Reaching for the Stars: Star Trek and today's hand-held devices

I love techy innovation. I don't mind Facebook, though many like to hate it, because Facebook pushed us to think about online communication in new ways. I like Gmail because the folks at Google blew open our old (Microsoft-based) conceptions of what an email account can do. I like Apple because they might be the most innovative company around these days. I think the biggest reason I like Apple is because I like Star Trek, and it seems like Apple are the folks who are helping us catch up to Kirk and Picard.

"What in the world are you talking about?" you might ask? Well, consider how far our technology has come in the past few decades.

First of all, here is Cpt. Kirk, back in the sixties, using a flip device to communicate with the Enterprise. Does this look familiar? Back in those days, a flip-phone was pretty inventive. I remember even back in the mid-90's, my dad's cell phone was enormous -- bigger even than most wireless house phones today! But nowadays, flip-phones are not only common, but even being left behind by other devices, like smart phones.

The next great Star Trek innovation in communication was the "communicator", a little A-shaped device worn by everybody in Star Fleet. With a click of the device, a communication channel is opened to the ship orbiting above. But is this so futuristic anymore? We have ways to communicate with a little click of a wireless device: Bluetooth. It might be worn on the head rather than the chest, but the idea is basically the same. (Though the Star Trek communicator might have had better range... So far I haven't heard of Astronauts using Bluetooth to communicate with Houston...)




One more futuristic innovation: this is where Apple comes in. Each day, Commander Riker comes to Captain Picard's ready room with the daily report. He offers Picard a tablet device, upon which Picard uses his finger to navigate through the various reports. Back in the late-80's to mid-90's, this hand-held, slim computer was pretty amazing. After all, in 1984, only a few years before this scene with Picard was filmed, Apple had released its first ever Mac. Picard's tablet looks a little more advanced... But, now 27 years later, Apple has caught up to the good captain, and offers a pretty futuristic device that anybody (or perhaps everybody) can (or perhaps should) use: the iPad.

The first-ever Mac, 1984

So, in a few communicative ways, we've caught up to the Star Trek universe. But one key ingredient remains: warp-drive! According to Star Trek lore, it's the warp-drive signature left in space by the first warp-drive engine that attracts the attention of the Vulcans and prompts them to make first contact with the people of Earth, ushering our little planet into a bright future of intergalactic proportions. Much like Kip from Napoleon Dynamite, I must confess that "I love technology," and the innovations of people like Apple have raised my hopes that one day we'll find people with pointy ears and bumpy foreheads, and Soong-made androids, and neutral zones, and delta quadrants.

Alright, enough nerdiness for today.