Technology
Exploring Realistic Star Trek Technologies: From Handheld Comms to FTL Travel
Exploring Realistic Star Trek Technologies: From Handheld Comms to FTL Travel
Star Trek, the beloved science fiction series that has captivated audiences for decades, presents a myriad of technologies that range from plausible to purely fictional. While some of these technologies are shown as fanciful and barely believable, others like handheld comms and FTL travel hold intriguing possibilities of becoming reality in the future.
Handheld Comms: A Prophetically Accurate Technology
One of the few technologies that can be considered neither purely fictional nor completely unrealistic is the handheld communicator. In the realm of modern communications, smartphones have become the real-life equivalent of the Star Trek communicator. It is not hard to imagine a future where handheld devices that enable individuals to communicate with one another instantly and from a distance become more advanced and ubiquitous.
The handheld communicator in Star Trek demonstrates elements of real-world technology. Early versions of the communicator were simple devices that allowed for voice communication over short distances, similar to satellite phones. Today, our smartphones can function as walkie-talkies, global positioning systems, and can even be used to control smart homes. The concept of a handheld device for voice communication is not only realistic but already part of modern technology.
The Dream and the Reality of FTL Travel
One of the most fascinating technologies in Star Trek is faster-than-light (FTL) travel. This technology, which allows spaceships to travel across vast distances in a fraction of the time it would take at normal light-speed, is rooted in the Trans-_glyph