Blog: Mobile Phones

From the SF Chronicle:

In the 23rd century universe of "Star Trek,'' people talked to each other using wireless personal communicators, had easy access to a vast database of information and spent hours gazing at a big wall-mounted video screen.

On 21st century Earth, that future is already here.

People talk to each other on wireless communicators called cell phones. They have instant access to infinite amounts of information on the Internet. And they can spend hours staring at a big wall-mounted plasma or liquid-crystal display TV watching reruns of "Star Trek." That is, if they can afford one.

The article mentions the Palm and the Treo 300 as devices that were specifically designed with Star Trek's gadgets in mind. Of course, 60s design principles don't necessarily work today - the Treo was completely redesigned without the flip-up lid into something that looks a lot less like a Star Trek communicator and a lot more like a modern phone.

What's most fascinating is that many future predictions about information technology have come true centuries ahead of expectations, while medicine has only moved along slowly (we're far from having the magic pill that grows new kidneys in Star Trek IV), and space travel is scarcely different than it was in 1966.