Enchanted Objects: Star Trek and the New Technological Sublime

The Star Trek franchise, inaugurated in 1965 and still going strong, has been the paradigm for the spread of interest in science fiction, and its popularity across multiple platforms. over the past century. Adapted analogues of the future technologies imagined by the series have been among the most successful products of contemporary consumer capitalism. This paper interrogates the relationship between consumer desires and imagined futures through an investigation of Star Trek’s promotion of a reified version of Earth’s history. What can it tell us about the relationship between advanced technical objects and the belief that we can get there from here?