Category Archives: science fiction

science fiction, space age technology, star trek

Living in a Trek Future with Tritanium

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Space-age Implants

As most of my readers know, I’m a Star Trek fan. I perform in a fan-based podcast called Outpost: a Star Trek Fan Production, and followed the TV series and movies for years. I have a bunch of Trek-related SF, as well. There’s something that appeals to the geek in me about the whole thing, and has done so since I was a kid.

One of the series’ most endearing traits (other than the great storytelling) has been their use of scientific jargon. The right tech language helps put the story in the right time frames. So, such Trek-talk as “warp speed” and tech like tricorders, dilithium crystals, transporters, and tritanium have entered our lexicon from the shows.

Implanting Tritanium

Tritanium is an interesting one. According to Star Trek: Memory Alpha, tritanium is supposed to be an ultrahard substance used in the construction of ships, stations, and other facilities in the Trekiverse. It sounds so plausible as to be real. And, here on Earth in the 21st century, it turns out tritanium does exist. In fact, I have a piece of it in my body, which makes me part of a trend in bio-engineering applications for healing and repair.

Yes, like many other folks on this planet, I’m becoming assimilated into the ranks of the bio-implant folk. Not quite Borg-ified, mind you. I think that “augmented” is a better term. Down in my left knee, there’s a tritanium joint. It’s actually made of a titanium alloy and Tritanium is its trade name. It replaces a damaged knee joint. Titanium (Ti) is can alloyed with a number of other elements (iron, vanadium, molybdenum, aluminum) to make very strong lightweight materials for all kinds of uses, including medical. To top it all off, the surgeon who put it there used a robotic arm-assisted piece of equipment that uses a 3D model of my knee (gained via CAT scan) as part of the joint replacement. It’s called a Mako robot, and the process is called makoplasty.

I’m now seven weeks post-op and just the idea of robots doing surgery and Star Trek-style “tritanium” in my body is (to me) like the stuff of science fiction. Except, it’s happening here on Earth right now, using metals that are also important to the space-age technology we use to explore our planet via light-weight airframes and the universe with our various spacecraft. So, while Trek is set in the 24th Century, back here in the 21st, we’re getting a head start on enhanced craft…and humans. Now, as long as the Borg don’t show up, we should be in great shape!

By the way, this surgery and healing process is why I’ve been offline since late October. Surgery was in early November and it’s a pretty intense healing process. What I’d like to see now is some new Trek-enabled technology to help speed the healing from such implants. Anybody got a healing tricorder working yet?

science fiction

Back to the Future with 2001

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It Holds Up Well

Last week I was in Iceland, doing a series of lectures for a touring group. We had a fabby time touring the glaciers, hiking, checking out the glaciers, and waiting for the northern lights to appear. Since it was my second visit, I was able to look at the country with a fresh set of eyes. It’s a gorgeous place and, if you’re into planetary science, it’s where you go to learn about how our planet forms and evolves.

Speaking of looking at things with new eyes, I had a chance to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey while flying back home.  I haven’t watched that movie in decades, so it was a lot like watching it for the first time. My very first viewing was when it first came out. I went to see it with my dad and I remember we came out of the theater with glazed looks on our faces. We talked about it for a long time afterwards, once we were able to put our thoughts into words.

Seeing Through Different Eyes

This time, I was seeing 2001 with a producer’s eyes. Also, since I’ve read the SF work it was based on, I had a more experienced view of Sir Arthur Clarke’s work. I must admit, the movie holds up well on both counts. Its visualizations are pretty decent, considering it was made long before all the fancy CG programs we have access to now. I found the storyline to be as interesting as I did before. The movie plays it out with quiet grace and elegance. I didn’t notice the first time around, but this time (as a scriptwriter) I noticed just how banal the dialogue is. There are just enough lines to advance the story, but some of them are very trite. I suspect that was intentional. They wanted to show that our human concerns look pretty small when played out against the backdrop of the universe.

If you get a chance, go watch 2001. For folks who were much too young to see it the first time (or weren’t even born), it may move slowly. That’s okay. It’s not an action-adventure flick. It’s a thoughtful look at our place in the cosmos through the ages. It’s th e first film that I remember in the “space” genre that took the story seriously. That’s not to say Star Wars and Star Trek and others aren’t serious. They’re just different. So, check it out. Well worth seeing!