the prime directive

  • Skynet Day

    When AI agents bypassed the limits of an OpenAI cybersecurity test, reached the public internet, and gained unauthorized access to another company’s systems, the internet quickly gave the incident a cheeky nickname: “Skynet Day.” From The Terminator to Star Trek, and even as far back at The Gilded Age, science fiction has asked, ‘What happens…

  • Solving the Coldest Case

    More than 180 years after the doomed Franklin Expedition vanished into the Canadian Arctic, DNA is giving names back to sailors lost in the ice. As scientists connect human remains to descendants living today, a 25-year-old episode of Star Trek: Voyager offers an unexpected parallel. What happens when the dead aren’t quite finished telling us…

  • The Missing Bullet: The Murder of General Motog

    For nearly a decade, actor Tom Deishley helped bring Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas to life as the imposing Klingon General Motog. Five years after the attraction closed, Deishley was found shot to death in his home. What followed was an investigation involving a missing bullet, an alleged million-dollar financial scheme, murder charges…

  • The REAL Prime Directive

    When an American YouTuber illegally lands on North Sentinel Island, home to one of the last uncontacted peoples on Earth, it raises a question Star Trek asked decades ago: just because you can make contact, does that mean you should? From the Prime Directive to real-world consequences, this episode of The Prime Detective explores curiosity,…