Star Trek was ahead of its time...what?

Question

was so unrealistic in the tv series, but is now a reality 3 decades later?

Answer 1

Actually it is over 4 decades later...

Everyone always talks about the communicator/cell phone parallel, of course...

The Sickbay's bio-beds have been created in real life. (beds you can lie down on and it will measure your heart rate, etc.)

Star Trek writers predicted the moon landing down to the year, almost 3 years earlier...

AND, my favorite!!! The Pentagon contacted Matt Jefferies (the designer of the Enterprise exterior AND interor set designer) to help them create a situations room for them. They were so impressed with the circular design of the bridge, they had him help design a similar shape for them!

Answer 2

I read an article about 5-6 years ago that talked about how many inventions had come from Star Trek. Apparently, once Gene Roddenberry thought it up, scientists and engineers figured out it could work. Example - communicators, we know as cell phones. The monitors in sick bay are pretty much standard now (they look different, but they measure the same things); even NASA has said that some improvements that were made in the shuttle program were the result of ideas they got from Star Trek. Of all the people who have produced television shows, the most original were Gene Roddenberry and Rod Serling (Twilight Zone).

Answer 3

Just read an article in the paper about this very subject. Aside from all the other things folks have pointed out, this article noted that the head-gear used virtual reality technology is modeled after Geordi Laforge`s head set.
Another recent article was about the Université du Québec en Outaouais phobia treatment and research facilities, which are one of the most avant-guarde in North America. They use VR technology to treat phobias. One of the doctors described it as being "just like the holodeck on Star Trek."

Answer 4

First inter-racial kiss on TV.
Medical scanners similar to Tricorders (PET and CAT scans, etc)
Communication Technology (Cell phones/communicators)
'average' citizens going into space
Discovery of Extra solar planets
Discovery of water on planets other than Earth
Vast availability of high powered computers to the public at large
And that's just off the top of my head.

I think it would be safe to say that the TOS inspired many people to make leaps in science and technology that had been previously unthinkable.

Answer 5

I'm a fan. Not hardcore though.
I can't help but love the greats:
Archer
Pike
Kirk
Picard
Sisko
Janeway

I'll watch a Star Trek episode anytime
at the drop of a hat.

Answer 6

I can't wait for a time when I go to the doctor and he cures me by waving his mobile phone over me a couple of times! And replicators would be a boon at dinner time, and free summer holidays in the holo-deck..... might be a way off yet, don't you think? Mobile phones aside, the rest is all pure fiction...for now!

Answer 7

It was ahead of its time in terms of racial relations.

The fact that black, white, asian, russian, and the like (even aliens) could work together as a team.

It was also the first tv show that showed an interracial kiss (Kirk and Ohura).

Answer 8

Pretty much! Look at the old tricorders from the original series.. the flip phones we use today are modeled after them. Or in next generation they use little things that look exactly like palm pilots.

Answer 9

Jules Vern was ahead of his time and was one of the first innovators of space travel.
and many before him, Leonardo Devinchy and many others spoke about space travel.
Lost in space was children's TV long before Star trek.

Answer 10

Cell-phones and stun guns come immediately to mind.

But I never understood why Starfleet never thought of seatbelts... and why they couldn't find a fabric that wouldn't rip so easily in a brawl.

And I'm eagerly awaiting the advent of teleporting.