I'm a big fan of Star Trek. No, not the original series. I don't have anything against the original series, I just have never bothered to watch it. The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise though? Yeah, enjoy them all and love a couple of them.
In 2016, we are finding that science fiction is becoming science fact. Now, I'm not going to debate whether or not tablets were something that Star Trek or some other show or movie inspired; I'll give credit everywhere. I just happen to be a Star Trek fan so that is what I know, which is why I emphasize it in this article. If I knew about other sources, I'd give them just as much credit.
Smart homes are becoming a thing. Sensors for moisture, movement, sound as well as other things can be purchased at the local hardware stores. Those sensors can connect to your home network as thus to the Internet and can give you real-time notifications of the current health status of your home. Washers, dryers and other household appliances can be activated by apps on your smart phone and you can be notified once they have finished completing the task that you told them to do. I haven't looked at it recently, but if you can send your commands to these devices via voice then its pretty much the same thing as the Starfleet computers.
How about those tricorders? An Israel-based company called Consumer Physics launched a Kickstarter for a product called the SCiO, deemed the first pocket molecular sensor. Its basically a pocket spectrometer. I happen to be one of the backers and own one. Its truly an incredible device. I can measure the amount of fat, protein, ripeness ( or lack thereof) of all sorts of foods - no more guessing! More than that I can evaluate soil samples in my backyard, if one of my plants needs watering... the benefits are endless when you can get an accurate molecular image of the subject in question.
A few years ago, British scientists at a university converted energy into matter. It was an accident, it wasn't the intention of the experiment, but nonetheless they noticed it. The race is on to figure out how that occurred and how we can utilize that knowledge to manipulate energy to be converted into the matter we want. Replicators anyone? Imagine how much benefit that could bring to everyone, even if its just the basics.
Lastly, and I may be forgetting a few things but I'll end with this one, David Pares (an adjunct professor of physics in Nebraska) believes he has discovered how tripole fields can be used to warp space-time at a fraction of the energy cost of the Alcubierre drive. He even has a video where a washer is being moved by no known forces in a Faraday cage when he turns on the warp motor. I honestly don't know much about this area of science so I can't attest to his work and a lot of people are skeptical about his claims, but at least the guy is experimenting. Experimenting and failing is better than not experimenting at all. David Pares hopes to demonstrate his work by having their mock spacecraft (9 ft. tall) use a version of their warp motor. According to Pares, costs and refinements of the motor have pushed back that demonstration. We shall see (or not) if he indeed has found a way to enable the compression of space-time or not.
Its an exciting time to be living. While we have all these social and economic issues going on in the world, there is still hope for a brighter future. Its up to us to capitalize on that hope so that hope becomes reality.