Vaibhav Gaikwad's Blog : Things We Have Now That Star Trek Invented
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Vaibhav Gaikwad
Jun 4, 2010, 2:10:30 AM6/4/10
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Gaikwad's Blog : Things We Have Now That Star Trek Invented
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Things We Have Now That Star Trek Invented Posted: 02 Jun 2010 11:20 PM PDT
Star Trek is one of the most famous
television shows and media franchises in the world today, and while many
love the storylines of the original show, along with its spinoffs and
movies, we may not fully realize the impact the show has had on our
lives. No, we are not talking about pop culture impacts, but what Star
Trek envisioned for technology, which then inspired many scientists to
make those visions a reality. In many ways, that little show from the
1960s has essentially invented the future as we know it. 1. Personal Computing
When
Star Trek debuted in 1966, computers were very large, very expensive
and very slow compared with what we have today. That didn’t stop Gene
Roddenberry from envisioning a future where small computers were in
every meeting room and wherever people needed them. The computers in
the original series were larger than what we have today, but they were
personal computers nonetheless. Roughly five years
after Star Trek left the air waves, the Altair 8800 was built by Ed
Roberts, who just happened to name the computer after a galaxy
mentioned in Star Trek. This build-it-yourself personal computer was
pretty basic, but it would inspire two guys named Steve Jobs and Steve
Wozniak to improve upon the model and usher in the age of the personal
computer. On that same note, the Tablet PC also
appeared in the original Star Trek, with Captain Kirk using a tablet and
stylus to sign off on important matters. Everyone who uses an iPad now
can thank Star Trek for showing us what a tablet PC could do in the
1960s. Oh, and what was the name of the tablet PC used in Star Trek? The
PADD…. 2. Portable Computer Memory
From
the old floppy disks, to the small hard disks, over to our memory
sticks with their huge capacities, all this portable memory could be
found in the 1960s, in Star Trek. Star Trek used square disks that were
three inches by three inches and only a quarter of an inch thick. To
use them, they were inserted in computers where they would display the
information contained on them, sound familiar? 3. Wireless Ear-Piece
Drive
down the road in the city and you will probably see quite a few people
using Bluetooth headsets to talk to people without having to hold a
cell phone to their ear. Well, roughly 30 years before cell phones
became mainstream, Star Trek was already using wireless earpieces for
communication. That is not too bad considering that Star Trek
envisioned wireless earpieces 300 years from now. 4. GPS
No,
we do not have transporters, although scientists have been able to
transport individual light particles for a couple years now, but we do
have GPS. Back in Star Trek: The Original Series, the transporter
system could lock onto someone and transport them from where they were
to some place else. Locators on the communicators were used to find
where individuals were in the show, kind of like how we have GPS in our
phones now that show where we are. It was only four
years after the end of the original Star Trek that the Department of
Defense began to develop GPS. By launching satellites they were able to
refine the system over time and after 1983 it became available to the
public. By 2000, it was possible to find someone within 20 meters of
their location. Now with things like OnStar in our cars and GPS in our
phones, even emergency personnel can find us without us saying where we
are. 5. Tricorders Image Source Having something that scans the area around you and tells you information that you need about that area doesn’t quite exist yet, although we are getting pretty close. What we do have is devices like the PDA, the Blackberry and the iPod/iPhone. These wonderful little devices have screens that display to us information we access from the internet, much like a tricorder would in Star Trek. When they needed information, they would call it up on a tricorder and see it on a tiny screen, no different than we do with our handheld devices today. Given how far these devices have come, it should be no surprise that pretty soon they will have sensors. 6. Plasma Screens Image Source In the days of the original Star Trek series, televisions had small screens and the quality was not very good. The concept of the Enterprises’ view screen was amazing to many people who wished they could have a television as large as what was on the Enterprise. Before Star Trek, spaceships used windows at the front, but with The Original Series, a video screen became the norm for many science fiction shows and movies. These days, more and more plasma screens are hitting the market and the price is falling. The days of the old tube television are now disappearing as people get their own large view screens in their home. Screens these days hit about 50 inches before they become too pricey but it won’t be long before 100 or 200 inch plasma televisions turn the walls of our homes into view screens. Thanks Star Trek! 7. Cell Phones Image Source Probably the most famous invention to come from Star Trek is the cell phone. In the days of Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain Kirk and the gang would use a communicator to speak with each other simply by opening it and hailing someone by saying their name into the communicator. This may have seemed far-fetched considering at the time rotary phones were the most common phones in the world. It was Martin Cooper, an employee of Motorola, who invented the cell phone. When asked what was the inspiration for the cell phone, he is not shy of saying Star Trek’s communicator was what started the gears in his mind moving. Only four years after the cancellation of Star Trek, the first portable cell phone call was made. Just over 20 years after the Original Series debuted, one million cell phones were in use and it just exploded from there. These days there are hundreds of millions of cell phone users across the planet and cell phones are now pushing the old land-line phone into museums. Our cell phones these days are more than what the communicator of Star Trek was considering we can now take photos, access the internet, use GPS and keep track of everything in the PDA functionality of our smart phones. There really is no denying the fact that Star Trek did indeed invent the future as we know it. Plasma television, GPS, cell phones, personal computers and more all came from this simple series that was canceled after three years and went on to change the world. Author: Craig Baird — Copyrighted © roadtickle.com via Link ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     
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