# Futuristic technology from old TV shows **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 18, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258 "2013-03-18T14:51:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/1 "2013-03-18T14:51:29Z")
During a recent road trip, my wife and I got into a discussion about KITT from the Knight Rider show. It was posited that a number of the ridiculously advanced capabilities that KITT had at the time would now be possible in a current car (although probably not all, because my vague memory of the show tells me that some of his capabilities were absurd). I imagine that Siri-like capabilities would allow today’s cars to talk to us — at least in some limited fashion — if we wanted. And KITT had something akin to GPS that allowed him to self-navigate, which Google’s cars can also do. This got us to wondering what else from Knight Rider and other old TV shows (I suppose Star Trek is an easy candidate for this one) had “future” technology that we have available to us now, and that seemed like a good question for the Dope. So what say you all? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/2 "2013-03-18T14:55:10Z")
In the very first scene of **Get Smart** , the audience in an opera is disturbed by a phone ringing in their midst. Maybe in the future, something like that will happen, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/3 "2013-03-18T15:32:26Z")
At the little Toronto Comicon last week, Levar Burton mentioned that whenever he used his iPad, he thought about the prop PADDS that they had on Next Generation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/4 "2013-03-18T15:52:36Z")
The dog walking treadmill from the Jetsons[turned into reality](http://www.hammacher.com/Product/11374?cm_cat=ProductSEM&cm_pla=AdWordsPLA&source=PRODSEM), well sort of. A whole line of flip phones was based on Star Trek communicators. And modern makers of automatic pocket doors will have them make that whoosh sound like the doors on Star Trek. People just expect it. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/5 "2013-03-18T16:03:15Z")
Video cameras tracked the residents of The Village everywhere they went on “The Prisoner”. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/6 "2013-03-18T16:22:00Z")
“The Jetsons” postulated personal space travel, plus intelligent terminals. But robots haven’t come up to Jetsons standard, as of yet. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/7 "2013-03-18T16:24:10Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > Video cameras tracked the residents of The Village everywhere they went on “The Prisoner”. Still don’t have the giant bubble thing though. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/8 "2013-03-18T18:06:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > In the very first scene of **Get Smart** , the audience in an opera is disturbed by a phone ringing in their midst. > > Maybe in the future, something like that will happen, too. 🙂 You certainly could build a phone into a shoe these days, if you wanted. It probably wouldn’t be a rotary dial, though…😃 Not a TV show, but in Robocop, made back in the late 80’s, they have video on a CD sized disc in one scene, foretelling the eventual rise of the DVD. ---
**Author:** ![DirkGntly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d9b06d/32.png) [@DirkGntly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DirkGntly)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/9 "2013-03-18T19:26:47Z")
C’mon, folks - video phones! Everything from Dick Tracy to The Jetsons to…whatever! FaceTime, anyone?!? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/10 "2013-03-18T19:34:23Z")
Robert Heinlein was advisor and writer for a TV show that never happened in the c1950s. The episodes got re-packaged into a black and white movie called **Operation Moonbase** that has alternately wonderful and cringe-worthy things side by side. One of the wonderful things was a telephone that had a handset not connected to it – both the desk miodule and the handset had little antennas sticking out of them, but there was no coiled cord between them. What was neat was that nobody explicitly pointed this out – they just used it. If you didn’t notice it yourself, you’d never know about it. And, for a time, there were quite a few house phones just like this, with little antennas “connecting” the desk module to the handset. ---
**Author:** ![Fugazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@Fugazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fugazi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/11 "2013-03-18T20:02:13Z")
We’re not there yet, but before long 3D printing is going to give us replicators long before the folks of Star Trek had them in their timeline. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/12 "2013-03-18T20:03:28Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Still don’t have the giant bubble thing though. Rover! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/13 "2013-03-18T20:37:52Z")
The telescreens from **1984** are a reality, except IRL they don’t aren’t two way. Not that we couldn’t make bigscreen TVs with discreet cameras if we wanted. Maybe we already do. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/14 "2013-03-18T21:05:37Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Still don’t have the giant bubble thing though. I believe it was on Mitt Romney’s To Do list if he were to be elected. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/15 "2013-03-18T22:03:20Z")
I recently saw an old Jack Benny TV show where one of the jokes was about parking meters taking credit cards. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/16 "2013-03-18T22:29:37Z")
The interesting thing about the ST:TNG Pads was how a file was stuck in the pad it was originally entered into. You see all the time characters handing pads over to each other so the other character could read them. The portable data device was thought of, but not the idea that data could transfer from one device to another seamlessly. It was even more interesting when you consider that the computerized stations and desktop screens were all networked together and could call up any file, but their portable devices couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/17 "2013-03-18T22:36:17Z")
> [@Miss\_Woodhouse](#): > > The interesting thing about the ST:TNG Pads was how a file was stuck in the pad it was originally entered into. You see all the time characters handing pads over to each other so the other character could read them. The portable data device was thought of, but not the idea that data could transfer from one device to another seamlessly. It was even more interesting when you consider that the computerized stations and desktop screens were all networked together and could call up any file, but their portable devices couldn’t. There was a later season episode of ST:VOY were the crew made contact with the Alpha Quadrant, but because of bandwith limitations could only communicate via letters (essential email). So far so good, but then after they got their first batch of letters from home Neelix proceeded to distribute them to the crew by carrying a bucket full of PADDs all over the ship. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/18 "2013-03-18T23:00:37Z")
Free-standing robots, that can walk around, on legs no less, with no power cables. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2013, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/19 "2013-03-18T23:33:47Z")
We’re pretty close to the “diagnostic bed” from sickbay in Star Trek. Still not totally non-invasive, but getting there. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/20 "2013-03-19T00:01:12Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Still don’t have the giant bubble thing though. It’s a blancmange! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258.md?page=2)