Lighten up, everyone

One of the concepts that fascinated me about Star Trek was that Data was a photon-based creature, while (for the most part) the other folks on board the Enterprise were carbon-based.

There are many advantages to being light-based, as we learned by watching the series. You don't have to eat or, presumably, poop. You have endless reserves of energy and strength, and are naturally unaffected by those nasty microbes that reduce the rest of us to sniffing, dribbling victims. You can regenerate in the presence of the right frequencies. You can learn everything, understand everything, and recall everything without having to invoke a computer. You ARE a computer.

The downside, if I have it right, is that Data was so different that it was almost a full-time job for him to learn what it was to be human. I always wondered why he felt he needed that capability, but perhaps it was in his photonic nature to try to enlighten himself to infinity.

In the old days of phonographs and records, the technology for recording was essentially carbon-based, from the steel needles to the wax and bakelite recording surfaces. Today, the laser is the key to perfect reproduction of sound. The surgeon's scalpel is giving way to the laser which can cut and heal at the same time. The wired world is yielding to the wireless.

Never mind that light is essential for our growth and that it directly influences our mood. The time-honored way to scare an audience in a horror flick is to darken everything and slowly reveal two red, piercing eyes emanating powerful beams as they move towards the audience. The presence of the light is as startling as the absence is disquieting.

We speak of someone's eyes "lighting up" as they become enthused by an idea. But what, I wonder, would happen if actual light beams (they were, after all, beaming with pleasure) were produced by the endorphins released at such a moment. You couldn't help noticing that transmission, and it would probably stimulate pleasurable feeling in everyone within eyeshot.

Fireflies attract their mates though blinking their butts. Perhaps there are other possibilities for us, too, if we are truly on our way to becoming photon-based. Suppose that by smiling, we could "light up a room." Suppose that just by being supportive, we could encourage someone to "see the light." Just by loving someone we could "light up their life."

Beam me up, Scotty.