Watch out! This is a Star Trek related post.
So, I was sitting at work today (totally daydreaming) when I came to the question: if Star Trek were real (ie: in the actual future) how likely is it that they'd still use our (earthly) increments of time (second, minute, hour etc) as well as our 24-point-whatever hours-in-a-day clock? Like, when Cpt. Pecard goes "Jordey, how long will it take to fix the blah-dee-blah ?" (I've forgotten all my Star Trek lingo apparently, including the name for the engine parts on the Enterprise) and Jordey goes "two hours" and Cpt. Pecard goes "you have an hour".... it comes to my mind, would they really use hours? Surely there would be just as many time measuring systems as there are planets... so why aren't the Klingons and Ferengi complaining that their days are actually shorter/longer than 24-point-something hours? (Duh- the Ferengi totally would complain, they complain about anything). What's to say that the Enterprise would operate on an earth-based time system? I mean, they have star dates (made up star trek dates different from our millinium-century-decade-year system), so why do they use 24 hours? Well, now that I come to put way too much thought into this, I'm not quite sure that a day on the Enterprise is ineed 24 hours. Hmmm.... But they do use the words "hours" which I think is irrevocably related to earth time. Maybe in the future, once we discover life on other planets, all having their own time measurments and day lengths, we will compromise by creating a whole new time schedule based on our bio-clocks. But, then again, not all humanoids would have the same bio-clock. I'm not a scientist, but I'd wager that bio-clocks (when we wake up and go to sleep 'n stuff) are probably shaped by the planet where we live and its rotation around the sun. So, maybe humanoids would all have different bio-clocks based on the planets their species grew up on.
Wow, I've put wayyyyy to much thought into this.
Do any of you Trekkies want to put in your two-cents? (Star trek and money, now there's a topic ... sheesh).
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I read a study recently that they did on these scientists living in Antarctica (where the cycle of light day/dark night can't affect their biological clocks) and when allowed to sleep as much as they wanted, they fell into a cycle where they averaged I think 9 hours of sleep per night? It was interesting. I'll try to re-find the article for you. Also- Star Trek post, YAY! :)
ReplyDeleteVery interesting questions, but I think it all comes down to that rather important Trekkie (or is Trekker the more P.C. term?) tool: WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF. But it's still fun to talk about it anyway.
ReplyDeleteI believe the term is "Trekkie"
ReplyDeleteI've heard that trekkie and terkker are two different terms, one refering to people who are into the original series and the other refering to people who are into Next Gen and the like.
ReplyDelete