Are We Turning Into the Keepers?
A Star Trek alien race might be us in the future… just without the telepathy and the brain arteries
The very first Star Trek pilot, “The Cage,” featured an alien race that had destroyed the surface of its planet thousands of centuries ago. They’d retreated underground and spent so much time replaying telepathic memories that they forgot how to fix their own machinery. The story of Talos IV was later re-edited into the two-part episode, “The Menagerie.”
It hit me — maybe we’re turning into them — the Talosians.
I don’t mean in appearance. These aliens, led by someone called “The Keeper,” had bulging heads for their big brains, with nifty arteries that pulsed — a pretty good effect for 1965 television.
And I don’t mean in brain power. They had telepathy, could implant images and feelings into the minds of others, and read thoughts.
I mean the way they lost themselves in their “media” and forgot how to do anything for themselves. That’s why they kidnapped Captain Pike, to have children with the human Vina, so they could repopulate and reclaim the planet.
We’re not losing ourselves in telepathic recordings, but we are surrounding ourselves with cocoons that filter out information we don’t like, people we don’t like, thoughts we don’t like. It’s making it easier to forget how to feel empathy.
And we’re drowning in AI slop. AI music. AI people. AI videos. AI pictures. AI news. Until we forget how to deal with real people who have feelings and thoughts and dreams that don’t match ours.
AI itself isn’t evil. It’s a tool. But humans have a habit of elevating our tools above us. Sometimes those tools aren’t even things — they’re ideas. Religion. Economic systems. Tribalism. The State. We make them more important than the individuals who make them up.
Maybe it’s not all bad. Maybe we’ll get those bulging heads with pulsing arteries as a side benefit. The Keeper also rocked a metallic robe and a banging necklace.
While we’re waiting, I guess I could just have AI whip up an image of me as the Keeper.
