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How Today's Technology Is Rapidly Catching Up to Star Trek
huffingtonpost ^ | : 07/01/2014 5:59 pm EDT | Vivek Wadhwa

Posted on 07/02/2014 6:31:31 AM PDT by ckilmer

In a distant part of the galaxy, 300 years in the future, Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk talks to his crew via a communicator; has his medical officer assess medical conditions through a handheld device called a tricorder; synthesizes food and physical goods using his replicator; and travels short distances via a transporter. Kirk's successors hold meetings in virtual-reality chambers, called holodecks, and operate alien spacecraft using displays mounted on their foreheads. All this takes place in the TV series Star Trek, and is of course science fiction.

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: startrek; technology
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To: ckilmer

They’ll pry my Phaser II from my cold, dead hand...


21 posted on 07/02/2014 7:26:51 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Steely Tom

ObamaCare is accelerating development of this technology.


I’m assuming your comment was sarcasm. “Obamacare” can’t even build a working website to sign people up even with the investment of half a billion U.S. tax payers dollars.

Obamacare does offer free abortions while life-saving treatments require a hefty copay/deductable.


22 posted on 07/02/2014 7:30:45 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: I want the USA back

But... the flip phone they were using is now “obsolete technology”.


23 posted on 07/02/2014 7:31:48 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: I want the USA back

Will not happen. Ever.


Anything is possible as long as you have no idea about how things actually work.

“I canna change the laws of physics, Captain!”


24 posted on 07/02/2014 7:31:49 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: needmorePaine

Let me know when the holodeck is available.


Based upon what I know of human nature, if there ever is a “holodeck” most of humanity would go in and never leave.


25 posted on 07/02/2014 7:34:03 AM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Rides_A_Red_Horse
Based upon what I know of human nature, if there ever is a “holodeck” most of humanity would go in and never leave.

Very true. And it would be an awful mess in there.
26 posted on 07/02/2014 7:35:47 AM PDT by needmorePaine
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To: I want the USA back

I think that the translator that can handle previously unknown languages is “possible”, maybe even with todays technology and a big investment. Think of what the NSA does in cryptography, breaking codes. You are basically translating an unknown language, but just finding the “words” not the meaning. Add a learning based algorithm, coupled with a live database that holds language/semantic rules, frequencies of occurance for all known languages... very difficult, but probably not impossile.


27 posted on 07/02/2014 7:36:05 AM PDT by LambSlave
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To: needmorePaine

What would that do to national productivity?


28 posted on 07/02/2014 7:38:00 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: needmorePaine

I get this nagging feeling that a good deal of leftists today are treating the US (and the world) as a holodeck. They interact with it, with no regard that there are other real people inside.


29 posted on 07/02/2014 8:02:59 AM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
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To: MrB
What would that do to national productivity?

Obviously bring it to less than zero, which is why Roddenberry's entire premise was bunk. And *that* doesn't even begin to cover the bunk of FTL travel, etc...

the infowarrior

30 posted on 07/02/2014 8:07:43 AM PDT by infowarrior
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To: needmorePaine
Let me know when the holodeck is available.

Holodeck and the Replicator. I doubt, however, that the request: "...tea, earl grey, hot..." will be among the items I will request...

Beyond the fun of StarTrek, this is the reality that we have...

1 Corinthians 2:9(NIV)

However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived"— the things God has prepared for those who love Him.

31 posted on 07/02/2014 8:17:48 AM PDT by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: ckilmer

The relatively many times faster than the speed of light travel, however, is still a pipe dream.

Just to get to the star nearest to our Sun in a year of travel would require the equivalent of four times the speed of light. Six months, eight times. Three months, 16 times. A six weeks, 32 times. Three weeks, 64 times.

Roughly speaking, to get there in 12 days is about 120 times the speed of light. 6 days, 240 times. 3 days, 480 times.

36 hours, 960 times the speed of light. 18 hours, 1,920 times the speed of light. 9 hours, 3,840. 4 and a half hours, 7680. 2 and a quarter hours, 15,360. A little over an hour, 30,720 times the speed of light.

And to fit into an hour episode, traveling between Earth and Alpha Centauri in about half an hour, you need to go around 61,440 times the speed of light.

Just to travel four light years away.

Here is a list of the stars nearest our Sun. They average about 8 light years away.

http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/nearest.html


32 posted on 07/02/2014 8:46:12 AM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: Steely Tom
The only thing that Obamacare is accelerating is the phrase "He's dead, Jim."

-PJ

33 posted on 07/02/2014 8:54:02 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: Political Junkie Too

Those of us that are modern, prefer the quote from NCIS...... He’s dead Gibbs


34 posted on 07/02/2014 8:55:20 AM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Obama is public enemy #1)
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To: bigbob
There is also the Iron Man suit that folds into a briefcase.

-PJ

35 posted on 07/02/2014 8:56:28 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: bert
But that would be off-topic.

-PJ

36 posted on 07/02/2014 8:57:43 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: MrB

Increase it greatly - if we can shut off the air to the unproductive holodeck residents!


37 posted on 07/02/2014 9:01:56 AM PDT by MortMan (All those in favor of gun control raise both hands!)
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To: Blood of Tyrants

Never underestimate the ability of fools to fool fool-proof systems.


38 posted on 07/02/2014 9:22:10 AM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: AFreeBird

Artificial intelligence will never overcome natural stupidity.


39 posted on 07/02/2014 9:24:05 AM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Haven't you lost enough freedoms? Support an end to the WOD now.)
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To: AFreeBird; Blood of Tyrants

>>I’m still waiting for the flying car that has been promised since the 50s.

John Prine wrote a song 35 years ago that included that as one of the themes. He nailed it pretty well for today. The chorus:

We are living in the future
I’ll tell you how I know
I read it in the paper
Fifteen years ago
We’re all driving rocket ships
And talking with our minds
And wearing turquoise jewelry
And standing in soup lines
We are standing in soup lines

http://youtu.be/2ftvh9eWkAc


40 posted on 07/02/2014 10:05:09 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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