原创 Star Trek "gadgets" that we now have

I got an email from David Ashton—the hero in Australia who fixed my DIY Geiger counter and made it count.

David asked if I had heard of the This Is True newsletter which – he tells me – combines some thought provoking articles with a "Good Laugh". He also says that there's a free version (I like free) and a paid one that has twice the number of stories. I just bounced over there and signed up for the free subscription to "dip my toes in the water" as it were.
This does look interesting. On their front page they say that they focus on strange-but-true stories like the following:

* A man who sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted.
* Two robbers who were in the process of their crime when one changed his mind and arrested the other.
* A woman who had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he could still "help" in the kitchen.
* The fact that only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all Ten Commandments, but half said they believed in space aliens.
Hmmm, maybe I'm a closet Anglican priest (I'll have to ask my mom) because this pretty much describes me. Actually, that reminds me of a joke....

One night a cat is prowling around outside the house in which it lives when it hears a rustling in the bushes.v
The cat pounces and grabs something in the dark and a fight ensues. Eventually the cat wins and drags its catch out into the moonlight, where he discovers he's captured a little man-shaped creature dressed in brightly colored clothes.

"What sort of creature are you?" asks the cat.

"I'm a gnome," replies the creature.

"A gnome?" says the cat. "What does a gnome do?"

"Well," says the gnome, "I sneak into the house at night and pee in the corners and do other unmentionable things; I play with precious objects and break them; I eat things I shouldn't; and I sing raucous songs loudly and out of tune in the middle of the night and wake everyone up."

The gnome continues by asking "And what sort of creature are you?"

The cat ponders for a moment and then says "Well, based on your description of what you do, I think I must be a gnome too!"

Hey, I didn't say it was going to be a good joke (grin).

But we digress... One of the stories David found on the This Is True site was a link to an article about some gadgets from Star Trek that have come into existence (Click here to see this article).

Some of these really do make you think; for example, the "flip-open communicators" that were later emulated by clam-shell cellphones. Or what about the communications earpiece sported by Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, which is eerily like a modern Bluetooth earpiece (I still find it strange when someone walking past me in the supermarket suddenly commences a conversation with an "invisible friend").

Or how about the fact that, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, crew members used flat, touch-based panels that are uncannily reminiscent of today's iPads. In fact, I just discovered that there is an Official Star Trek PADD (Personal Access Display Device) app for the iPad that "Immerses fans in a rich interactive database of Star Trek information and images with an authentic reproduction of the LCARS style interface introduced in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series" (Click here to see more details)

Reading this article reminded me that there used to be a company called Time Domain based in Huntsville, Alabama (where I currently "hang my hat" and call home – I moved here for the nightlife [grin]). Unfortunately they went out of business some time ago, but they were working on a handheld device (reminiscent of a Star Trek Tricorder) that used some interesting technology to "see through walls". That is, you could detect whether or not a human was on the other side of a wall and his/her location, which would be very useful for firefighters and soldiers and suchlike.

Truth to tell, I hadn't given this much thought before, but now it's been brought to my attention, the next time I watch some of the earlier Star Trek episodes I shall try to pay attention to the artifacts that seemed so "far-future" then and yet seem so "ho hum" now...