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Musk and Hegseth vow to “make Star Trek real” but miss the show’s lessons (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 month ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/politics@beehaw.org

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

This is seriously so tone deaf, I don't know where to start. Don't name your initiative after the title of a chilling warning from TNG.

This week, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth touted their desire to “make Star Trek real”—while unconsciously reminding us of what the utopian science fiction franchise is fundamentally about.

Their Tuesday event was the latest in Hegseth’s ongoing “Arsenal of Freedom” tour, which was held at SpaceX headquarters in Starbase, Texas. (Itself a newly created town that takes its name from a term popularized by Star Trek.)

Neither Musk nor Hegseth seemed to recall that the “Arsenal of Freedom” phrase—at least in the context of Star Trek—is also the title of a 1988 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. That episode depicts an AI-powered weapons system, and its automated salesman, which destroys an entire civilization and eventually threatens the crew of the USS Enterprise. (Some Trekkies made the connection, however.)

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[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Yes, unfortunately. It said he was a great, compared with other greats.

spoiler

Lucky for those in the know, that came from a mirror universe guy.

[–] cybernihongo@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

...can I have the exact quote? Or a clip of it? This is the kind of thing that needs to be seen to truly sink in.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Lorca (already a very unconventional Star Trek captain) asks if wants to be “remembered in history… alongside the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, Zefram Cochrane…or as a failed fungus expert, a selfish little man who put the survival of his own ego before the lives of others?”

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/star-trek-elon-musk.html

Clip: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4bgMCNXzNtE

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

That was the first clear sign that Lorca was from the Mirror Universe.

[–] cybernihongo@reddthat.com 1 points 1 month ago

Well, that's absolutely fucked. Almost same level of fucked as you know who being in Home Alone 2. But damn, this is fucked.

[–] Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Elon is, as demonstrated, happy to let that sink in.

[–] apotheotic@beehaw.org 2 points 1 month ago

JJ902 reference in 2026??

[–] doleo@lemmy.one 1 points 1 month ago

spoiler

That's the particular universe he thinks he's creating, clearly