Welcome to Trekking Through Compliance. We recently finished Season 8, where we reviewed all 79 episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) for compliance, ethics, and leadership lessons. This year, we added analysis from Timothy and Fiona, two AI-generated voices that brought another perspective. I had so much fun this season that I decided to extend it with episodes on the science and science issues in Star Trek TOS. I am joined in this exploration by my good friend Dr. Ben Locwin, a healthcare futurist and astrophysicist, who brings a scientific perspective to the discussion of Star Trek’s technology. In each episode, we use one or more TOS episodes to introduce topics such as warp drive, wormholes, phasers, and medical practice. In the second episode in this series, we look at wormholes. It’s a ton of fun, and I know you will enjoy it.
Locwin explains that black holes are incredibly dense objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape, and that this extreme gravity can slow time through time dilation. Locwin also points to experiments from NASA and the Air Force that support Einstein’s predictions, showing that time moves more slowly at higher speeds and in stronger gravitational fields. While he discusses wormholes and other theoretical possibilities, he emphasizes that real physics suggests time travel into the past is unlikely because nature may protect itself from paradoxes.
Highlights:
- Solar Slingshot Whisks Enterprise Back to 1960s
- Black hole event horizon and time slowing
- Wormholes needing negative mass
Resources:
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weinstein
Ben Locwin on LinkedIn