On November 3, 2011, Alan N. Shapiro was interviewed by the Italian journalist Mattia Nicoletti for the Milanese daily newspaper Il Metro Quotidiano.
This is the English version of the interview that appeared in Italian.
Mattia Nicoletti: Can technology be predicted? How can Star Trek have a vision about future technologies?
Alan N. Shapiro: Technologies of today were inspired by Star Trek. Cell phones derive from the hand-held communicators of The Original Series of the 1960s. Virtual worlds like Second Life, and more advanced VR environments, take their inspiration from the Holodeck virtual reality system of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Face-to-face video teleconferencing, like we are doing now on skype, was originated by Star Trek in the 1960s…