What Technologies from Star Trek Have Actually Come to Pass?

The smartphone, tablet computers, and real-time translation are already here; the tricorder and replicator have only been partially realized, while the transporter and warp drive remain distant. Sixty years after the series premiered, it is time to distinguish between prediction, inspiration, and scientific imagination. The smartphone, tablet computers, and real-time translation are already here; the tricorder and replicator have only been partially realized, while the transporter and warp drive remain distant. Sixty years after the series premiered, it is time to distinguish between prediction, inspiration, and scientific imagination. Every few years, the same list reappears: "The technologies that Star Trek predicted." The communicator became a mobile phone, data padds evolved into tablets, the Enterprise computer rolled out as a voice assistant, and the tricorder transformed into a portable medical device. The resemblance is tempting, but it can also blur the line between a prop, an idea that already existed, inspiration for engineers, and technology that actually works. Sixty years after the broadcast of the first episode of the original series, we can examine its…