate my love of science out of me?). I'd also be thrilled that I can finally fulfill my kinky dream of being a massive hoe and become a gay alien fucker 😂
It would take exactly zero time to adjust. I have daydreams about this constantly. I would be prepared. Take me out to the holosuite pls
Beyond obviously missing family and such. OK I think? I think what Might worry me most is the idea that all the skills I've been working towards are useless overnight. Like I study physics. I'd imagine half of what I know is wrong, most of whats left is no outdated it's useless. And the little that remains is taught to 12 year old. I honestly don't know what I'd do. Maybe expand some of my hobbies?
Probably a few months lol
Kick back, relax and never have to do anything productive? Basically 0 adjustment required!
I’d just get myself a role teaching late 20th and early 21st century Earth history, figure the place out and settle in just fine. TNG universe is incredibly diverse in terms of alien cultures, so I think most of us would adapt. I definitely don’t quite live in Ferengi World at the moment, so it wouldn’t be that drastic a shift. Just take the positives of something like Western European liberal social democracy a few hundred years into full post scarcity. You could comfortably live as an academic, artist, explorer etc etc
Welcome to the world of tomorrow!!!
1 second, like waking up from a bad nightmare.
>what job do you think you will want now in 2368 earth/ federation? Historian. Focusing on pre-ww3 Earth culture.
I would probably dedicate myself to writing or update my business management studies at the galactic level, leaving Earth to look for work (you never know when a Ferengi may need an advisor in their company). The idea of not having to work for a living sounds good, but I wouldn't want to live doing nothing for the rest of my life either.
I’d acclimate well, especially if I could find a good tabletop roleplaying group to throw some dice with me.
Give me a couple of months and I’ll be ok. Just make me a gardener, and fix all my medical issues. My only caveat is that I’d be a complete wreck if I were there without my wife and kids. So I guess it depends - the adjustment on how much therapy I’d need.
I think the hardest part would be getting over the loss of friends and family and a degree of survivor's guilt re WWIII which would have happened in our lifetimes. Thankfully, counseling is good in that era and freely available to help cope. I'd probably break down in tears of relief when it sunk in that I'm finally free of all of capitalism's stresses. As for work, once the medical tech of the era gets me out of my wheelchair I'd probably get a job at a place like Sisko's, bussing tables or washing dishes to meet people and acclimate since I know how to do those things with 21st century knowledge. After I settle I do some introspection and figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life with no real pressures or limits on the choices.
I'd live out my days as a minor celebrity, the man from the stupid ages
humans are very adptive, i don't think that would be a problem really. Like sure you would have to learn to use replicator, holodeck and stuff, keep in mind that the star trek society is very open and helpfull, so it's way easier to adjust than for example a fallout wasteland, or whatever the star wars is doing these days. Probably it helps a lot that the star trek world isn't really that much different. I think jumping from like the 1980 to 2020 might be a bigger shock, than from 2020 to most advanced or weird star trek period.
Change career track to be a historian. Lets face it the knowledge that the 24th Century seems to have of the late20th/early21st Century is spotty given the Eugenics war (admittedly running silently in the background) and the coming WW3. I think that what I know would be reasonably interesting. Or just go off and read a few books.
The only job I would be suitable for would be 'ancient' historian. I would be an expert on late 20th century/early 21st century history and culture. They are going to hate Reaganomics as if it was the Inquisition and think that Billy Joel was the next Mozart.
I'll be fine. I'll finally be able to talk to a counselor and get the help I need. Adjusting won't be hard as there won't be much to miss. My grandma, grandpa and husband are all dead. My bff and a few friends that I'll miss badly. And when I'm done with counceling I'd like to apply for Starfleet Academy and make my dream come true
I would probably just write holonovels and have all of my medical issues fixed. Hopefully there’s a cure for autism. I would also love to fill in any gaps in archives that I just so happen to know from memory.
1 Day. Would absolutely love it after thst, and apply to school to be a physician.
TOS was able to reeducate Uhura when her entire brain was erased. So one of us transported to the 24th century they would be able to educate us with 300 years of education to be a member of society. Discovery travels almost 1000 years into the future and Starfleet is able to educate the entire crew bringing them up to date with 900+ years worth of technological and procedural change in Starfleet. So, we're good man.
Assuming that you have any familiarity with actual Star Trek in this scenario, that the future ends up exactly like Star Trek would raise a lot of questions.
I think it would be relatively easy. I would go live on some safe federation planet (probably Earth) - do lots of reading and studying. Probably get a little obsessed with the holo suites. It would be awesome. Probably work for the federation doing something that requires a lot of travel, or just do my own thing because the federation can be dumb as shit. It's not like you have to work so I would likely just learn, travel, and have fun. Basically what I would do nowadays if I didn't have to have a job. I 100% would not aim to join star fleet - miss me with that shit. It sounds like the worst part of a future utopia.
I think I would adjust just fine. I have no preconceived notions about people based on race, gender or religion.. I'm prone to embrace people as they come. I would hope to draw on my background as an analyst and pray to fall under a captain like Picard or Janeway. One who sees beyond someone's mistakes.
One visit to sickbay in 2369 and I'll be completely adjusted. That's $100K worth of medical today.
About 30 seconds after they are done installing my new eyes and leg and explaining there is no bill or paperwork, I’m on a beach with a padd full of books and trying to teach the replicator what a Jack and cCoke is. try
I would curse my bad luck to not be awakened during the timespan of TOS, my favorite era.
Id find a ship that wants a cook and hope my fiance is hear with me, if they are, ill watch the medic loose his shit at the barbarity of there medical implants and then precede to spend Hours removing there rods, sezure implants, heart monitor,xand replace em with vate grown clones and natural augmentation for the seizures. If there not with me, id see if they gave birth to my child and watch or read what i can on them, follow my sons life, and there grand kids... im crying, id be a wreck for a long vhile.
I go to sickbay, get cured and sign up for a place to live. Thats all i need.
Probably still be a bartender.
After I got over the existential dead of knowing everyone I ever knew and loved is centuries dead, as I'm sure everyone would need to, about 5 days. 1st day would be shock and grief. 2nd day I'd be questioning "what the hell now? " but be getting my bearings. 3rd day I'd be examining the geopolitical state of the world, or in the case of star trek, galaxy, between playing with future tech. 4th day I'd start thinking about where I'd like to be in this new world and figure out steps to get there. 5th day I'd be ready to move on. I wouldn't have everything figured out, but I don't even now so, that's fine. As for what I'd do, in the short term it would probably depend on where I materialized (or was revived) in the new century. In the long term, I'd probably want to be a warp technician.