"Beam me up, Scotty."
Those words have certainly become iconic, but even more iconic than the words being said is what they were spoken into - Captain Kirk's communicator.
This may come as a surprise to you, but I have one of those things Kirk had. You probably have one, too. So do millions of others. It's called a cell phone.
Sure, Kirk didn't call it a cell phone, but Martin Cooper did. He invented the first cell phone, and cited Captain Kirk as his direct inspiration for the handheld wireless communicator.
You can see a bunch of other inventions inspired by Star Trek at
http://www.filmjunk.com/2009/01/21/treknobabble-50-top-10-star-trek-inventions-in-use-today/
Star Trek wasn't the only Sci Fi in the 20th century to later inspire inventions. In the early Tom Swift Sci Fi series (which I have never seen, but which my sister is crazy about), Tom had an electric rifle, which inspired a later invention called Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle, affectionately known as the TASER.
The 20th century was a time of innovation and inspiration, and back when Sci Fi shows were huge - before vampires and werewolves took over - those shows were used as an outlet for creative ideas that were often quite sound. Perhaps this was a way for filmmakers to share good ideas that they did not have the skills to bring to life so that those who had the know-how could take the ideas and run with them. Ideas shared on television were certainly subject to some government control, but who would kick at a few futuristic technological ideas? In a way, this was a very open way of sharing ideas and collaborating between very different types of people - the artsy visionaries who could come up with good ideas and the down-to-earth inventors who could make things happen. As they saw this sort of collaboration bear fruit, people came to expect the sort of future that was reflected in the Sci Fi shows they saw on television. And, in many ways, that vision has come true.
Yet people still complain that we aren't completely in the future that 20th century Sci Fi led them to expect. For instance, we don't have HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey." Yet after watching that chilling movie, I think most people can say HAL is an invention they wouldn't mind having indefinitely postponed. We have a multitude of other great inventions that must have seemed far-fetched and futuristic to people less than a century ago who watched those ideas be born on the silver screen, so who cares that we don't have flying cars?
...Or do we?
http://www.theweeklydriver.com/flying-car-makes-roof-landing-fresno-felon-driver-called-santa/
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