Star Trek is not just a TV phenomenon and sub-culture, it is a reflection of and comment upon the public’s enduring fascination with space exploration and technology.
Star Trek will form part of a public lecture from the Renmore History Society which takes place in the Renmore Barracks on Thursday March 8, where Brendan Smith will deliver a lecture entitled The Space Race, Star Trek, and the influence of 60’s science fiction on today’s technologies.
In 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to leave the confines of the earth, ushering in the space age, and in 1969 the Americans landed a man on the moon, capturing popular imagination and leading to an explosion in interest in science fiction; books, movies, and above all, TV. The teenagers who grew up with such seminal programMEs as Star Trek went on to develop and invent the technologies that surround us today.
Brendan Smith is from the Digital Enterprise Research Institute at NUI Galway, and is the founder of the recently-opened Communications and Computer Museum. His talk will give an insight into how science fiction, and in particular the original Star Trek series, inspired modern gadgetry from medical scanners to mobile telephones.
To reserve a place please email [email protected], text 085 - 7298831, or see www.renmorehistory.ie There is a €5 cover charge for non-members.
