Tech in 2016 vs. 2392

[Emily]

So, over the past decade, we've made things that definitely mirror the Trek universe in many aspects. The flip phone resembled the TOS style communicator and our tablets can be compared to PADDs. Touch screen computers and virtual assistants like the computer have become big parts of our lives now as well. Google I/O 2016 announce the release of their "Home" product, which is kind of a rip off of Amazon Echo, but it does a lot of things that the Trek computer does (i.e. plays music, controls devices, changes room temperature, etc).

For me, suddenly the universe that we have here doesn't seem that far away. What do you guys think? Are we getting close to the TV universe we know and love?

[GVLB]

Enterprise was a challenge to create for just those reasons.

It had to fit within cannon with tech that looked less advanced than TOS and Movie era tech, and yet had to feel logical to a modern audience.

It made for an interesting contrast. I must admit I was a fan of the submarine look.

That being said, a lot of our tech is getting very close to what we see in trek, at least on the software side. We have strides to go before we have Vi's like a starship's computer, or magical sensors like they seem to have, but we are making nice strides.

We do have some interesting possibilities both with bionic eye replacements and permanent contact lenses. Both seem close to what Trek had in the medical department.

We still have a long way to go, but we do seem to aproximate some of it quite well. Some might argue that the show served as inspiration for many of the small miricles we use each day.

[Alex]

I think a lot of people would argue that the show served as inspiration for our technology today. The reason flip phones even flipped is because of the Star Trek communicator. I'm sure Palm Pilots and other early tablets were inspired by PADDs. I think I even read once that hospitals were looking at using wearable pins that they could use to page doctors and nurses, naturally inspired by the TNG commbadges.