By Mary O’KEEFE

I know it has been incredibly hot and there is a lot to say about climate change.

“There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause,” according to science.nasa.gov. “While Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years.”

We are warming and getting hotter each year.

“The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about two degrees Fahrenheit [one degrees Celsius] since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by the increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest,” according to science.nasa.gov.

There is a lot to unpack here – but I am going to save that for another day because Sept. 8 was Star Trek Day. I just can’t let that pass without calling attention to this history-making television/movie experience.

It was Sept. 8, 1966 when “Star Trek” first appeared on NBC and then ended its series run on June 3, 1969. Little did anyone know this series would not “go gentle into that good night.” Instead it went headlong into reruns introducing a whole new generation to this optimistic, futurist series.

As I have stated in the past I am a Trekkie having discovered the series in those reruns. I don’t know what exactly first drew me to the series but it definitely had something to do with the diversity of the Enterprise bridge. I loved that those serving on the Enterprise just went about their duties without having to call attention to the fact that they were a person of color or a female. Now the female crew members and alien visitors often wore very short skirts or provocative outfits that required a lot of double-sided tape; however, that they dressed prettily but were still doctors, scientists and communication officers just added to the “Oh, wow” effect on an impressionable elementary school-aged feminist like myself.

But it was really the stories that made the show and, if there were a “Star Trek” mantra, the value of the stories would be it.

The writers of the “Star Trek” series understood the threat of ignoring history; they were observers of the world around them and they weren’t afraid to cross social and political lines.

Sometimes the stories were philosophical, like Gilbert Ralston’s “Who Mourns for Adonais?” This story examined the fleeting power of belief. At one point Adonais, aka Apollo, realized that like the gods before him his time had passed.

“There is no room for gods,” Apollo said as he spread his arms to the winds and disappeared into history.

My friend Dorothy (DC) Fontana wrote 10 episodes of “Star Trek,” the original series. She never thought of herself as the “female writer.” She was just a writer; however, the rest of us knew she was the rare female science fiction writer of the time. One of my favorite episodes she wrote for the original series was “The Ultimate Computer.” This dealt with AI before AI was a household term. The crew of the Enterprise and the Federation had to deal with the value and the threat of AI.

Sound familiar?

In this episode the M5, an advanced multitronic computer system, was built by Dr. Richard Daystrom and placed on the Enterprise to see how it performed in a war game drill. Daystrom wanted this computer placed on spaceships so humans would have more free time to explore.

“Humans need and want more time to interact with each other. I think AI coming about and replacing routine jobs is pushing us to do what we should be doing anyway: the creation of more humanistic service jobs,” said Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, in a 2024 quote.

That statement could have been uttered in 1968 by Dr. Daystrom.

Daystrom also wanted to save human lives during war by having machines fight it out. This was another common theme in the original “Star Trek” series; remember, this show aired while American boys and men were fighting in Vietnam.

In the episode “The Ultimate Computer” the initial exercise demonstrated how M5 did exactly what it was supposed to do, making surprisingly human-like decisions.

Daystrom said he had developed a method of impressing human engrams upon the computer circuit.

“The relays are not unlike the synapse of the brain,” Daystrom said. “M5 thinks.”

Again – remember this episode was written in 1968.

The argument today of defending AI often includes, “Well, AI can only repeat what humans feed it.” This is exactly what happened when M5 continued the “war games” even after the drill was over. But more than the science was the fine line of humanity we all walk every day.

That same worry of whether humans would become obsolete – something we hear regarding AI – is something Capt. Kirk and his crew contemplated.

In the end, Daystrom used the humanity he imprinted on M5 to save the day. The lesson is that although AI has a lot of positives, we humans must also keep our cautious nature and not be too willing to hand over the key to our spaceship, or our lives, too fast.

The smoke from all of the wildfires around the area has resulted in NOAA issuing an air quality alert yesterday, Wednesday, but it can be expanded to today.

“If you smell smoke or see ash due to a wildfire, remain indoors with windows and doors closed or seek alternative shelter if feasible. Avoid vigorous physical activity and run your air conditioner and/or an air purifier. If possible, do not use whole-house fans or swamp coolers that bring in outside air,” according to NOAA.

As far as temperatures, the recent heat wave seems to be moving on leaving us with cooler temperatures dropping from triple digits to mid-to-low 80s through Sunday, and then even cooler temperatures on Monday and Tuesday next week with highs in the mid-70s. There is a slight possibility we’ll see rain on Monday.