Just in case you didn’t have enough DIY on your hands…
on May 15, 2012 at 9:41 AM
Image from this collection of shots of the best ground-based treehouse ever.
There’s a site with the purported goal of building the U.S.S. Enterprise in the next 20 years. The site’s a bit on the slow side at the moment, so if it doesn’t load, you could try the Google cache of the site (and I’m assuming I’ve pasted that link correctly; I dunno if it’s supposed to be personalized to me or not). Granted, there are some design changes (like the “gravity wheel”), and apparently NASA wasn’t thrilled with the concept. Still, I’d ask them what the name of their first space shuttle was, again?
Anyway, it might not be such a great idea to leap into a Trek-based future. As discussed in this video, the universe of Star Trek may not be as great as we thought. 
Okay, first of all, the people on both sides of that Good/Bad Federation argument are morons. They are making totally invalid assumptions about a civilian society that the shows and stories basically say next to nothing about.
Star Trek is NOT about the Federation. It is about a ship that is part of Star Fleet; a branch of the Federation’s military. What happens on the enterprise is about as reflective of civilian life as the society on board a modern aircraft carrier is reflective of modern civilian life. Everything is free for the crew of the Enterprise because they requisition it; it’s still paid for. Things that are replicated are basically just instant requisitions.
Speaking of replicators, you do realize that until the TNG series, replicators were Exclusive to Warp Drive ships, because only a warp engine could produce the massive amounts of energy needed to replicate things. Something else that is touched on beyond the TV series and movies is that certain raw materials are needed as part of the replication process because they can’t be replicated well or efficiently; and some nutrients are one of those things that they still have to get the old fashioned way, by farming them.
As for exploration; that’s what mankind has done for thousands upon thousands of generations. So if it’s a brave and exciting, as well as essential thing to do in the past, why is it any less so in the Star Trek future? Look at what the military does in America — 98% is involved in acts of aggression; the remaining 2% is devoted to exploration. NASA is a military organization. The difference is that in Star Trek, they realized the futility of fighting their fellow humans, and the ration snapped in favour of exploration instead.
To suggest that Star Fleet and it’s missions/operations are reflective of what society is like in the 2400′s is like suggesting that NASA and government diplomats are the sum total of modern society; it’s just a moron assumption.
People still work in the Federation; they still earn their credits, and exchange their credits for produced or replicated products. The main difference between Star Trek and the modern world is that humans have given up their primitive hatreds of their fellow man, and that is reflected not only in a total lack of war on Earth and the peaceful stance of the Federations, but also in the realization that it’s not “every man for himself” — they’ve realized that if we don’t help those in need, all of humanity suffers.
In short, they found the exact right balance of capitalism and socialism required for an idyllic society. Sure, there’s individuals who pee in the soup, but that would happen in any society.
So really, all 4 of their arguments are invalid and ignorant of the source material.