I am a Trekkie. I watched Star Trek when I was young. I watched Star
Trek when I was in my 20s and 30s and 40s. I haven't watched it so
much in my 50s, but I still pay attention to it.
I remember when I got married Star Trek: The Next Generation was just
starting. When we got to the training center where I had to train for
two months to see if I could keep my job one of the most important
things I did on the night that we arrived was set up the TV with an
antenna to receive the channel that got Star Trek: The Next Generation
so we could watch that week's episode and recorded it to videotape.
Over the years I've noticed how much our modern technology efforts
match up with what I saw in those shows. The original series, the
Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, all laid out a path for us
to follow into the future.
I now tap on screens like I watched Data and Geordie and Wharf did. I
have video readouts on different things in my life. There are sensors
and cameras all around me. I have devices with a voice interface that
actually works! On multiple systems!
I remember the early voice interfaces that tried to be like Star Trek
and they were soooo bad. They tried and they had the sound but they
just couldn't recognize the voice well enough to translate words to a
command that the computers could actually use. While I don't have a
strong southern accent sometimes I wondered if it was my accent that
was messing things up. I came to realize that no it was just really
poor technology being marketed under the Star Trek name to make lots
of money from all the crazy people like me that wanted it to work.
I remember that there was an episode where they were using flashlights
that look like flat rectangular boxes. I have a flashlight that is
like that but a little bit smaller. It gives me white and red light.
I used it with my granddaughter at a late display over the Christmas
holidays recently. She was delighted to sit there and press the
button and try to make it change colors and patterns. But it looks so
much like what I saw in Star Trek that it's scary.
I never went for the flip open phone that looked like the Star Trek
communicator from the original series. Although I really would've
loved to say "Beam me up, Scotty!"
I have seens ads for a little Bluetooth Star Trek badge that you can
pin to your shirt and then press it and have a speaker on a Bluetooth
device connected to your mobile phone act like a Star Trek
communicator. That would be way too nerdy for me! But it is fun to
read about and watch.
Having answers at my fingertips and within the reach of my voice from
a computer that talks back to me is amazing. Logging my life in a
system that stores it away for future review is awesome.
I continue to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new
civilizations. And I keep boldly going where no one seems to have
gone before.
Fun!
