Sunday, April 23, 2006

Cellphone Communicators

If you haven't had a chance to see this, check out 'How William Shatner Changed the World'. It's on today and tomorrow on the History Channel.

I've long argued that modern technology had better conform to Star Trek's view of the future, or we'll reject it. The most popular cellphones look like the flip-top communicators, blue-tooth receivers look like comm badges, a palm pilot looks like a tricorder to me, and we can talk to our computers now, right?

If they ever manage to produce a food replicator, or transporter, it had better be like ST, or we're likely to think it's "not right". Seriously.

The show, in which William Shatner is at his self-deprecating best (he's never funnier than when he's playing up to the stereotyped, charicatured version of himself as Kirk) goes through how Star Trek was years ahead of everyone else, and how many new inventions came out of this short, cultish television show. It's actually a lot of fun.

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