Space, the final frontier. Star Trek portrayed a future where Earth had become a utopia, where the human race had united as one and traversed the cosmos. It also had incredible technology from the 23rd century. Some of that tech is quickly becoming reality.
The Techie Trekkies: Bringing Star Trek to Life panel was about one of those amazing scientific devices of the Star Trek universe: the medical tricorder. Sam De Brouwer is a cofounder of Scanadu, a company that is developing a handheld medical scanner that would easily check a patient’s vitals in less than a minute. Ideally, the technology would even be so practical that these devices would be available in the home, giving individuals the tools of the Emergency Room in their living room.
The difference between this and a normal tech panel was the other member they had. Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, was also there. Roddenberry told stories about how influential Star Trek was, not just to him, but to the world. He talked about how they would smuggle tapes of Star Trek over the Berlin Wall. De Brouwer talked about how, as a woman in tech, Star Trek was incredibly important in her youth because it featured women in powerful roles.
Roddenberry talked about how things like Uber, the 3D printer, and the Tesla car were all seemingly impossible, but were being done. “People are taking things that said couldn’t be done and are doing it,” Roddenberry said. He also talked about how his father didn’t believe in impossible ideas and responded to those who did with very strong language.
Roddenberry was an advocate for disruptive innovation, as he was bored with incremental change. He was optimistic for the technological future, hoping only that humanity could keep up.
“The question isn’t will we get there technologically, but will we get there ethically, intellectually,” Roddenberry said.
His view for the future seemed bright and grandiose, but it makes sense in the context he grew up in. The Star Trek universe was a bright, shining beacon of aspiration for humanity. Roddenberry just wants to see us reach his father’s vision.
Roddenberry didn’t just talk about the tricorder, but talked about other Star Trek technology that is coming seemingly much sooner than the 23rd century.
After the interview, Roddenberry told me that he didn’t really have anything else planned for the conference, so with a little help from SXSW, I sent him a list of other Star Trek panels that he could go sit in on.
Now I have something to do here! “@THEJordonBrown: Star Trek panels. About 3/4 of the way down the page. http://t.co/aisSmtc0I3”
— Rod Roddenberry (@RodRoddenberry) March 9, 2014