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On September 17th, 1976,
NASA unveiled its first space shuttle, the Enterprise.
Originally dubbed the "Constitution", the name of
the space shuttle was changed in to the "Enterprise"
in commemoration of the Starship from the
immortal science Fiction Series, Star Trek.
For this, 40,000 fans around the entire nation
had to send letters to President Gerald Ford.
This campaign of sending letters was started from
a woman named Betty Jo Trimble.
Using mailing lists from conventions and advertisements in fanzines and newspapers,
Trimble pleaded with fans to send letters and petitions
asking that the name be changed to Enterprise.
Soon, the White House was flooded with thousands of letters from star trek fans.
Eventually, their wish came true.
The nation's first Space Shuttle made its maiden voyage under the name "Enterprise",
marking the start of the new era of space exploration.
STAR TREK. This is a huge Science Fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry.
This franchise is constituted of 6 TV Series, 12 Movies,
and hundreds and thousands of books, magazines, and games.
Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of Humans
and aliens who serve in Starfleet,
the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada
of the United Federation of Planets.
This franchise has hugely affected human society,
especially in the aspect of technology.
The First series of the franchise, The Original Series
covers the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk,
portrayed by William Shatner, and his ship, the "Enterprise".
Another prominent series is "Star Trek The Next Generation".
This series covers the adventures of Captain Jean Luc Picard
and his crew of the "Enterprise D", a descendent of the previously mentioned starship,
and was successful in gaining popularity among many people.
It is from these two series that most concepts of
innovative technology was first introduced.
So, let's take a look at it. Shall We?
One of the most innovative technology
inspired by Star Trek was the Cell Phone.
Now used by almost every people around the world,
the first cell phone, Motorola's StarTAC was
invented by Martin Cooper, a former Vice President of Motorola.
One day, during a break from his heavy schedule,
Martin Cooper happened to watch an episode of star trek.
There, he noticed the communicator that captain kirk was using.
This moment changed his life as well as the entire world.
And suddenly, there's Captain Kirk talking on his communicator.
Talking, with no dialing.
That was not a fantasy to us
although to the rest of the world, it was.
But to me, that was an objective.
After seeing this episode, Dr.Martin Cooper
and his team at Motorola was successful in developing
one of the first model of mobile phones, the STARTAC.
The StarTAC was a great hit.
It was the first mobile phone to gain widespread consumer adoption.
60 million StarTACs were sold.
Considering that hand-held mobile phones
were not wide-spread at that era, this is a surprising record.
it is almost twice of that of the iPhone 3GS.
Also, Star Trek inspired the development
of various functions included in the iPhone.
At the Worldwide Developer Conference,
Steve Jobs said that He grew up watching Star Trek
while introducing the iPhone 4.
He is also known for using Star Trek movies
when introducing the video features of
the products he introduce, notably the iPad.
This shows that Steve Jobs also
got his inspiration from Star Trek.
It is an undeniable fact that this product
allowed people to live in a way
never possible before, by opening up the era of mobile communication.
If it wasn't for StarTAC or the iPhone,
we would be still living in a world where
the only means of mobile communication is a beeper.
Not only did Star Trek bring innovations to
our daily gadgets, but also, helped develop
a machine that would save countless lives.
The CyberKnife, which is a robotic radiosurgery system
used for treating tumors, was created by
Dr.John Adler, a professor of Stanford University
who specializes in Brain Surgery.
In an email interview, he claimed that
Dr. "Bones" McCoy from Star Trek The Original Series
inspired him to develop a machine that would
help cure patients without a single incision.
Cyberknife, has been curing cancer for 12 years now,
and has been proven to be effective even in treating lung cancer,
the deadliest cancer which kills 160,000 people in the US every year.
Its 5 year study found that Cyberknife destroyed 95% of tumors.
The 3 year survival rate was 80 percent.
This is a big difference from traditional radiation,
which destroys 30 percent of tumors and
carries only a 30 percent survival rate.
Once again, technology inspired by Star Trek
has opened a new opportunity for many people.
Until now, we have seen technologies
inspired by Star Trek, but inspiring scientists
to develop new gadget is not the thing of the past.
It's still happening.
Selected as one of the "Best Inventions of the Year 2012",
the Google Glass suggests a new paradigm of wearable computers.
Wearing Google glass is just like having a smartphone
in front of your eyes anywhere, anytime.
It lets you use all of Google's services,
including web search, map navigation,
weather forecast and et cetera.
Its retail version is scheduled to be launched in 2014,
while the developer version is now on sale.
Amit Singhal, Google Vice president and senior search engineer
said that the company has been inspired
by Star Trek to develop the ubiquitous computing concept,
where gadgets woven into user's daily lives
seamlessly respond to questions.
In Star Trek, when the crewman of the Enterprise asks a question,
he or she is able to get an answer immeidately.
This is how it works on the Enterprise.
Computer?
Is Star Trek the best SF franchise ever made?
Affirmative.
It's just as simple as that.
Also, the design of the google glasss was
inspired by the VISOR of Geordi La Forge,
Chief Engineer on board the starship Enterprise D,
in the Star Trek series "The Next Generation".
These Visors provided him with
additional information about what he saw with his eyes.
The Google Glass is expected to open the market for wearable computers.
This will change our life as dramatically
as the development of Smartphone,
changing the way that we acquire
information and communicate with others.
Once again, Star Trek has been successful
in its role of the driving force behind these changes.
Star Trek has continued to inspire mankind in to developing
innovative technologies that have changed
many aspects of our lives.
And it will continue to do so even in the future.
The Alcubierre Theory, which is claimed to be inspired by Star Trek,
has now taken its role as one of the
most fundamental theories in warp propulsion
which is now being developed in NASA.
NASA physicist, Harold White said that the
Alcubierre Warp Drive has now become plausible,
due to continuous R&D that he and his colleagues in NASA implemented.
Many scientists agree with his viewpoint that
we will be able to see a prototype warp spacecraft in a century.
All these innovative technologies that have been introduced
in the Star Trek Franchise have changed the way people live.
Other than just inspiring scientists to develop innovative technology,
the Star Trek Franchise has affected the way
people think about Scientific Development.
By showing people the possible future with highly developed technology,
it is no exaggeration that Star Trek
sparked the world's fever toward Science.