Beam me up Scotty. Of the original far-fetched science fiction devices in the Original Star Trek series, only two actually remain in the field of theory now.
Let's review: They had: Communicators We have - Cell Phones They had tricorders/Medical Scanners We have - handheld sensors and MRI/CT SCANS They had: Air injectors for medicine We have - Air injectors for medicines They had: Computers that sat on a desk and had media the size of credit cards (actually bigger). We have - Computers that are smarter, smaller and faster than Star Trek imagined. They had: Phasers We have - Plasma guns, Microwave canons, Lasers, cruise missles, and smart bombs. They had: Photon Torpedoes We have - Neutron Bombs, Microwave bombs, Quantum bombs They had: Ion Drives We have - Ion Drives What's left? They had: Sub-space radio Transporters Artificial gravity Warp Drive Technology With the 1998 Deep Space 1 probe which used an ion drive (http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/sep.html), only Transporters, subspace-radio, Warp Drives and Artificial Gravity were still out of reach. The article below from the New York times describes our first reach into transporters and subspace-radio. Although, the step from this experiment to transporters is still a long way off, the basic premise is now a proven fait accompli. In the not-too-distant future we will be using this technology in communication. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/30/science/30TELE.html There are theories for Warp Drive and artificial gravity, but no practical concepts yet. Stand-by though, we are less than 40 years from when Cell Phones were science fiction. Makes you think doesn't it? Can I have a few bars of the Twilight zone please? In less than 40 years, the kids that watched Star Trek have gone a long way to bringing it to life, scary huh? We were watching Star Trek in the 1960's. Have you looked at what today's kids are watching? If you think a world full of Trekkies with a full-blown untility belt is weird, wait until the Pokemon generation grows up! I, for one, am collecting cards. I am hiding them too! ===== Warmest Regards, Doug Riddle http://www.dougriddle.com http://fossile-project.sourceforge.net/ http://www.libranet.com -- "Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the Peoples' Liberty Teeth." - George Washington -- __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com
