I often turn to Star Trek for inspiration and guidance because in this world of human future Gene Roddenberry envisioned us maturing past the infantile state we are in today.
Looking at the latest development in politics across the pond I remember one episode from Star Trek we might want to take a page from.
In order to save themselves from a troublesome adversary, they created a holographic container for this person to roam free within. This allowed the crew to get rid of the problem while tricking the nuisance into believing it was unchallenged to take on the world. More or less, and there a few variations of this theme around.
Considering how distant the current far-too-white house madministration seem to be from anything outside their small sphere of puppets and puppeteers it shouldn’t be too difficult to take a page from the world of the future.
Simply construct a large set replica of the White House and hire actors to provide the inhabitants with a constant flow of real fake news and reactions to keep them happy and engaged (read: Happily enraged).
It could be like a 4-year 24/7 reality show and social experiment. I’m sure it would generate interest from many parties and it could, potentially, serve as a research project for political science in order to overcome our apparent shortcomings and to strengthen democracy.
It would, most likely, also make for an interesting testing ground for computer science fields such as VR, AR, and AI.
Consider it a mix between Big Brother, the Truman Show, and a large scale Monopoly game. The sponsorship deals alone could finance the entire enterprise. Not to mention the money saved by sand-boxing the related issues into this political zoo.
“But wouldn’t people want to get outside sometimes?” you ask.
Sure, but considering how much effort goes into every excursion already and how little they actually interact with the everyday-person I don’t think it would be very difficult to orchestrate. It would probably be an easy thing to let them think that the world is as hopelessly dangerous as they believe. We could feed them stories like Cuba annexing Florida and introducing universal healthcare and social tax reforms to keep them away from Mar-a-Lago and such places. They probably half believe that’s what’s going on as it is.
Anyway. Think of all the possibilities, not to mention the good it would do for peace and stability in the world.
I think it could be an international hit. All we have to do in order to pitch it to the networks is to come up with a catchy name.
Any suggestions?
