I remember about 10 years ago thinking that the technology of startrek would be real 'one day', little did I know that it would be within my lifetime and so soon. Some trek technologies are still in their infancy, some have reached a point that seems to exceed the sci-fi imaginings of a just a few short decades ago.
With news today from NASA:
This opens up the possibility of travelling a relative 10c (10 times the speed of light), I thought it might be a good time to dust of my blog and complete a post i was working on back in May when MIT nailed the Hypo-spray.
So here are a few things that have come to pass over the last few years.
Automatic doors
one of the earliest innovations to become a reality was the automatic sliding doors. Admittedly some people had thought of them before star trek but the popular usage in supermarkets arose afterwards and became the big thing that people pointed at as being 'the only thing we have from star trek'.
Youtube: Men Behaving Badly - Star Trek Doors
Communicators
This is the official startrek communicator app for the iphone. We equaled the flip up communicator from the original series by the 90s and have since moved beyond it, but not in the way trek-tech went (to make it into a tiny badge), but rather to include a camera and a computer and a media center. Smartphones are becoming a combo of communicator and tri-corder all in one. and with SIRI we have an early incarnation of the ship's voice controlled computer.
The PADD
C'mon, This one is a massive leap towards trek-tech. So much so that I don't really need to tell you what the real device that is like it is, It's almost got the same name. iPad / PADD it's right there, and already in 2012 we have a better device than what was imagined for the 24th century, people had to take PADDs to the captain, why aren't they all wirelessly connected through the ships computer?
Phasers
Whilst not compact enough to fit in the palm of your hand, laser weapons are more and more being used by the military as defense against missile attacks. And if Moores Law holds for big-ass lasers as it does for so much other technology... set phasers to stunned.
Youtube: Laser Weapons
Replicators
Another very recent technology is 3D printers, Makerbot Industries has called their latest iteration "The Replicator" Whilst a good step towards putting manufacturing in the hands of the consumer, it does still only print objects out of lego plastic. No "tea. earl-grey. hot" just yet.
Hyposprays
This is the article that originally made me start this post, my friend Laura is terrified of needles and she is somewhat justified in that. The new technology from MIT is an almost perfect defintion of the term hypo-spray as it literally sprays drugs through the skin without making a puncture.
Now all we need is transporters that can convert matter to energy and transport it from one place to another, likely a while off in our future for that one. Science, get on it!
Related Thing - Scientists successfully transport matter
Touche Science.
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