The Star Trek TV programs and films have prefigured or inspired so many of today’s technological achievements that it would be nearly impossible to list every instance. One of the most obvious examples is the ubiquity of computers—which at the time of the show’s inception were large, inefficient and uncommon—in the series’ 22nd-24th-century setting. Less obviously, the design of real-life flip (or “clamshell”) phones is directly based on that of Starfleet communicators. A company called Sakhr Software has created an Arabic-English speech translation app for the iPhone that functions similarly to Trek’s universal translators. Also, NASA recently developed a device which can be plugged into an iPhone and used to detect the presence of deadly gases in its environment, much like the fictional tricorder.

 

This isn’t to say that everything in the Star Trek universe has already come to pass. For example, we’re obviously a long way from galactic scouting expeditions or contact with alien life forms. Nonetheless, a lot can happen in a century or two. In a way, it’s comforting to know that some parts of “the future” may still be yet to come.

Amen!