I can more readily believe in universal translators & matter transporters than I can believe in the perfectibility of Mankind (I use the term without any nod to PC-ism).  Particularly not when all of what's encompassed in the modern philosophical system known collectively as "liberalism" has been tried before.  Many times over, in fact.  We now speak of the societies which opted for such thinking in the past tense.........historically, the "liberal" ideas were generally adopted & infused into the culture within the last century or so before those no-longer-extant societies collapsed.  If anyone thinks that there might be a pattern -- well.....there is one.

These ideas aren't new.  And they aren't modern.  They are as old as human history.  It's been done.  There is no need to look forward to the 25th century to see the results of such thinking.  Just look back over where we've been -- it's all there.

Our technology is getting better.  But we aren't.  We're just going back over old ground again.  Remember: one of the definitions of insanity is trying the same thing over & over again -- and expecting a different result each time.

BTW - I can imagine a matter transporter: but I'd also tend to think that any living thing sent through one would be very dead when it was re-assembled on the other end of the process.  Being torn into constituent atoms & then put back together again might be theoretically possible -- but I'd say that the process would kill anything alive.  It would be an experience equivalent to being ripped apart, thrown over a long distance, and then glued back together -- not a good thing for one's health.  But the concept of matter transport might work OK for inorganic cargo.  If they can ever get the physics right.  Which, IIRC, they've sort of told us is a pipe dream, anyway.  But it's a neat idea.  X-Men / Marvel comics-type mutations are a neat fantasy, too.  Given the opportunity, who wouldn't want to sprout wings and fly?

Something To Do At 3:00AM