The Truth Is in the Stars Page #3

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if we put our minds to

international collaboration.

To putting down the conflict

between our governments

and just collaborating

on an individual level

among people whose

goals were just to

understand things that we

didn't understand yet.

I think that Star Trek

wasn't necessarily

a reflection of

what was going on,

but it was an expression of hope

of what could go

on in the future.

I think because we were one of

the first shows that came along

that said,

hey, there is a tomorrow,

and-and not only that, but, uh,

we've just begun

to invent things.

We've just begun to explore

and we're a young race,

we're just getting started,

and I think everyone

of a young mind

has got to believe that,

that wow, science fiction is,

is just really

philosophy in motion.

No, it's fine, you'll be fine.

Whoopi Goldberg is an actor

who has similarly been inspired

by Gene Roddenberry's

vision of the future.

Playing a character, who,

having lived for centuries,

was able to dispense

enormous wisdom

to those willing to listen,

Hi, Bill.

I wonder if she has any insights

into immortality.

Whoopi.

Yes, Bill.

My darling,

I'd love to hold onto

something permanent.

Well, the only thing you

got is what you've done,

and now we have the ability

to hold onto films and

television that was made,

so we gain immortality

as performers.

Would you be interested in

living immortally, for example?

I'd like to stay

for at least 140,

I'd commit to that.

A hundred, you mean

live to 140 years?

Yeah!

I wanna see it!

- And-and see what happens?

- Yeah!

Well, that's...

That's the...

That's the job of science

fiction, isn't it?

Not anymore!

And you started all of this.

Everything rolls

back to Star Trek.

I'm just telling you that.

Gene created this show,

and messed everybody's head up,

and it's gone on for 50,

what, 50 years?

When Star Trek first came on,

and Nichelle Nichols was there

as the Communications Officer,

it was the first time

anyone in the world

was aware that people of color

would be in the future

because before Star Trek,

in every sci-fi movie,

we don't exist there.

So, for me,

it was a signal to say,

"No, no, you're in the future,

and this is what you

have to look forward to."

So, when they did, uh,

Next Generation,

and I went and said to Gene,

Can I be on the show?

And he said,

"Why?"

I said, "Because",

I wanna be that for

some little girl."

One juice.

You aren't like the

other grownups.

Oh, no?

They don't think

Isabella's real.

Well, most grownups

have a hard time

with things they can't see.

Whoopi, one more question

before I let you go,

and that has to do with art,

and creativity,

and its place in the world.

What do we know about art?

We know that people

who don't have art

in their lives

don't have as rich a

life as they could.

That's why the cavemen...

Cavemen painted,

and cavewomen

painted stuff on the wall

and it made it look nice,

made it feel homey.

You know,

we can't live without art.

We can't live without theory,

we can't live

without creativity.

It just doesn't work for us

as a-as a race of humans.

Human beings make art.

Right.

I'm pretty sure it's just us,

but you know,

who knows what's

out in the universe?

There might be other

beings making art.

I think cats make art,

but they don't tell ya!

My quest for knowledge

will ultimately lead me

to one of the great

geniuses of modern science,

Stephen Hawking.

It's once in a

lifetime opportunity

to ask the big questions,

so I must be prepared.

On the edge of Central Park

sits the Hayden Planetarium.

I've come here

to see the world

renowned astrophysicist

Neil deGrasse Tyson,

who is also

host of the television

series Cosmos.

All too often,

people like dividing the kingdom

of human thought.

"Well, you're an artist,"

but you're not a scientist.

"You're a scientist,

you're not an artist."

When I think of science fiction,

I think of the juxtaposition

of all branches of civilization.

I think if you're gonna take

your civilization into space,

you gotta organize that,

you need the engineers,

the scientist,

you need the artists

have to imagine that.

And it may be

that what comes out

of that collaboration

is the only future any of

us should be striving for

and that's one of

peace and harmony,

and one where we can celebrate

the discoveries of

science and technology

and how art makes it tasty.

Star Trek,

and frequently is referred to

by a lot of people

in the sciences as

being an inspiration,

that when they were kids,

uh-uh, and it stirred

their imagination.

Did Star Trek have

anything to do

with you in that way?

As a kid

you're not thinking

complex sociological thoughts,

you just do what feels good.

You play in your sandbox.

My sandbox

was an interest in the universe,

and I wasn't thinkin'

about much else.

And then I'd walk

out into the street,

and then I'd hear

some racial epithet

yelled out of a fast moving car.

I said,

"Oh, I'm also black."

The world outside my telescope

was not really

ready to accept me.

Science fiction world?

The science fiction world was.

And Star Trek

reflected all that?

Yes, in the 1960s

we had a Cold War

with the Soviet Union,

and a hot war in Southeast Asia,

and the civil rights movement,

and here's Star Trek portraying.

Earth,

where all the countries of

the world were at peace.

Who makes tomorrow come,

if not the dreamers

and the scientists and the

technologists who enable it?

So, this is an occasion

to not feel separate from life,

but to feel one.

How does entanglement

enter into that?

And tell me what

entanglement is.

It's a...

So, uh, quantum physics is a,

it's a spooky branch

of the physical universe.

I say spooky only because

we have the power to predict

exactly what's gonna happen.

Entanglement is one

of these things.

You can have,

each particle is also a wave.

What does that mean?

Doesn't make sense, does it?

- No.

- Get over it.

The universe is

under no obligation

to make sense to you.

Stardust,

and you and I are all entangled.

We're all one.

We are composed of stardust.

We have an iron

meteorite downstairs,

and if you take all the iron

in the hemoglobin

of every living human,

and put it together as one mass,

you would get a hunk of iron

the size of that meteorite.

So, we have an iron kinship

with one another

and that meteorite,

because we all have the

same point of origin.

That's a gift of modern

astrophysics to civilization,

to realize the oneness we have

with one another biologically,

with the earth chemically,

and with the

universe atomically.

Occasionally people ask me,

what do I... what do I think

the future will bring?

And I say no,

I don't know if I'm the

best person for that.

And they say,

"Well, why not?"

And I just,

all I do is tell 'em

about Star Trek,

and I remember as a kid,

and I said, okay, warpdrives,

I'm good with that

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