# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/81 "2013-03-22T23:10:01Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > I don’t think they were literally tapes; it was more that that the language had changed so that “tape” meant “recording medium.” Very plausible - especially since in my neck of the woods people universally called Atari 2600 cartridges, which were ROMs, tapes. Drove me crazy. However if I don’t catch myself I’ll talking about taping something on my DVR. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/82 "2013-03-22T23:32:50Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > See, my conceit when watching Star Trek is that everything we see is being fed through the universal translator into a more modern-sounding idiom. It’s a variation of the [literary agent hypothesis](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LiteraryAgentHypothesis). That was actually part of Harlan Ellison’s [original script treatment for “City on the Edge of Forever”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever#Treatment_of_March_21.2C_1966)—Kirk has to adjust his translator for 1930s english, as it was as hard for him to understand as Elizabethan english would be for the locals. This doesn’t seem to have carried over into Star Trek canon, however; in a Voyager episode, for example, a castaway from a 2_9th_ century vessel on 20th century Earth seems to get along without a translator well enough. Although he might have simply learned the local language after being stranded for so long—but this assumes that the Trek producers actually thought that far through. Or gave a damn. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/83 "2013-03-22T23:36:55Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Very plausible - especially since in my neck of the woods people universally called Atari 2600 cartridges, which were ROMs, tapes. Drove me crazy. > However if I don’t catch myself I’ll talking about taping something on my DVR. That usage is too common to bother me. My 14-year-old nephew, whom I’m pretty sure has never used a rotary phone, still refers to dialing the phone. One meaning of “tape” is “to record” at this point. The above does not excuse moviemakers presenting pseudo-medieval battles in which characters speak of firing arrows. That’s just stupid. > [@Ranchoth](#): > > That was actually part of Harlan Ellison’s [original script treatment for “City on the Edge of Forever”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever#Treatment_of_March_21.2C_1966)—Kirk has to adjust his translator for 1930s english, as it was as hard for him to understand as Elizabethan english would be for the locals. > > This doesn’t seem to have carried over into Star Trek canon, however; in a Voyager episode, for example, a castaway from a 2_9th_ century vessel on 20th century Earth seems to get along without a translator well enough. Although he might have simply learned the local language after being stranded for so long—but this assumes that the Trek producers actually thought that far through. Or gave a damn. 😃 Fool of a Deltan! Nothing in Voyager ever happened! It’s all part of a holodeck fantasy written by that guy who nearly got Wesley Crusher tossed out of Starfleet Academy. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/84 "2013-03-23T00:03:45Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > That usage is too common to bother me. My 14-year-old nephew, whom I’m pretty sure has never used a rotary phone, still refers to dialing the phone. One meaning of “tape” is “to record” at this point. But you aren’t a microprogrammer who worked a lot with ROMs. > [@](#): > > Fool of a Deltan! Nothing in Voyager ever happened! It’s all part of a holodeck fantasy written by that guy who nearly got Wesley Crusher tossed out of Starfleet Academy. Bad holodeck fantasy, you mean. But TNG did the same thing - they went back to San Francisco in the 19th century, and if I recall met Mark Twain who looked just like he did when he lived in Connecticut many years later. Of course this show was done after the morons took over. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/85 "2013-03-23T00:07:55Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > That was actually part of Harlan Ellison’s [original script treatment for “City on the Edge of Forever”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever#Treatment_of_March_21.2C_1966)—Kirk has to adjust his translator for 1930s english, as it was as hard for him to understand as Elizabethan english would be for the locals. Don’t remember that - need to look it up in my copy. But it is dumb - why would they bring universal translators down to a barren planet? To translate McCoy’s rantings - oh he wasn’t even ranting in the Ellison version. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/86 "2013-03-23T00:16:47Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > One meaning of “tape” is “to record” at this point. > > The above does not excuse moviemakers presenting pseudo-medieval battles in which characters speak of firing arrows. I told an employer at the Library in the 1980’s that using the term “video” for a tape was like calling a cassette an “audio”. She promptly began referring to cassette tapes as “audios”. I say “tape” for “record” sometimes. Was the command at Agincourt “Loose!” ? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/87 "2013-03-23T00:28:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I told an employer at the Library in the 1980’s that using the term “video” for a tape was like calling a cassette an “audio”. > She promptly began referring to cassette tapes as “audios”. > > I say “tape” for “record” sometimes. > > Was the command at Agincourt “Loose!” ? Or perhaps “release.” Maybe “shoot.” Possibly “Blot out the sun & make 'em fight in the shade” or “Plant an arrow into each one of those motherfuckers!” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/88 "2013-03-23T01:24:03Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Possibly “Blot out the sun & make 'em fight in the shade” I believe that was the Spartans fighting the Persians at [Thermopylae.](http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/weaponswar/p/blpwtherm.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/89 "2013-03-23T02:28:36Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Or perhaps “release.” Maybe “shoot.” Possibly “Blot out the sun & make 'em fight in the shade” or “Plant an arrow into each one of those motherfuckers!” [We kinda do the same thing today.](http://www.demotivationalposters.net/-demotivational-posters-136488.html) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/90 "2013-03-23T02:35:20Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > [We kinda do the same thing today.](http://www.demotivationalposters.net/-demotivational-posters-136488.html) Somehow, they were more classy in antiquity. Persians: “Our arrows will blot out the sun!” Spartans: “Fine. We will fight in the shade.” Actually, that probably degenerated to: Persians: “Don’t you see this G-ddamn scary armor we’re wearing?” Spartans: “Fuck you!” It is rumored that John Paul Jones did not say, “I have not yet begun to fight!”, but, “Now I’ve got the son of a bitch!” ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/91 "2013-03-23T08:56:29Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Fool of a Deltan! Nothing in Voyager ever happened! It’s all part of a holodeck fantasy written by that guy who nearly got Wesley Crusher tossed out of Starfleet Academy. This would imply that Seven of Nine also never happened. Blasphemy. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/92 "2013-03-23T15:38:01Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > It is rumored that John Paul Jones did not say, “I have not yet begun to fight!”, but, “Now I’ve got the son of a bitch!” Nope. It was, “We need a bigger boat.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/93 "2013-03-23T22:15:52Z")
> [@ExTank](#): > > Nope. It was, “We need a bigger boat.” Catherine the Great said something like that when he was ambassador to Russia… ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/94 "2013-03-24T21:04:45Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > This would imply that Seven of Nine also never happened. > > Blasphemy. Worst character on the show. But she did predict that all future Trek would have a fanservice chick. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/95 "2013-03-24T23:39:52Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Was the command at Agincourt “Loose!” ? Could have been. It’s cognate with German _los_, as in _“Torpedo, los!”_ I would speculate, however, that it was “Shoot!” (which, if _Sink the Bismark!_ was accurate, was the command given in the Royal Navy at least until the 1940s; don’t know about today): > **[Etymology of "shot" by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/shot)** > > "a missile, arrow, dart" (senses now archaic or obsolete); "a swift movement, a gushing… See origin and meaning of shot. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/96 "2013-03-24T23:52:02Z")
Another page: > **[shoot | Search Online Etymology Dictionary](https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=shoot&page=0)** > > The online etymology dictionary (etymonline) is the internet's go-to source for quick and reliable accounts of the origin and history of English words, phrases, and idioms. It is professional enough to satisfy academic standards, but accessible... ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/97 "2013-03-25T01:46:15Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Worst character on the show. But she did predict that all future Trek would have a fanservice chick. Worse than Neelix? Chakotay? _The Rock?_ ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258/98 "2013-03-25T02:18:59Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > You’re missing the point a bit. We’ve established fictional cordless phones back to 1939, in works N+P should have been familiar with… but when it came to their own slightly futuristic world, with things like mega-arcologies and implanted communication units, they overlooked a technology _that already existed in reality_. If he was actually connected all the time (or a lot of the time), then a cord is a good idea. My cordless phone has about an hour of talk time (at least on speaker). Fortunately I’ve got a three unit set, so for long calls I can swap them out. Not that they couldn’t have posited improved battery technology. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/futuristic-technology-from-old-tv-shows/653258.md?page=4)