Sweatpants & Pop Culture | First Contact Day
Thirty years from today, in Bozeman, Montana, an alien species will descend from the heavens and make First Contact with humanity—well, the first non-surreptitious first contact.
And the jukebox makes first contact with the Vulcans.
One may assume that there had once been a test flight prime during which our future as a space-faring species was not threatened by the Borg, who had traveled through a time vortex to assimilate Earth before Cochrane’s warp signature could attract the Vulcans. One may assume that; however, the history of First Contact Day—recorded or not—holds that Dr. Cochrane got a big assist from the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) which had also traveled through that vortex. Don’t think about the implications of it too hard: in talking about “these godforsaken paradoxes,” Captain Janeway put it best when she said “the future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache.”As the story of First Contact goes, Dr. Zefram Cochrane, born in the 2030s amid World War III, converted a United States Air Force nuclear missile into the first warp capable vehicle on Earth. He launched from a missile silo in Bozeman, Montana, on April 5, 2063 and it just so happened that, as he engaged his warp engines, the T’Plana-Hath—a Vulcan survey ship—was near enough to detect a warp signature. With the inhabitants of Earth displaying warp capability, the Vulcans landed in Bozeman to make First Contact.
This ushered in a new era, one defined by peace, prosperity, and education. Hunger, poverty, war between human nations were all eradicated within fifty years of First Contact; the United Earth government was established within ninety years and it would join the United Federation of Planets eleven years after that. It is fitting that Dr. Cochrane’s ship was named Phoenix: out of the ashes of a world burned through by war and hate and hopelessness rose a planet that was ready to rise to the challenges of learning to repair and take care of itself and joining other spacefaring planets among the stars. “It is a historical irony that Doctor Cochrane would use an instrument of mass destruction to inaugurate an era of peace,” once remarked now-Admiral Jean-Luc Picard.First Contact Day is a celebration, first and foremost, marking humanity’s first warp flight, First Contact with Vulcan, and one of the most significant turning points for us as a species. But it is also a day to look toward the future. (Of course, writing this before the date of Cochrane’s warp flight, First Contact Day is a celebration in the future—time paradoxes.)As I write this, I am watching NASA announce the crew of the Artemis II mission which, among many firsts, is the first international crew on a lunar mission: it includes the first Canadian, the first woman, and the first Black person to go to the Moon. This crew will be the first to go to the moon in over fifty years and they could go as soon as soon as next year—2024! The members of the astronaut corps and international active astronauts—representing at least seven nations—make up the most diverse group of active astronauts we’ve ever seen (though, I’d love to see more diversity still). Artemis is the most inclusive program to date behind the scenes too.
Looking at that gives me hope. The whole Artemis program gives me hope. It’s a light in what otherwise feels like an ever-darkening world. The motto for the program is “We Are Going”—we are going back to the Moon, we are going to Mars. But we are also going, with more or less intention depending on the person/idea/group/nation, into the future of our world. Like Artemis, I am going with intention: I am reaching out into the future for that distant light. In a time that is filled with so much vitriol, so much hate, so much distrust, the idea of exploring and learning and making the world better brings me so much joy. We—and I hope that the number of people contained within that “we” continues to grow; we are reaching out and, who knows, maybe someday our outstretched arm will be grasped by someone else reaching out into space looking for a friend too. Maybe we’ll have our own First Contact.
I hope we do. I hope that I’m alive to see it. That daydream brings me joy too.But I also hope that we find ways to unite, care for one another, share information and resources, and work in partnership and to do so sustainably, without needing to be visited by people from the stars. I hope we stop our backslide and make the health of, needs of, and respect for one another a priority. I hope we learn to listen—to each other and ourselves and our world and beyond.
“We get to reach for the stars. We get to reach for the best in ourselves. But, most important, we get to reach for each other.” – Michael Burnham, Star Trek: Discovery
We Are Going—I am reaching—out toward hope; toward First Contact.
Live long and prosper.