James T. Kirk, Vibe Coder

The way James T. Kirk interacted with computers on Star Trek: The Original Series showed us a vision of the future which, intended or not by the writers, we increasingly find ourselves living in.

Computers—their potentials and pitfalls—were a common theme during the first 79-episode run of Star Trek from 1966–1968, a time when nobody had personal computers. People talking to computers was pure fantasy. Yet Kirk, repeatedly and in episode after episode, talked with computers much like the way we now talk with ChatGPT.

Now, our chatbots aren’t connected in the way ship’s computer on the Enterprise was (yet), and the way that Kirk could intentionally cause computers to tie themselves in knots simply by speaking with them (up to and including their own self-destruction) became a recurring plot device¹.

This highlights, what the writers saw through their science fiction lens as, the potential pitfalls of computers. In other circumstances, Kirk has little choice but to turn to the potential promise of computers. Here’s one case:

In Mirror, Mirror, Kirk beams down with McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura to a planet rich in dilithium crystals, the rare and essential mineral at the core of the matter/anti-matter power system of their starship. The inhabitants of this planet, the Halkans, are a peaceful lot, and they abhor the thought that their mineral, and its latent capabilities, could be used for violence. They balk at Kirk’s overtures to become a dilithium crystal supplier to the Federation. Kirk says, “OK. The Federation we’ll will your trust over time,” and attempts to beam back to the Enterprise. But the ship is getting tossed in an ion storm, and when the transporter completes its cycle, and deposits the landing party onto the pad of what they think is their ship, they are confronted by an evil version of Spock with a beard. They discover themselves in a parallel dimension where the Federation is the wicked reverse image of their own. In this bizarro universe, Kirk’s orders are to use the Enterprise to phaser the Halkan people into oblivion, take the dilithium crystals, and move on to the next heinous act.

Once he realizes the plight he and and crew are in, Kirk makes his way back to his quarters with McCoy and Scotty.

James T. Kirk, vibe coder.

McCoy played the skeptic at first (“I’m a doctor, not an engineer!”), and he never got over his visceral dislike of the transporter. But no matter. As can be expected, after several twists and turns in the plot², Kirk’s plan and procedure works.

As a young teenager watching these episodes as reruns (again and again), I dreamed of the future tech we were seeing, and wondered, to varying degrees, whether and when we would get any of it.

Communicators

I imagined we would have communicators. That technology seemed within reach. As a kid, we had walkie-talkies. Yet, I never expected that I would play my part in making such a real-world product come into being.

Transporters

Beaming around the world seemed like complete fantasy then, and still does today.

Conversations With Computers

I never thought we would have computers we could ask such open-ended questions of in the way that Kirk did in his quarters, have the computer respond naturally in a conversational manner, and then have machine use its backing store of knowledge to help explore a new area of ideas down and compose a solution rooted in technical details.

Up until even a few years ago, I couldn’t even ask my computer for a weather report with any real degree of confidence. But today, AI has changed the way I’ve been writing software my whole career. Just like that… BOOM… we got LLMs, coding assistants are here, and everything about writing software has changed.

Who knows? Maybe I should hold out some hope for warp-driven starships!