.
While the modern day Star Trek franchise commands a veritable army of cult followers, fans may be surprised to learn that the original 1966 series only survived three seasons before being cancelled due to poor ratings. Luckily, reruns of the show proved to be wildly successful, prompting the revival of the show and the creation of a media empire.
Although many follow Star Trek for its rich history, culture, and storyline, Star Trek has also inspired hundreds of young scientists for years. Perhaps one of the best-known sci-fi shows, Star Trek takes place in a world that seems to only be a fingertip away from our reach. Star Trek’s technology has long been one of its most scrutinized aspects, with extensive wiki articles dedicated to detailing the inner workings of various weaponry, ships, and medical devices.
Star Trek was created during the Cold War, remembered not just for the intense political tensions between the East and the West, but also for the world’s very first space race between the United States and the USSR. Fifty years after the show’s inception, our world is in the infancy of yet another major space race, armed with technology that viewers of the 60s would have seen as only wild science fiction.
Here, we take a look at Star Trek gadgets that have made their way from fiction to reality, and explore what possibilities the future holds for technology.
The Personal Access Display Device
It’s hard to imagine a symbol more representative of modern day technology than the touch screen tablet. These powerful tablets contain more computing power than all of NASA in the 1950s, and can be found in the hands of almost every child you see today.
Although the tablet is a symbol of modernity, Star Trek predicted its coming almost two decades before a tablet finally hit the market. Personal access display devices, also known as ‘PADDs,’ were used by almost every space-faring organization in Star Trek, from the famous United Starfleet to cultures as distant as the Delta Quadrant. While Star Trek PADDs were commonly used for logging crewmembers, entering personal data, or sending reports, the modern day tablet computer has grown well beyond these capabilities.
The first tablet computer emerged as early as the 1980s. The early tablet looked very similar to the chunky PADDs of Star Trek, with limited capabilities, and an unwieldy casing. If you fast-forward 30 years, you’ll see that tablet computers have been revolutionized, with the iPad leading the charge (PADD, iPad – see a similarity?). Although not the first modern tablet on the market, the sleek black touch screen with a white apple on its back is arguably one of the most recognizable tech pieces of the 21st century.
Nowadays, tablets are capable of almost anything you can imagine, from painting, to producing music, to communicating with someone from across the world at the touch of a finger. As with almost all modern tech, there are significant security risks that come with tablet computers, as they’re portable, small, and capable of doing almost anything a computer can do. However, these issues aren’t exclusive to our modern, high-powered iPads. Somewhere between 2144 and 2154 in the Star Trek timeline, the brilliant doctor Arik Soong pulled off a prison break that would make El Chapo envious. Using just his PADD, Dr. Soong managed to open every single lock in a San Francisco prison. Following the incident, Dr. Soong was restricted to the classic pen and paper.
Although it’s now unreasonable to scale back tablet access to keep the technology away from those that would use it for harm, security concerns surrounding tablet computers continues to remain a relevant and pressing issue.
Replicators
If someone had told me just a few years ago that you could literally print an entire car, I would’ve have thought they were insane. Now, printing cars is far from being the most inventive usage of what’s known as ‘3D-printing.’ Current 3D printers are still relatively new, but they share many characteristics with the ‘replicators’ used all over the galaxy in Star Trek.
Replicators in the Star Trek galaxy were capable of creating machinery, clothing, and other parts – something that our 3D printers are now capable of as well. However, one of the most amazing, and potentially groundbreaking, features of the replicator was its ability to create fresh, tasty food. Although some highbrow connoisseurs thought themselves capable of tasting the difference between replicated and traditionally cooked food, many in the Star Trek universe claimed there was no difference between the two.
It’s not science fiction that in our world, Earth’s growing population has created a significant strain not just on our global climate, but also on the availability of food for those in countries both developed and undeveloped. There’s great potential to solve global issues of hunger through the usage of 3D printing, but its success relies on the development of yet another Star Trek feature.
The replicators of Star Trek were capable of reversing their functions – breaking food or parts back down into their base materials and storing them for future use. Every year, consumers in industrialized countries waste around 222 million tons of food – almost as much as sub-Saharan Africa’s net food production. If we could take this food, break it down, and “print” more food using these building blocks, the global hunger crisis could rapidly become a thing of the past.
3D printers still have a very long way to go before we can enjoy gourmet cuisine popping out of our own replicators, but they represent a very significant advance in technology that has multi-sector applications.
In Star Trek season 5, episode 16, Dr. Russell takes a major leap of faith by using a genotronic replicator in order to create organic material – a new spinal column for the Klingon Worf. This was considered far-fetched even by Star Trek’s standards, and researchers are still hashing out the technicalities of ‘organ-printing’ today. Nevertheless, 3D printers have opened the door of possibilities for addressing major health, food, and sustainability issues that plague the world today.
Transporters
“Beam me up, Scotty!”
For even those who have no prior experience with Star Trek, this phrase should still ring a bell. Ironically, this exact version of the line has never been uttered in the canon media franchise, even though it’s arguably the most famous line from the series. Captain Kirk supposedly utters it when he requests crewmember Scotty to transport him back into their ship, the Starship Enterprise.
Although most Star Trek technology can be seen as something from imagination, the transporter is the most notable piece of technology that many regard as impossible, due to something called the Heisenberg Principle. Also known as the Uncertainty Principle, it postulates that there’s a limit on how precisely you can know the exact location and energy of any particular subatomic particle. How does this apply to the transporter? When you’re transported into a ship for example, you’re broken apart into a stream of subatomic particles before being transmitted to your final destination across a subspace domain. The trouble lies in the fact that you can’t possibly keep track of all the subatomic particles. It’s very likely that after being broken apart, it would be impossible for you to be put back together.
The Star Trek series solves the Heisenberg Principle by using a component called the Heisenberg Compensator. Although the exact mechanism can’t be explained, as it’s impossible to replicate, the compensator essentially allows for the transporter to lock onto both the position and momentum of the subatomic matter stream.
Early on in Star Trek’s history of transporters, there was a significant amount of controversy surrounding their usage. Psychosis, brain cancer, and sleep disorders were all named as possible side effects of the transportation. Additionally, a major moral argument was whether or not the person was the same individual after being broken apart and put together again. With the advent of safer transporters, biological transport became commonplace. Still, there remained major health concerns, the most famous one being transporter psychosis (first diagnosed in season 6, episode 2), which was caused by the breakdown of neurochemicals during transport.
In real life, the transporter is only a faint glimmer of possibility in the far future. Recently, scientists from Delft University in the Netherlands did manage to transport a few particles of matter across three meters. Their success was owed to quantum computer development, which could potentially solve incredibly complex mathematical problems in the blink of an eye. Although this was a major breakthrough in quantum physics, it’s still a far cry from transporting an entire human being.
Scientists continue to grapple with the physics and morals of biological transportation, but perhaps by the end of our lifetime, teleportation won’t seem like such a distant prospect.
Whether it’s predicting technology like the tablet computer or the flip phone, or providing inspiration for scientists to explore quantum teleportation and creating warp drives, it’s hard to argue against Star Trek’s influence.
Beyond being just a widely followed culture, Star Trek has branched deeply into the realm of science. It has inspired very real advances and innovations. I have no doubt that Star Trek will continue to connect past figments of imagination to present realities, and to inspire future breakthroughs into the great unknown.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
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Star Trek Tech: The Future is Now
August 8, 2016
While the modern day Star Trek franchise commands a veritable army of cult followers, fans may be surprised to learn that the original 1966 series only survived three seasons before being cancelled due to poor ratings. Luckily, reruns of the show proved to be wildly successful, prompting the revival of the show and the creation of a media empire.
Although many follow Star Trek for its rich history, culture, and storyline, Star Trek has also inspired hundreds of young scientists for years. Perhaps one of the best-known sci-fi shows, Star Trek takes place in a world that seems to only be a fingertip away from our reach. Star Trek’s technology has long been one of its most scrutinized aspects, with extensive wiki articles dedicated to detailing the inner workings of various weaponry, ships, and medical devices.
Star Trek was created during the Cold War, remembered not just for the intense political tensions between the East and the West, but also for the world’s very first space race between the United States and the USSR. Fifty years after the show’s inception, our world is in the infancy of yet another major space race, armed with technology that viewers of the 60s would have seen as only wild science fiction.
Here, we take a look at Star Trek gadgets that have made their way from fiction to reality, and explore what possibilities the future holds for technology.
The Personal Access Display Device
It’s hard to imagine a symbol more representative of modern day technology than the touch screen tablet. These powerful tablets contain more computing power than all of NASA in the 1950s, and can be found in the hands of almost every child you see today.
Although the tablet is a symbol of modernity, Star Trek predicted its coming almost two decades before a tablet finally hit the market. Personal access display devices, also known as ‘PADDs,’ were used by almost every space-faring organization in Star Trek, from the famous United Starfleet to cultures as distant as the Delta Quadrant. While Star Trek PADDs were commonly used for logging crewmembers, entering personal data, or sending reports, the modern day tablet computer has grown well beyond these capabilities.
The first tablet computer emerged as early as the 1980s. The early tablet looked very similar to the chunky PADDs of Star Trek, with limited capabilities, and an unwieldy casing. If you fast-forward 30 years, you’ll see that tablet computers have been revolutionized, with the iPad leading the charge (PADD, iPad – see a similarity?). Although not the first modern tablet on the market, the sleek black touch screen with a white apple on its back is arguably one of the most recognizable tech pieces of the 21st century.
Nowadays, tablets are capable of almost anything you can imagine, from painting, to producing music, to communicating with someone from across the world at the touch of a finger. As with almost all modern tech, there are significant security risks that come with tablet computers, as they’re portable, small, and capable of doing almost anything a computer can do. However, these issues aren’t exclusive to our modern, high-powered iPads. Somewhere between 2144 and 2154 in the Star Trek timeline, the brilliant doctor Arik Soong pulled off a prison break that would make El Chapo envious. Using just his PADD, Dr. Soong managed to open every single lock in a San Francisco prison. Following the incident, Dr. Soong was restricted to the classic pen and paper.
Although it’s now unreasonable to scale back tablet access to keep the technology away from those that would use it for harm, security concerns surrounding tablet computers continues to remain a relevant and pressing issue.
Replicators
If someone had told me just a few years ago that you could literally print an entire car, I would’ve have thought they were insane. Now, printing cars is far from being the most inventive usage of what’s known as ‘3D-printing.’ Current 3D printers are still relatively new, but they share many characteristics with the ‘replicators’ used all over the galaxy in Star Trek.
Replicators in the Star Trek galaxy were capable of creating machinery, clothing, and other parts – something that our 3D printers are now capable of as well. However, one of the most amazing, and potentially groundbreaking, features of the replicator was its ability to create fresh, tasty food. Although some highbrow connoisseurs thought themselves capable of tasting the difference between replicated and traditionally cooked food, many in the Star Trek universe claimed there was no difference between the two.
It’s not science fiction that in our world, Earth’s growing population has created a significant strain not just on our global climate, but also on the availability of food for those in countries both developed and undeveloped. There’s great potential to solve global issues of hunger through the usage of 3D printing, but its success relies on the development of yet another Star Trek feature.
The replicators of Star Trek were capable of reversing their functions – breaking food or parts back down into their base materials and storing them for future use. Every year, consumers in industrialized countries waste around 222 million tons of food – almost as much as sub-Saharan Africa’s net food production. If we could take this food, break it down, and “print” more food using these building blocks, the global hunger crisis could rapidly become a thing of the past.
3D printers still have a very long way to go before we can enjoy gourmet cuisine popping out of our own replicators, but they represent a very significant advance in technology that has multi-sector applications.
In Star Trek season 5, episode 16, Dr. Russell takes a major leap of faith by using a genotronic replicator in order to create organic material – a new spinal column for the Klingon Worf. This was considered far-fetched even by Star Trek’s standards, and researchers are still hashing out the technicalities of ‘organ-printing’ today. Nevertheless, 3D printers have opened the door of possibilities for addressing major health, food, and sustainability issues that plague the world today.
Transporters
“Beam me up, Scotty!”
For even those who have no prior experience with Star Trek, this phrase should still ring a bell. Ironically, this exact version of the line has never been uttered in the canon media franchise, even though it’s arguably the most famous line from the series. Captain Kirk supposedly utters it when he requests crewmember Scotty to transport him back into their ship, the Starship Enterprise.
Although most Star Trek technology can be seen as something from imagination, the transporter is the most notable piece of technology that many regard as impossible, due to something called the Heisenberg Principle. Also known as the Uncertainty Principle, it postulates that there’s a limit on how precisely you can know the exact location and energy of any particular subatomic particle. How does this apply to the transporter? When you’re transported into a ship for example, you’re broken apart into a stream of subatomic particles before being transmitted to your final destination across a subspace domain. The trouble lies in the fact that you can’t possibly keep track of all the subatomic particles. It’s very likely that after being broken apart, it would be impossible for you to be put back together.
The Star Trek series solves the Heisenberg Principle by using a component called the Heisenberg Compensator. Although the exact mechanism can’t be explained, as it’s impossible to replicate, the compensator essentially allows for the transporter to lock onto both the position and momentum of the subatomic matter stream.
Early on in Star Trek’s history of transporters, there was a significant amount of controversy surrounding their usage. Psychosis, brain cancer, and sleep disorders were all named as possible side effects of the transportation. Additionally, a major moral argument was whether or not the person was the same individual after being broken apart and put together again. With the advent of safer transporters, biological transport became commonplace. Still, there remained major health concerns, the most famous one being transporter psychosis (first diagnosed in season 6, episode 2), which was caused by the breakdown of neurochemicals during transport.
In real life, the transporter is only a faint glimmer of possibility in the far future. Recently, scientists from Delft University in the Netherlands did manage to transport a few particles of matter across three meters. Their success was owed to quantum computer development, which could potentially solve incredibly complex mathematical problems in the blink of an eye. Although this was a major breakthrough in quantum physics, it’s still a far cry from transporting an entire human being.
Scientists continue to grapple with the physics and morals of biological transportation, but perhaps by the end of our lifetime, teleportation won’t seem like such a distant prospect.
Whether it’s predicting technology like the tablet computer or the flip phone, or providing inspiration for scientists to explore quantum teleportation and creating warp drives, it’s hard to argue against Star Trek’s influence.
Beyond being just a widely followed culture, Star Trek has branched deeply into the realm of science. It has inspired very real advances and innovations. I have no doubt that Star Trek will continue to connect past figments of imagination to present realities, and to inspire future breakthroughs into the great unknown.
The views presented in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of any other organization.
