Top 10 Star Trek Predictions That Turned Out to Be TRUE

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today were counting down our picks for the top 10 Star Trek predictions that turned out to be true. For this list, were looking at technological and other concepts that appeared in the franchise before appearing in the real world, not specific events or out-of-universe moments.

#10: Google Glass

Google released its Glass line of smart eyewear in 2013. These offered voice command of the display and featured a built-in camera. While there are other smart glasses still in production, Google discontinued its line in 2023. Maybe if Google Glass could also pilot a starship, things would have been different. In Star Trek: Deep Space Nines sixth season, we see Captain Benjamin Sisko wearing a similar looking eyepiece to pilot a stolen JemHadar warship. While he certainly looked badass wearing the device, it gave him headaches. It was designed for the Vorta, but Cardassians could also wear it, which is why Garak put it on for the mission. Google Glass, apparently, also wasnt for everyone.

#9: Medical Scanners

The tricorder has been part of Star Trek since the original series. Its look has changed throughout different eras, but its functions have remained constant: scans, data recording, and data analysis. While devices that scan the atmosphere have been around for a while, a real-world device like the medical tricorder had eluded us. In the 2010s and 2020s, though, researchers and scientists created hand-held medical scanners like the Scanadu, which detects vital signs and heart signals, and the Portable DNA Lab. While these advances do not have the all-in-one efficiency of their Trek equivalents, they are bringing us one step closer to a real medical tricorder.

#8: Video Conferencing

While the technology has been around for decades, video calls and conferencing were only used on a semi-regular or regular basis by larger companies and governments, and for special events by well-off individuals Wed have to wait until the 2010s for the communication methods widespread use to start. Of course, you wouldnt know it watching old Star Trek. Since the original series, two-way video communication has been the norm. Whether talking to a friendly alien or potential foe on the main viewscreen, or Starfleet on a private viewer, its all video conferencing. It isnt flawless, either. There are interruptions and communication delays based on distance or equipment malfunctions, just like there are in real video calls.

#7: Voice Communication With Devices

The concept of interacting verbally with the ships computer and other devices is inseparable from Star Trek. Its baked into the franchises DNA. Its no surprise, then, that Apple and Google had approached the late actress Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the voice of the Enterprise Ds computer, about potentially voicing the digital assistants they were developing, prior to her passing in 2008. While simply talking to assistants like Alexa and Siri is now commonplace, it wasnt for the first four decades Trek was on the air or in cinemas. Scotty found this out the hard way, and the hilarious way, when he travelled back to 1986.

#6: Universal Translators

Ever wonder why most characters in Star Trek seem to be speaking the same language, even aliens? Simply put, theyre not. Instead a device called the Universal Translator lets everyone hear their own language, provided it is one of the known languages programmed into the translation matrix. These have been part of Trek since the original series. Sometimes theyre depicted as attached to equipment on the ship, or comm badges, and once we learned that the Ferengi have them embedded in their heads. Real world technology is not this advanced yet, but with programs like Google Translate, and YouTubes Auto Dubbing feature, were clearly headed in that direction.

#5: Tablets

Star Trek: The Next Generation introduced us to the Personal Access Display Device, or PADD. These stored and displayed written, photographic, and other information. They were the standard way starfleet officers handed in reports throughout the franchise entries set in the 24th Century, and released in the late 1980s and 1990s. Their look and functionality bear a striking resemblance to modern tablet computers, which gained prominence in the 2000s and 2010s. The real world version does have one advantage: efficiency. It seems like Starfleet engineers never figured out how to use the same device to store more than one thing. Instead, characters have a separate PADD for each report, story or file.

#4: Virtual Reality

Gene Roddenberry conceived of the holodeck for the original series third season, but couldnt make it a live-action reality until the premier episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. Since then, holodecks have served as fully immersive replacement realities for crew members recreation, investigations, and, when it comes to Deep Space Nines holosuites, more adult entertainment. Holograms do exist, but the closest real-world tech to the holodeck experience has to be Virtual Reality headsets. They grew in commercial availability in the 1990s and 2000s, and improved in quality in the 2010s. Meanwhile, haptic technology simulates touching virtual objects. If researchers are able to combine these two techs and use holograms instead of a headset, Rodenberrys vision may be fully realized.

#3: Artificial Intelligence

Lieutenant Commander Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation is a representation of where artificial intelligence and robotics could head in an ideal future. He is an android that can learn, problem-solve, and carry on a conversation like a human. He has a personality, can make friends, have intimate encounters, and even fought for his right to personhood in court. That future may be way closer than the 24th Century, though. Advancements in the late 2010s and early 2020s have led to AI that can problem-solve, rationalize, and converse like a human with a personality. Its not completely autonomous yet. Maybe for the better. Once, Data essentially got hacked, he used his abilities to take control of the Enterprise D in a matter of minutes.

#2: 3D Printing

Of all the technology in Star Trek, beaming seemed the least likely for us to have this century, with the replicator a close second, in particular the food replicator. However, developments in 3D Printing technology in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s have gone beyond printing somewhat complex objects. Its now possible to 3D print food. People can enter their menu choices, and the device constructs the hamburger or piece of cake in minutes. Its not instantaneous and seemingly out of thin air, as it is on Trek. Those fictional replicators reconstruct matter into food and other objects. Real 3D food printers need to be loaded up with food elements that they pour into shape. But the time saved and concept is essentially the same.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Space Tourism

Were Not Vacationing on a Pleasure Planet Yet, But Not All Space Travel is For Science

Touch-Screen Monitors

They Look So Futuristic, But Have Existed Since the 60s & Became Widespread in 2007

#1: Smartphones and Flip Phones

The original Star Trek series didnt just predict personal communication devices that operated over long distances. It also predicted, or possibly inspired, how they would initially look. TOS communicators are almost identical to the flip phones that were popular in the late 1990s. When we got to the 24th Century, the communicator look changed, just as the most common type of cell phone became the smartphone in the late 2000s. The communicator became the comm badge, a wearable piece of tech. This is conceptually similar to talking through a Bluetooth device connected to a smartphone. So you could argue that Star Trek predicted that one, too.

Do you agree with our list? What element of the Star Trek Franchise do you think will come true next?