My Star Trek Annual of 1971 caused me to have many sleepless and worried nights. Amongst the comic strip depictions of the adventures of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and a token dispensable crew-member was a short factual piece on how the death of our own sun would bring about a cataclysmic chain of events to end the very existence of planet Earth. I was, at the age of 8 understandably upset at the prospect of my life and ambitions being cruelly cut short. Unfortunately, I failed upon first reading of this inevitable fact to see the continuation of the story over the page and that my demise and that of the living world would not take place for many millenia. I draw on this memory on the first day of 2012. Another year after one that has hurtled past in a progression that seems to get more rapid as I get older. Of course there has been the association of this year with the Mayan prediction of the end of the world. Professor Brian Cox tweeted that anyone who stood by the Mayans amazing scientific works was, I quote, "a nobber". Thank you Brian for those words of wisdom. I look forward to your next TV series and a period of sincere honesty in science.By the way I always thought that your profanity began with a 'K', but then I only possess a lower science degree. Of course he could already have secured his place on the Earth Ark scheduled to leave the planet on the 20th December 2012 and is putting up a smokescreen to maintain sales of his books, DVD's, back catalogued D:Ream CD's to clear much needed space in his garage and small dessert apples.
On reflection there have been many dates in my life and experience which have been flagged up as a matter of anxiety and stress but which have passed by with no great drama. Amongst these have been and will be the following;
In 1976 I reached my thirteenth birthday. I was very superstitious at that age and was convinced that the year would be my last. My nightly prayers would feature the early formulation of a pact with God to let me live until I was, specifically 77 years old. Why that age I know not. What I promised to give or do to uphold my side of the bargain I cannot remember now. As far as I know the agreement is still valid. My proposal for a 12 month cooling-off period was evidently rejected.
Between 1975 and 1977 I was alerted to the prospect that in 1999 the explosive force of the ignition of nuclear and other waste on the moon would cause the earth satellite to leave its orbit and embark, with it's colonised residents on fantastical adventures in space and amongst alien worlds. That date at an unimaginable 22 to 24 years in the future did eventually come and go without incident. I was quite relieved and still find myself humming or whistling to myself that joyous, celebratory and frankly, very reassuring 1982 hit song by Prince encouraging us to party like it actually was 1999. If I had really taken on his message I would have saved myself some 17 years of unnecessary anguish.
1984 was always going to be a difficult year for me. I was an avid reader of the works of George Orwell and to my mind the world events leading up to that year all foretold the emergence of a Big Brother society or, realistically under the governance of Margaret Thatcher, a Big Old Grumpy Bag society. On a personal level it was also my 21st birthday year. It was bad enough leaving my teenage years as the thought dawned on me that I was expected to be a grown up. On my actual birthday I was on my sandwich year from Trent Poly and away from home. I reluctantly celebrated with a whole Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie sat on my bed in my digs.
Two dates of great potential magnitude came and went during 1997. The 12th of January was the foretold date from 1961 of the inauguration of the HAL 9000 computer. Late August of the same year saw the coming into consciousness of Skynet and the emergence of what would, from 1984, become the Terminator. I am glad that these critical dates did not materialise as it would have been quite a disruptive year albeit a rather interesting one.
The approach to the Millenium was a great opportunity for mischievous and downright malicious predictions of mayhem and madness. On the flip-side it also made a lot of people in the IT industry a tremendous amount of money. The Bug was all pervading in popular culture, governmental circulars and very much in the perception of anyone who owned or worked with a computer. The opportunities to sell any sort of reassurance or complex gadgetry were scandalous although at midnight on the last day of the 20th Century I do remember carefully keeping one eye on the display on the VCR with the other watching with amused horror as a drunken reveller tried to urinate up the trunk of the Plane tree outside our house simultaneously trying to keep his footing on the snow covered pavement and his other hand on a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream. Not the best circumstances for that chap to be remembered for had the bug bitten at that time.
Next milestone of a date was 2003. My 40th birthday year. It was alright.
What to look forward to next? Well, if I am at the laptop just after the Winter Solstice later this year I will be sure to congratulate Prof Cox on his strength of character in resisting going along with the hype and potential for cultist suicide and hysteria surrounding what the Mayans may or may not have thought would happen, assuming that they were not of course spaced out from a staple diet of beans and chocolate.
At this moment in real time I look forward to a period of a realisation of the need for peace and environental responsibility for all or at least to get us to 2015 when, on the basis of the predictions of Robert Zemeckis and others, we will all have a hoverboard of our own and we can really get back to the future.
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