Where is the star trek future?

This is a four-panel web comic shared as a meme, originally posted on Reddit with the title asking 'Where is the star trek future?'. The comic opens with a simple pink human character sitting on a wooden dock over water. A talking lobster in the water approaches the character, asking if he wants to learn something new. The lobster then shares the upsetting real-world fact that there are more enslaved people in the world today than at any previous point in history. The pink character responds, looking tired and dejected, with the line 'Knowledge is the heaviest burden'. The meme's title connects this joke to the absence of the idealized utopian future that the Star Trek franchise depicts, pointing out that severe social evils like slavery still exist in modern times, making the promised utopia feel far out of reach. The joke hinges on the relatable feeling of learning a depressing truth that permanently weighs on your mind after you know it.

This meme originates from Reddit, where it was posted with the title 'Where is the star trek future?' as noted in the original context. The base four-panel comic was created by independent web comic artist MrLovenStor, who watermarked his work in the image. The comic is repurposed here to comment on the lack of progress toward the utopian future that popular media like Star Trek predicted, highlighting that major social injustices still persist in the modern world. The meme is commonly shared online as a reaction to learning upsetting or depressing real-world facts.