7 Pieces of ‘Star Trek’ Tech That Became Real

Sixty years ago, Gene Roddenberry imagined a future in which technological innovation had broken down the barriers between humanity, bringing us closer to one another and then to the stars. “It isn’t all over,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1973. “Everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.”

Though we have plenty of inventions ahead of us, it’s uncanny how much technology that appeared in Star Trek has already become a reality. How is it that so many modern inventions seem to have sprung right from the Enterprise‘s bridge? The answer is twofold.

First, Roddenberry and his successors grounded Star Trek in real science, working with experts in cutting-edge fields to present a plausible vision of the future. And second, their crystal-clear, hopeful vision has inspired generations of young scientists and engineers to bring the technology they saw onscreen to life.