How long before ST fanboys start wanking over this?

[Solauren]

Now now Robert..... Don't make me bring you down a peg

*compares stars, posts and custom titles* What was that, young one?

Peg taking down time:

Nah, this just means Star Trek technology is so crude and simple, modern humans can make it.

[Kamakazie Sith]

Trekkie communicator ready to go

We all know how they like to claim that Start Trek is so scientifically accurate that it foretold cellphones, medical life function monitors, transporters (even though all we can transport is a tiny particle), etc. Now this.

I grant you, this is a neat little gizmo, and this one is pretty similar to the way the comm badges worked in TNG, but lots of sci fi shows and stories feature futuristic gadgets that anticipate things that later really get invented. For example, not many people today know it, but the first Buck rogers stories to appear in the magazine "Amazing Stories" were in no way the juvenile stories later written about the same character for comic strips and movie serials. The story "Armageddon-2419", which appeared in the magazine in 1928, was based on the best science of the day, and precisely described the bazooka, the jet plane, walkie-talkie for military use, as well as dozens of other advances that are not here yet but are on their way.

What is it about Star Trek that makes it the only show whose fans start wanking over its supposed predictive abilities, when someone later invents something like one of the gadgets seen in the show?

Probably because Star Trek has a much larger fan base than the aboved mentioned. Why do you get so offended over something so trival and pathetic?

If this seems like me being really offended to you, that's only proof that you haven't seen me really offended. I find it it somewhat irritating, but no more than that. Visualizing obviously useful gadgets that future technology may make possible is a parlor trick that has been succesfully done by science fiction writers too numerous to mention, and it bugs me a little bit when Star Trek's few somewhat successful predictions are taken by rabid fanboys as proof somehow that Star Trek is solidly based in real science - which it isn't.

I owe you an apology then. However, I sometimes feel as though Trekkies are treated unfairly due the actions of fanatics. To me there is a difference between fanboys and trekkies.

[Metrion Cascade]

Now now Robert..... Don't make me bring you down a peg

*compares stars, posts and custom titles* What was that, young one?

Peg taking down time:

Nah, this just means Star Trek technology is so crude and simple, modern humans can make it.

That's not saying shit. Technically a corkscrew is Star Trek technology too.

[Metrion Cascade]

My Bluetooth headset lets me do the same with anyone on Earth. And it looks cooler. Granted, it needs a phone, but there's a limit to how small such devices should get. At the very least you should have a sizeable screen and I/O setup for changing settings and such. My ideal electronics suite on the go would be a big-screened videophone/PDA hybrid with always-on broadband (give the industry two to five years and better batteries) and a Bluetooth headset.