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On casting Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard: Reporter: "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." Rodenberry:

On casting Sir Patrick Stewart as Captain Picard: Reporter: "Surely by the 24th century, they would have found a cure for male pattern baldness." Rodenberry: "No, by the 24th century, no one will care." I doubt even a few hundred years will wash out vanity and the worst parts of us, but here's to hoping.

maxerickson 7y ago
I have lots of gray hair before 40 and don't even think of dyeing it. Of course, this is not so different than vanity on my part, as I'd be mortified if I was dyeing it and someone found out...
- cr0sh 7y ago
  I have a brother-in-law who's been dyeing his hair, and wears a toupee (a very poorly fitting one) - for whenever he's at some kind of formal function or whatnot. This is a guy who drives dump trucks and excavators, and could crush you with one hand - I swear to $DEITY. He's not a bad guy - actually a very nice man. But if you got on his bad side, watch out. I once saw him lift a full large wheeled garbage bin up and over his head and shake it out like it was nothing - like it was kitchen garbage can. Not someone to mess with. He normally - in everyday life - doesn't care what he looks like, smells like, etc - he'll go right into a grocery store covered in oil and grease from working on his backhoe in the middle of summer, buy a soda and walk out, and he'll smile and wave, call ya "hon" and "boss" - pet the dog on the way out, ya know. But clean him up and put him in a suit - all of a sudden he's embarrassed that his hair is thin and gray, etc. I've told him that he should shave himself bald, because he's got that classic "Mr. Clean" head shape that would make it look good. Few people can rock bald, but he won't do it. Instead, he just puts a ball cap on if he's out in the sun, and ignores it I guess.
- zeta0134 7y ago
  When I realized I had started to bald (yaaaay genetics) I had a bit of a personal identity crisis, but I didn't really try to hide my stress about it. My coworkers joked that I hadn't accepted it yet, and they were right. I don't like that it happened this early, so I'm fighting to delay it for a bit, but I'm sure my baldness will catch up to me eventually. It's fine really. My grandfather rocked the look and his appearance will always remind me of the strength he carried. When my time comes, and what little vanity I still have fades, I'm happy to carry on that legacy.
- fortran77 7y ago
  I shave my head, but I dye my grey beard. I know it probably looks like a "dye job" but so what? Is it any different from tattoos or other body modifications? And I can undo it by growing it out.
  - maxerickson 7y ago
    My argument is that I have the same basic impulse, it is just that I respond differently to it.
ghostbrainalpha 7y ago
That's a cool quote, but I think the reality of the situation is that as technology gives us more control of our personal appearance looks move from an explicit status indicator to more of a fashion choice. Vain people will definitely still exist, but excess weight or baldness will be probably be a conscious presentation choice and social signal, rather than a marker of genetics or dietary habits. In this environment it would be incorrect to say "no one will care", but hopefully people will care less and less as they age out of that period of their life in which self expression and fashion choices tend to have gratuitous importance based on our insecurities of youth.
- hestipod 7y ago
  I imagine your assessment to be more realistic, and the quote to be far too optimistic, even though I wish for the opposite. I know women have an entirely different level of pressure in this arena and the idea of not wearing makeup or being fashionable enough has a larger impact on them socially...as a man I recognize the differences...but have still never cared about such things and not wanted to invest myself in those who would judge me or someone else because of shallow things. I will, as I mentioned in another comment, be respectful when it matters, and not say go to a funeral in pajamas and unkempt, as to not make it about me. But in my daily life I leave vanity at the mirror. My behavior defines me to anyone I care about and theirs to me, not looks or trends.
burk96 7y ago
I believe vanity of some sort is an innately human trait, I doubt societal changes will eliminate it. Rather I see a future that the reporter was alluding to, where our bodies are just as customizable as a digital filter like the streamer used. Who knows, as crazy as it may sound, perhaps in a few hundred years most social interaction will be "assisted" by VR, AR, or some other reality changing technology where we do present ourselves as digital avatars.
- hestipod 7y ago
  That VR future idea sounds horrifying to me. I want to know the genuine person, not fakery. It just ruins the point of any relationship for me...which is to share experience, honestly, vulnerability. If it all becomes a performance then why do we even need people? Just some AI pretending to be some character is good enough.
  - mastre_ 7y ago
    While I agree with you, I don't know why exactly I agree you. Allow me to explain. The "real you," the "genuine" you, is nothing more than some random, arbitrary (for the most part) stuff you got from genes and the environment surrounding you (as in, it's effect on you) and, to usually a lesser extent, some of the life choices you've made. Now, it is you in the sense that you've lived with it for your whole life (some could say, put up with it, depending on your luck of the draw and what you think//how you feel about it). I think the real you is really your mind. Our minds are so special, and on such a higher level, that the physical manifestation is very simplistic in comparison. To illustrate: we seem to look down on those who do as this woman did, but if someone was, say, a burn victim with 1st-degree burns all over their body including the face, we wouldn't think twice about using technology to improve their lives this way (btw, anyone know if this used in any such capacity?). I'm providing some food for thought as I am challenging my own initial knee-jerk reaction which is "this is horrible, what have we become?" If there's one thing I learned about human behavior, it is that there is usually a whole lot more than what meets they eye (pun semi-intended) going on.
    - 7y ago
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
quacked 7y ago
Right, you'd have to get rid of the visual aspect of sex appeal. Impossible.
cr0sh 7y ago
Part of the thing that's left mostly somewhat unsaid of the whole fictional arc of the Star Trek universe is that there was a full-exchange nuclear war, which led (IIRC - I am not a major trekkie, though I prefer it to Star Wars - each has its place, though) to the contact with the Vulcans. Then again, I am not sure that if we actually went through a full scale nuclear exchange, that in the end if we would change socially. I have a feeling that rather than change for the better, humanity would change for the worse. In that vision, "Mad Max" would be a utopia in comparison.

maxerickson 7y ago

I have lots of gray hair before 40 and don't even think of dyeing it. Of course, this is not so different than vanity on my part, as I'd be mortified if I was dyeing it and someone found out...

cr0sh 7y ago
I have a brother-in-law who's been dyeing his hair, and wears a toupee (a very poorly fitting one) - for whenever he's at some kind of formal function or whatnot. This is a guy who drives dump trucks and excavators, and could crush you with one hand - I swear to $DEITY. He's not a bad guy - actually a very nice man. But if you got on his bad side, watch out. I once saw him lift a full large wheeled garbage bin up and over his head and shake it out like it was nothing - like it was kitchen garbage can. Not someone to mess with. He normally - in everyday life - doesn't care what he looks like, smells like, etc - he'll go right into a grocery store covered in oil and grease from working on his backhoe in the middle of summer, buy a soda and walk out, and he'll smile and wave, call ya "hon" and "boss" - pet the dog on the way out, ya know. But clean him up and put him in a suit - all of a sudden he's embarrassed that his hair is thin and gray, etc. I've told him that he should shave himself bald, because he's got that classic "Mr. Clean" head shape that would make it look good. Few people can rock bald, but he won't do it. Instead, he just puts a ball cap on if he's out in the sun, and ignores it I guess.
zeta0134 7y ago
When I realized I had started to bald (yaaaay genetics) I had a bit of a personal identity crisis, but I didn't really try to hide my stress about it. My coworkers joked that I hadn't accepted it yet, and they were right. I don't like that it happened this early, so I'm fighting to delay it for a bit, but I'm sure my baldness will catch up to me eventually. It's fine really. My grandfather rocked the look and his appearance will always remind me of the strength he carried. When my time comes, and what little vanity I still have fades, I'm happy to carry on that legacy.
fortran77 7y ago
I shave my head, but I dye my grey beard. I know it probably looks like a "dye job" but so what? Is it any different from tattoos or other body modifications? And I can undo it by growing it out.
- maxerickson 7y ago
  My argument is that I have the same basic impulse, it is just that I respond differently to it.

ghostbrainalpha 7y ago

That's a cool quote, but I think the reality of the situation is that as technology gives us more control of our personal appearance looks move from an explicit status indicator to more of a fashion choice. Vain people will definitely still exist, but excess weight or baldness will be probably be a conscious presentation choice and social signal, rather than a marker of genetics or dietary habits. In this environment it would be incorrect to say "no one will care", but hopefully people will care less and less as they age out of that period of their life in which self expression and fashion choices tend to have gratuitous importance based on our insecurities of youth.

hestipod 7y ago
I imagine your assessment to be more realistic, and the quote to be far too optimistic, even though I wish for the opposite. I know women have an entirely different level of pressure in this arena and the idea of not wearing makeup or being fashionable enough has a larger impact on them socially...as a man I recognize the differences...but have still never cared about such things and not wanted to invest myself in those who would judge me or someone else because of shallow things. I will, as I mentioned in another comment, be respectful when it matters, and not say go to a funeral in pajamas and unkempt, as to not make it about me. But in my daily life I leave vanity at the mirror. My behavior defines me to anyone I care about and theirs to me, not looks or trends.

burk96 7y ago

I believe vanity of some sort is an innately human trait, I doubt societal changes will eliminate it. Rather I see a future that the reporter was alluding to, where our bodies are just as customizable as a digital filter like the streamer used. Who knows, as crazy as it may sound, perhaps in a few hundred years most social interaction will be "assisted" by VR, AR, or some other reality changing technology where we do present ourselves as digital avatars.

hestipod 7y ago
That VR future idea sounds horrifying to me. I want to know the genuine person, not fakery. It just ruins the point of any relationship for me...which is to share experience, honestly, vulnerability. If it all becomes a performance then why do we even need people? Just some AI pretending to be some character is good enough.
- mastre_ 7y ago
  While I agree with you, I don't know why exactly I agree you. Allow me to explain. The "real you," the "genuine" you, is nothing more than some random, arbitrary (for the most part) stuff you got from genes and the environment surrounding you (as in, it's effect on you) and, to usually a lesser extent, some of the life choices you've made. Now, it is you in the sense that you've lived with it for your whole life (some could say, put up with it, depending on your luck of the draw and what you think//how you feel about it). I think the real you is really your mind. Our minds are so special, and on such a higher level, that the physical manifestation is very simplistic in comparison. To illustrate: we seem to look down on those who do as this woman did, but if someone was, say, a burn victim with 1st-degree burns all over their body including the face, we wouldn't think twice about using technology to improve their lives this way (btw, anyone know if this used in any such capacity?). I'm providing some food for thought as I am challenging my own initial knee-jerk reaction which is "this is horrible, what have we become?" If there's one thing I learned about human behavior, it is that there is usually a whole lot more than what meets they eye (pun semi-intended) going on.
  - 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

quacked 7y ago

Right, you'd have to get rid of the visual aspect of sex appeal. Impossible.

cr0sh 7y ago

Part of the thing that's left mostly somewhat unsaid of the whole fictional arc of the Star Trek universe is that there was a full-exchange nuclear war, which led (IIRC - I am not a major trekkie, though I prefer it to Star Wars - each has its place, though) to the contact with the Vulcans. Then again, I am not sure that if we actually went through a full scale nuclear exchange, that in the end if we would change socially. I have a feeling that rather than change for the better, humanity would change for the worse. In that vision, "Mad Max" would be a utopia in comparison.