Science Fact or Fiction? Exploring the Technological Advances Inspired by Star Trek

Yes, I’m a Trekkie. It’s a fan badge I wear with pride. I’m old enough to have watched the original Star Trek when it aired – not in reruns – although I watched a lot of those too. Heck, I have all of them on DVD and get laughed at for being so “old fashioned” that I still own DVDs. But as a Trekkie it never ceases to amaze me that so much of what was science fiction in the 1960s is science fact today.

Electronic clipboards: From the 1966 premier of Star Trek (The Original Series) to the reboot Star Trek: The Next Generation roughly 20 years later, electronic clipboards evolved into “PADDs” or “Personal Access Display Devices.” Everyone I know owns an iPad and the similarity between the sci-fi version and sci-fact version is uncanny. Any tablet type computer today could be considered as inspired by the electronic clipboard Kirk used in The Original Series.

Communicators: When I got my first NexTel phone in the 1990s, I thought it was the coolest thing ever – because I’m a Trekkie nerd and being able to flip that phone open and “chirp” up one of my team members just tickled me. Portable communication tools have come a long way, even since then. With the reality of hand-held satellite radios and phones, being able to communicate in real time with people on the other side of the planet is reality. Subspace radio isn’t reality yet so we can’t talk real-time with people on the moon, or Mars, or… well, you get the point. But to someone on a ship orbiting the planet? Ask the astronauts on the International Space Station who Facetime with their family members.

Earbuds: Anyone who remembers Uhura’s earpiece can understand what Gene Roddenberry foresaw… and how much farther past that we’ve advanced. Today’s earbuds are so much smaller and more functional than Uhura’s earpiece was. With Bluetooth technology, such small size as to disappear into the ear and more, today’s sci-fact earbuds – which still continue to evolve – have surpassed sci-fi in ways that are difficult to measure.

Heads Up Eyewear: It wasn’t really until ST: The Next Generation that we saw heads-up eyewear on any characters. Captain Sisko used a single-lens system often on Deep Space Nine and few Trekkies can forget Geordi’s cybernetic eyewear that allowed him to see even though he was born blind. Today’s wearable eyewear runs quite the spectrum from heads-up displays to virtual reality headsets to Google and Meta eyewear that builds data displays and recording/transmitting capabilities in. Contemporary warriors on the ground and our pilots in fighter jets have some interesting heads-up displays built into their helmet visors. It’s another example of how sci-fact has surpassed sci-fi.

Bio-beds: Now, admittedly, we can’t just lay down and have the “sensors” all detect our heartbeat, blood sugar levels, blood pressure, etc. – not like McCoy’s did in sickbay on the USS Enterprise. However, if you’ve visited anyone (or been a patient) in a hospital recently, the amount of bio-data that can be tracked and displayed is amazing. Pulse rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen levels, heart rhythm and more are there for the viewing. Yes, we still needs to hook up leads to the patient but no one can argue that our medical technology today far surpasses what sci-fi envisioned 60 years ago.

Hypo-sprays: I remember, in 1982, when I reported for active duty in our United States Army, wishing that the vaccinations I received were as comfortable and easy as those given to patients in Star Trek. The hypo-spray McCoy used offered such a gentle hiss and the patient never seemed to even feel it. Comparing that to the high-pressure air-jet behind the vaccinations I received, that would tear your skin if you (or the delivering medic) moved, yes – I wish the hypo-spray had been real. That said, it was already to some extent in 1982 and a few years before. Using air to push medicine into the patient was sci-fact even if it seemed different from the sci-fi prediction.

These last two pieces of sci-fact come from the same company so I’ve grouped them together, and the first one is our newest “sci-fi to sci-fact” item. Thank Axon.

Universal Translator: Kirk had that wondrous tool that could listen to any language spoken and translate it into Earth English. Further, it could take Earth English and translate that into whatever language the alien conversationalist could understand. We don’t have a tool that can analyze and translate unknown languages yet (unless the military does and it’s not public knowledge), but Axon has released a body worn camera that has an automatic translator system built in. A police officer wearing this bodycam can address a subject and if the subject responds in something other than English, the built-in translator recognizes the language (as long as it’s one of those programmed in) and automatically repeats, in the correct language, what the police officer said. When the subject responds in their own language, the translator automatically repeats it in English for the officer. The biggest strength here is the automation of the system. The officer doesn’t have to identify the subject language. No interpreter has to be found. You don’t have to specify settings for Google Translate on your phone. The system simply recognizes the languages being spoken and translates them so coherent communication can occur. It’s the closets thing to a Universal Translator yet.

And last but not least because we’re not quite there yet: Phasers. I’ve long joked that the difference between a Phaser and a TASER is the wires. That’s both true and not since phasers require no wires. But phasers also could kill, heat up rocks, burn through steel, etc. TASERs, quite thankfully, can’t kill or do those other things. Still, it’s an energy-based weapon that may, or may not, resemble a handgun (most phasers from ST: The Next Generation on didn’t). I can’t help but think about the progress that could be made with conducted energy weapons and the versatility they might provide as the technology advances.

But Star Trek wasn’t the only Hollywood fiction platform that gave us science-fiction to science-fact technology. In the 1979 movie, ALIEN, the Space Marines have helmets equipped with cameras that feed back to the command vehicle where the unit commander (a Lieutenant, but we won’t talk about that) can “see” through the eyes of the Marines. Such live-streaming video capability seemed far-fetched in 1979, but we’ve seen it become reality in the past 15 years or so.

So, we can see how much science-fiction has become science-fact in the past sixty years since Star Trek first premiered. Do you ever wonder how much more technology will advance in the next sixty years? I’m kind of excited to see it. I only hope that it provides as much benefit to humanity as Gene Roddenberry hoped that it would.