Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Example for Free

Star Trek Technology We Use Everyday Essay Star Trek technology has become reality that we use in our daily lives. There are many different forms of technology fields that have been shown in Star Trek as a first that have become a reality rather than a Science Fiction (Sci-Fi) fantasy. Star Trek technology came from the great imaginative minds of writers and designers with little to no knowledge of science in the original series. It wasnt until the second series that they started to incorporate actual scientific methods and terms. Advancements in science have come about through the influence of creative people thinking of the future. This technology has been instrumental in how we conduct our lives. Contemporary technology has been influenced by Star Trek in many ways. Phones were around for many years before Star Trek; however, they were tied down to the house or office by wires and the bulkiness of the devices. No one could possibly make a phone call on the go, yet they could by using a phone booth. However, using a phone booth would not be of much use since it couldnt be carried around. One of the greatest inventors of this decade, Dr. Martin Cooper, decided to come up with a new form of communicating with the rest of the world. Dr. Martin Cooper found himself tripping over his phone cord when he saw Star Trek appear on the TV playing in the background. Cooper watched with envy as Captain Kirk calmly conversed while walking across an alien landscape. (Laytner, 2011) While Cooper watched Captain Kirk with his communicator, he was bewildered â€Å"And, suddenly theres Captain Kirk talking on his communicator,† remembers Cooper. â€Å"Talking with no dialing!† (Handel, 2005) With the idea set in his mind, he set out to make it a reali ty. In 1973, Martian Cooper, While working for Motorola, he [Cooper] created the first personal cell phone, citing Captain Kirks communicator on Star Trek as an inspiration. His first call on the 28-oz. (800 g) cordless cell phone — dubbed the brick — was to his rival at Bell Labs Research. (Grossman, 2007) However, this big brick of a phone didnt match the likeness of the communicator that Captain Kirk used, so in 1996, Motorola made the first flip phone named StarTAC. (Kessler, 09-0) These clamshell phones were highly sought after and held the cell phone design for many years until touch screen phones recently became more popular. Many Star Trek fans and even older more stubborn non-techies still try to keep the flip phone for the nostalgia of Star Trek and to keep pocket dialing to a minimum. In 1974, Ed Roberts created the Altair 8800, the first minicomputer that came in kits for consumers to put together, yet it wasnt a friendly user system since software wasnt invented yet. The Altair 8800 was named after a space system from the Star Trek series and was the basis for the basic computer language that Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple, and Gordon Moore of Intel used to create new and more user friendly computers. This basic language that Ed Roberts created was inspired by Star Trek (Handel, 2005). When computers became a household name and personal were computers available to the general public, a new development occurred that would be called a laptop. Adam Osborne of Osborne Computer Corporation, the father of portable computers, introduced the first commercially available portable computer with software to run it, named Osborne 1 in 1981 (Scott, n.d.). In 1968, Alan Kay of Xerox made a concept and prototype of a portable information manipulator, named Dynabook, a different form of a portable computer that wasn’t user friendly or available to the general public (Maxwell, 2006). Without software, the Dynabook was hard to understand and use, so the Osborne 1 with its software and graphic interface to allow users to see what they were doing made it a true portable computer. Portable computers got an even newer facelift in 1993 when Robert Haitani developed the Palm Pilot, a first in personal data assistant (PDA) and a new form of portable computers. Robert Haitani, the designer of the Palm Pilot, said his first sketches were influenced by the Enterprise bridge panels and produced it. A few years later there was a combination of cell phones and PDAs since they shared hardware which resembled to the communicator in Star Trek. You could stand there and talk into it like Captain Kirk (Laytner, 2011). The Palm Pilot spanned PDAs which transformed into the current popular trend of tablets and smart phones. All the different technologies incorporated into the tablet and the smart phone can be traced back to their Star Trek influenced roots. Advancements in technology and science have been influenced by many sources. Star Trek played a large role in evolution of the modern technology by influencing many inventors. Even though the original series of Star Trek was written and designed with little to no knowledge of the technological advancements of the times, Gene Rodenberry wrote many views of how life would be with various forms of technology that weren’t even a reality, yet. Works Cited Grossman, Lev. (2007). Best inventions of 2007. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1677329_1677708_1677825,00.html. (Grossman, 2007) Time listed the best inventions and inventors of the 2007, and they had Martin Cooper listed for creating the first mobile telephone that wasnt mounted in a car in 1973. Laytner, Lance. (2011). Edit international. Retrieved from http://www.editinternational.com/read.php?id=4810edf3a83f8 (Laytner, 2011) Talks about the documentary How William Shatner Changed The World and the many inventions of many inventors help shaped the world now because they were influenced by Star Trek to reach for the future. Maxwell, John (2006) Tracing the Dynabook: A Study of Technocultural Transformations http://thinkubator.ccsp.sfu.ca/Dynabook/Maxwell-DynabookFinal.pdf (Maxwell, 2006) This thesis paper was great detail on Alan Kay, who made a from of portable computer that manipulated information, and his accomplishments and how the Dynabook became what it did. Handel, Alan. (Writer) (2005). How William Shatner Changed The World [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u304yVYoCJs