Thread by @tomiahonen

For #StarTrekDay

A thread about Trekkie & Trekker thoughts from a fan & somewhat techie-spacie nerdish geek & tech author. How is our life different, after they so boldly went where no one had gone before?

Trek thread 1/10

Trek thread 2/10

"Set your phasers on stun". What a novel truly Roddenberrian vision during devastating bloodshed of Vietnam War. A future where lethal military weapons would have a non-lethal setting?

The modern tazer is direct result of that vision. Lives saved in police work

Trek thread 3/10

The Communicator. During original TV series you could not directly dial from USA to France or Japan on your landline (& rotary dial) phone, nor send a text fro airplane. A decade later Japan launched first cellular network. By 1996 we had Motorola's 'Star Tac'

Trek thread 4/10

Nothing changed the planet more than universal personal communication (modern mobile phone).

But our current cellphone is no longer a flip phone. The iPhone? Is far more like Star Trek's ... Tricorder! (Sensor, recorder & computer) = the modern smartphone!

Trek 5/10

Something we take totally for granted at any shopping mall or major store. The automatically opening door. That was science fiction still in the 1960s. It was astonishing on that TV show, became unremarkable everyday thing inside a lifetime

Trek 6/10

One more from the original series. The personal computer. In 1960s computers filled rooms, operated by teams. But Spock was SOO smart & analytical, he could operate his OWN computer, on his station. The first 'personal' computer that we now all give our kids for school

Trek 7/10

Next Gen gave us a lot as well. The most pervasive tech it spawned is our touch screen, the increasingly only way to operate our technology. First mass market success of touch screens was the iPhone, over 2 DECADES after we met an android named Data

Trek 8/10

Next Gen gave us the talking ship's computer. That your car today tries to get you to buy Goya beans by inisisting: "The door is a jar" - we can thank Star Trek.

And the first tablet PC? This Captain showed us his personal computing device we all now use

Trek 9/10

The holodeck was a radical new idea for NG and used as a plot vehicle countless times. Modern virtual worlds, role-playing games, augmented reality, all build on that view.

But what of the replicator? The modern 3D printer is the birth of the replicator, only slower

Trek 10/10

I end with my fave series, Voyager. "State the nature of your medical emergency" her emergency holographic doctor paved way for remote telemedicine (powered often by smartphones). Literally saving lives.

Live long & prosper
I have been & always shall be your friend

PS most TV comedies of science fiction are lame & dull or tedious with rare jokes.

There is one exception. And it will esp make any Star Trek fan laugh. If you have not seen it, go get the 2 seasons of BBC's Hyperdrive.

"Kill the humans, and their culture! / Kill the humans.."