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New Free Digital Magazine: Galaxis – The Worlds of Science & Science Fiction

I'm proud to unveil the premiere issue of my new digital magazine, Galaxis. Subtitled "The worlds of science & science fiction," the premiere issue features an exclusive interview with famed physicist Dr. Michio Kaku, plus Q&As with writer Mary Doria Russell, physicist Leonard Susskind, critic Michael Medved, and heart specialist Deepak Srivastava.

Also in this issue is a colorful look at the days when science fiction magazines were the place to find out about your favorite genre films, background on Mobile Suit Gundam, David Gerrold's Starhunt books, a look back at the TV adaptation of The Lathe of Heaven, and more.

This new quarterly magazine is a free digital magazine that you can read online or download. Check it out today.

What Happened to Star Trek's Holographic Bridge Viewscreen?

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There are almost always dramatic changes in storyline and details from a film or television series in its early planning stages to its final airing. But is it possible that any production changed more than the first Trek film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

In the March 1978 issue of Starlog (#12), the magazine tries valiantly to keep up with Trek's rapidly evolving situation. It is a new TV series, then it is to be a feature film, then it is to be a TV series again with its premiere episode released theatrically overseas, then – just before the issue went to press – Paramount announces that it will, in fact, be a feature film, with a possible new series to follow a year later. In three different articles, the reader gets a sense of the madness of what it must have been like to work on that production. Sets were being built, actors hired, scripts written, directors hired – and the studio wasn't even sure if it would all be for a two-hour movie or an ongoing series.

But tucked into all of the reporting on the moving-train that was Star Trek in 1977 and 1978, this issue of Starlog includes an interesting one-page report on some of the updated technology and features of the refitted starship Enterprise.

The article, written by Starlog's resident special effects expert, David Hutchison, is an overview of the ways in which the Enterprise had changed since the 1960s TV series. Some of the changes – such as a sonic shower and the improved instrumentation at work stations – we would see in the final film when it was released in 1979. But in the middle of the article, Hutchison notes something that would have been great to see but which never made it into Trek on any screen:

Though a lot of little viewers have been added [on the bridge], the main view-plate has been removed. Visual communications will be achieved via large 'holographic' projections suspended in the area in front of the captain's chair. Additionally, it will no longer be necessary for officers to come in person to the conference room, but [they] will be able to 'attend' via a 'holographic projection.'

When ST:TMP premiered, of course, we all saw that there was no holographic projection in the conference room or on the bridge. In fact, the bridge had the familiar viewscreen at the front. I don't recall ever learning the reason for this lack of change. It could have been practical concerns over the cost and logistics of creating a holographic image every time Captain (oops, Admiral) Kirk wanted to speak with someone from his captain's chair. Or it could have been a lack of courage, a fear that the holograph would be too unfamiliar and uncomfortable for audiences who presumably would prefer that the bridge crew stare at a big-screen TV to steer the ship.

Whatever the answer, I think an opportunity was lost. As physicist Dr. Michio Kaku has pointed out in his book Physics of the Future, a lot of what Trek creator Gene Roddenberry predicted back in the 1960s about technological advancement in the 23rd century has already been achieved. Tricorders, advanced interactive computers, cell phones, wrist communicators, toupees for the captain. Roddenberry just didn't see how fast technology would proceed in a much shorter period of time. So, though it was correct for Roddenberry to update the Enterprise for a series or movie set a decade after the original series ended, he once again failed to deliver a vision that was far enough ahead.

In his Culture series of far-advanced civilization novels, Iain M. Banks arguably does the best job of extrapolating technological advances and how they would (and wouldn't) affect human behavior and opportunities and politics. But Star Trek has probably been the most accessible vision of the future for people, and it's a shame to see it passed up on some interesting elements of that possible future.

Podcast of Michio Kaku's Commonwealth Club Program

Michio Kaku at The Commonwealth Club of California in Silicon Valley on March 28, 2011. Photo by Ed Ritger.

As readers of this blog know, I had the honor of moderating the March 28, 2011, question-and-answer session with famed physicist Dr. Michio Kaku at The Commonwealth Club in Palo Alto. The podcast of that program is now available. You can listen to the free podcast of this program on the Club's web site, or you can download it from iTunes (click that link or just search iTunes for "commonwealth club").

Kaku was in town to discuss his new book, Physics of the Future, which had just been released a couple weeks earlier and was already on The New York Times best-seller list. He also made some comments about the nuclear crisis in Japan.

This program will air on KQED Radio in the Bay Area on Friday, April 29, at 8:00 p.m. The following couple weeks will see the program airing over The Commonwealth Club's nationwide radio network of about 230 stations. So check your local radio station.

It's a great program. Kaku's not only a very smart man, but he is an excellent and entertaining speaker who can make important and complex scientific concepts and explanations understandable to those of us who are not world-famous physicists.

Enjoy.

On Stage with Michio Kaku

Above, courtesy of The Commonwealth Club's great photographer, Ed Ritger, is famed physicist and co-founder of string field theory Dr. Michio Kaku (right). I'm the other gentleman in the photo, which shows us on stage at the Cubberley Theatre in Palo Alto, California, where the Club event took place before a sold-out audience of about 300 people.

I'd love to tell you that we were on stage together so that Kaku could ask my advice about various perplexing scientific problems, but in truth we were there fielding audience questions about his new book, Physics of the Future.

More on this as I write it up. But, to put it briefly, if you ever have the chance to talk with a genius physicist, do so. And if that genius is Dr. Kaku, you'll enjoy every minute of it.

Backstage with Michio Kaku

The photos here show famed physicist Dr. Michio Kaku on-stage (despite this blog post's headline), signing books following his Monday, March 28, 2011, speech and audience Q&A at The Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley.

But there was a backstage, too. Before his speech, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Kaku in the green room, where we discussed some of the ideas he explores in his great new bestseller, Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100. I had known that he was born in San Jose, but I hadn't known that he had grown up in the South Bay, leaving only upon graduation from high school in 1964. He had some nice remarks about growing up here, back when Silicon Valley looked so different than it does today. He expanded upon some of his remarks during his speech to the sold-out audience at Palo Alto's Cubberley Theatre, as well as in the Q&A session, which I moderated.

I will write up a portion of the interview for my next column in Northside San Francisco. After they publish it, they also post it online, at which point I'll post an only slightly edited transcript of the interview on this blog, as I did with my Premal Shah and P.J. O'Rourke interviews. In the meantime, I will be working on the next issue of The Commonwealth magazine, which is slated to feature Dr. Kaku on the cover.

So it's all-Kaku, all the time around here. And that's not bad.

Dr. Michio Kaku Coming to The Commonwealth Club in Silicon Valley

Dr. Michio Kaku will be coming to The Commonwealth Club of California in Silicon Valley later this month, and I'm pleased to say that I will have the honor and pleasure of moderating the program.

Kaku is a very well-known physicist (the co-founder of string field theory, no less), futurist, bestselling author, television personality, and all-around extremely smart guy. I've had the pleasure of twice seeing him live on stage, both times about a decade ago when I lived in Manhattan. One of the events involved him talking science and science fiction, an intertwining of topics he took to new heights in his 12-episode Science Channel TV program Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible. His books include the brand new Physics of the Future, Hyperspace, Physics of the Impossible, and others.

He also hosts a radio program, Science Fantastic, on about 90 radio stations across the country, and another radio program called Explorations. And you are likely to see him show up frequently on Fox News and other programs as an expert on many topics (lately he has been offering his scientific expertise on the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear tragedies in Japan). How he finds the time to do all of that, plus make public appearances at The Commonwealth Club, I don't know, but I'm glad he does because I can guarantee he's worth seeing in person.

Kaku, who was born in San Jose, will speak to The Commonwealth Club in Palo Alto, California, on Monday, March 28, at 7 p.m. If you're in the area, please join us for the program.