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more on The Legacy of Star Trek


From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:05:38 +0200



Begin forwarded message:

From: Brian Zisk <zisk () well com>
Date: September 22, 2006 5:04:17 AM GMT+02:00
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: Re: [IP] more on The Legacy of Star Trek

My wife's father Sidney Samole is credited with inventing the first commercial electronic chess game after watching a Star Trek Episode where Spock played 3D chess against a computer.

http://www.ismenio.com/fidelity.html

Clearly Star Trek stimulated the imagination of many an inventor.

Brian Zisk

http://www.futureofmusic.org



David Farber wrote:


Begin forwarded message:

From: "Ronald J Riley (RJR.com)" <rjr () rjriley com>
Date: September 21, 2006 7:27:33 PM GMT+02:00
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] The Legacy of Star Trek

For IP

Dave,

I disagree that Star Trek played no role in the advance of technology. Most certainly Star Trek exposed many people to science fiction who otherwise
would not have discovered the gender.

I fell in love with hard science fiction for both the science part and the
social engineering which was so much a part of the stories.

My daughters have both acquired the passion for science fiction. My oldest daughter wants to write science fiction and fantasy. She just finished dual bachelor degrees in English and history, and is in student teaching, but her dream is to become a writer and she has been a big fan of Anne McCaffrey's
work.

Some years ago I contacted Anne McCaffrey and the discussion of the impact
science fiction had on me and her response is detailed at
www.inventored.org/s-f/.

Ronald J Riley, President
Professional Inventors Alliance
www.PIAUSA.org
RJR"at"PIAUSA.org
Change "at" to @

Ronald J Riley, Exec. Dir.
InventorEd, Inc.
www.InventorEd.org
RJR"at"InvEd.org
Change "at" to @

RJR Direct # (202) 318-1595

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 7:33 AM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] The Legacy of Star Trek


<<The scrappy, low-budget series, which was cancelled after three
seasons, became known for its imposing repertoire of futuristic
gadgetry. There were handheld communicators and tricorders; shipboard
holodecks, giant view-screens, and deadly phasers.  Some people today
have come to believe that Star Trek's creators possessed a crystal
ball, simply because of the resemblance of some of this paraphernalia
to contemporary, hi-tech hardware like cell phones and plasma TV's.
Consequently, one reason that scientists were brought to Seattle was
to offer opinion on the degree to which this science fiction had,
indeed, inspired science fact.>>

<<The answer turned out to be "not very much."  The most conspicuous
reality check came from Martin Cooper, the man credited with
inventing the cell phone.  Cooper pointed out that the development of
portable phones was underway long before Captain Kirk ever flipped
open his communicator.  Most of the other Enterprise hardware remains
either impractical or impossible.>>

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>


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