Teaching a Star Trek Civilisation

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2077162-revolution-in-physics-as-gravitational-waves-seen-for-first-time/

Humanity has entered a new era in exploration. We have made 2 extremely exciting discoveries in recent history that was predicted in thought exercises long before their discovery and acceptance by physicists. Coincidentally, both have to do with gravity.

First it was the Higgs Boson like particle detected at the LHC and now we have detected Gravitational Waves with LIGO. The Higgs Boson explains how gravity takes place, due to the fact that it explains how mass is obtained by particles, while Einsteins' theory of space-time and resultant gravity waves (now fact) explains how gravity works. (Forgive the lamens version)

What I found extremely interesting in the discovery is that the black holes gave up mass in order to generate the gravitational waves. This in my opinion would revolutionise our understanding of space-time and gravity as well as the relationship between them. However, with the amount of mass that was converted into gravitational waves, the question begs whether or not this also occurs outside of a black hole. Why is this important? Well, if the conversion of mass is required for the creation of gravitational waves and by extend gravity, does that mean that everything that has mass therefore looses mass because it has mass? Obviously there is a lot of experimentation that needs to happen to clarify all the new questions that has now risen. In order to do this, we will need energy. Cheap, clean and abundant energy.

Scientifically, our biggest hurdle in technological advancement is ultimately insufficient energy. With all the previous particle accelerators that was built, the experimentation in nuclear fusion and even space exploration, the problem always seems to boil down to energy requirements. Popular Sci-fi like Start Trek, Stargate and Star Wars suggests we need to look at alternative sources of energy as fossil fuels will not be sufficient to advance ourselves, or be there in the long run. Like the bronze age, it definitely was required to get where we are today but has it served its purpose? What I am advocating is that we need a new source of energy that is accessible to all and abundant enough so that we can access it wherever we go.

How did we get to energy, you might ask? Thank Einstein. E=MCC. Since we already run nuclear reactors to generate bucket loads of our daily energy requirements, we know there is a lot of energy contained in mass. If gravitational waves, and by extend gravity, is due to conversion of mass into gravity, then it stands to reason that we should be able to utilise gravity in order to generate usable energy. Since we now have scientific proof of gravitational waves and that they are generated by the conversion of mass, we are thus well on our way to have access to energy wherever there is gravity.

Considering the article I posted previously on Twitter relating to the development of technology in the form of artificial intelligence, I cannot help but imagine that we are well on our way to a Star Trek society as it is simply a matter of time before AI brings the solutions to the scientific questions, as it did for the experiment. Artificial intelligence can be used to provide to everyone in abundance and humans can focus on what it means to be human. We have not yet alleviated the concerns faced in the third world economies where clean water, basic medical care, simple housing, not to mention internet connectivity and schooling is concerned. It is still not accessible to all the people on our planet and we want to colonise Mars? Somehow, the disconnect of our whirlwind lives makes it easy to ignore those that are not as fortunate. 

I saw the movie Home recently, again. What we portray to our children by means of movie is that, one of the main things that separate humans from the Boove is that we care about each other in a way that not even the Boove does. But do we really? Society, in my opinion, has a long way to go before humanity is humanitarian and able to work together for the greater good of everyone rather than self promotion. I am firmly of the opinion that we as a global society will not be able to evolve to the next age without becoming completely human.

Being on the verge of energy independence and abundance for all, the only part missing to become a Star Trek like civilisation is to teach everyone to get back in touch with their humanity. I therefore think that teachers will be more important than ever to help our society and future humans to be human. To quote our famous pointy eared friend ... "Its logical".