the Collective

There was a point when I'd watch Star Trek and think that the absence of the internet in that world was a minor worldbuilding issue. Like, of course the writers in the 1960s did not predict it, and prediction in sci-fi is not a big deal for me, but it felt a little odd that this major technological development did not seem to exist in this imagined future. Now, however, i interpret it much differently. Now I imagine that the reason we don't see the internet in Star Trek's future (especially the social media and entertainment aspects) is because that shit doesn't belong in a utopian future. There is no social media because Trek humans recognize how regressive it is. Their society isn't driven by the profit motive, so there's no use for the attention economy and outrage-oriented algorithms. And somehow the human race in general has matured enough to not be taken in by, or feel a need for, the negative shit that makes up so much social media traffic. Sure, there are probably some equivalent of subspace chat groups between friends, family, and shared interests, but this shitty version that currently plagues our society is just one of those things that future Trek humanity has moved past. The ideal expressed by Picard as "we work to improve ourselves and the rest of humanity" has filled social media's space in culture with more meaningful stuff.

i forgot that in season 2 the maquis kidnapped dukat and the central command told them they could keep him. really good stuff. they had political reasons in doing so, namely to push blame onto him for supplying weapons for the cardassian colonies, but i like to think mostly they also simply did not want dukat anymore