[IP] more on The Legacy of Star Trek

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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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