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Technology Spotlights

Category Technology and Science
Published 1
Series Ongoing
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About This Series

The technology in Star Trek was never really about the technology. Transporters raise questions about identity. The holodeck raises questions about reality. Cloaking devices raise questions about trust between nations. This series looks at the gadgets and systems that define Starfleet and asks what the franchise was actually saying when it invented them, because the answer is rarely just “wouldn’t this be useful.”

Every piece of tech is an argument. These are the arguments worth having.

Published Spotlights
The Tricorder: Star Trek’s Faith in Evidence Made Physical
Technology Spotlight

The Tricorder: Star Trek’s Faith in Evidence Made Physical

The tricorder is easy to dismiss as a convenient plot device. One scan, one electronic chirp, and suddenly the crew knows the atmosphere is toxic, the ruins are ancient, or something unpleasant is moving just beyond the rocks. But it represents something more important. The tricorder is Star Trek’s faith in evidence made physical: a tool designed not to overpower the unknown, but to examine it. From Wah Chang’s wonderfully tactile original to the cleaner interface of the TNG era, it also tells a story about how our own idea of the future changed.

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