Story highlights "Star Trek Into Darkness" opens Thursday, and George Lucas' birthday was Tuesday

Eternal debate between "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" fans often involves future technologies

Which side speaks most to you? Click through the gallery and comment below

Photon torpedoes and proton torpedoes. Warp speed and hyperspace.

Shhh! Don't tell anyone, but the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" universes have quite a bit in common.

Still, there are also enough differences that the eternal franchise versus franchise debate still tends to unfold with all the fireworks of a big-budget action sequence.

With "Star Trek Into Darkness" coming out in a couple of days and George Lucas' birthday on Tuesday, May 14, we saw an opportunity to dive back into this neverending back-and-forth for clues about what lies in store for the tech world. And, in turn, we hope to look at what that says about us as humans.

We're asking you, the reader, to go through the gallery above and think about the technology in the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" universes. How are they different, and how are they the same? Which vision do you think would be most advantageous for the future of humanity and other alien races we may or may not befriend?

To organize the discussion a bit, we broke up the analysis into five categories with overlap between the worlds: weapons, ships, biotech, robotics and everyday tools.

Perhaps it's no wonder the debate continues. Science fiction offers competing visions of what we as people might become. Nothing less than our future is at stake.

Take a look at each section and see what you think, and then let us know your perspective in the comments area below.