Product Description

"BEAM ME UP, SCOTTY."™

During the 1960s, in an age when the height of technology was a crackly AM transistor radio, Star Trek® envisioned a time when communication devices worked without wires.

"WORKING"

Computers of the decade took up entire climate-controlled rooms and belonged only to the government and a few very large corporations. Yet Captain Kirk had one small enough to sit on the top of his desk -- and it talked back to him.

"AHEAD, WARP FACTOR 2"

While man still hadn't walked on the moon, the crew of the Starship Enterprise™ traveled between star systems faster than the speed of light. Its crew was able to walk on other worlds.

Over the past three decades, Star Trek has become a global phenomenon. Its celebration of mankind's technical achievements and positive view of the future have earned it an enduring place in the world's psyche. It has inspired countless viewers to become scientists, inventors, and astronauts. And they, in turn, have wondered if they could make even a little piece of Star Trek real in their own lifetime. As one noted scientist said when he saw a plywood, plaster and plastic set that represented the ship's warp engines, "I'm working on that."

As in his missions aboard the fictional Starship Enterprise, William Shatner, the actor who is Captain James T. Kirk, and his co-author, Chip Walter, take us on an adventure to discover the people who are working on the future we will all share. From traveling through space at warp speeds to beaming across the continent, noted scientists from Caltech to MIT explore the realms of what was once considered improbable and show how it just might be possible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #190164 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Shatner bares his deep-seated trepidation vis-a-vis all things digital in this breezy peek at the reciprocal effects that Star Trek (and its offspring) and serious scientific research have exerted on one another over the past 35 years. While contemplating the Enterprise's fictional warp drive, Nobel Laureate and Trekkie Stephen Hawking provided the book's title; today's scientists and inventors are now boldly developing many far-out concepts that Trekkies earth-wide cherish: transporters, time travel, wearable interfaceless computers, artificial intelligence, androids, enhanced life spans and holodeck virtual reality. Shatner and Walter crisscrossed the U.S., visiting cutting-edge laboratories and noshing with scientists and inventors on the cusp of discoveries that promise to change life on earth. Despite his own humbling battles with his recalcitrant computerized home lighting system and GPS-equipped rental cars, Shatner valiantly faces the challenge of demystifying quantum mechanics and black holes, nanotechnology and the human genome. Peppered with "Did any of this make sense?" and even the occasional "Huh?," Shatner's early chapters tend to leave the uninitiated feeling buffeted by the bitstorm. By connecting other abstract concepts such as the exponential burgeoning of scientific breakthroughs to such archetypal Star Trek episodes as "The Trouble with Tribbles," though, Shatner humanizes his complex topics and even has some tongue-in-cheek fun with them. His summary, on the other hand, seriously warns about letting technological genies out of bottles without due consideration for consequences and, even more sobering, for the results of humanity's ultimate hubris, trying to play God.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
"Captain Kirk" and a veteran science writer effectively team to provide an overview of the last third-of-a-century's progress toward making Star Trek technology real. And progress has been considerable, as anyone who remembers the ST "tricorder" and now owns a cell phone with Internet capability can attest. Virtual reality, advanced computers great and small, A(rtificial)I(ntelligence), the Web, and computerized implants (a la the Borg of Star Trek: The Next Generation) are all closer to sprouting in the average office or backyard. Faster-than-light travel, the transporter, close-up study of black holes (let alone traversing them), and some of Dr. McCoy's med tech are still at or beyond the fringe, but aren't guaranteed to stay there forever. And Shatner expresses the perspective of somebody with a layman's problems in coping with existing "Star Tech" well, and even wittily. A perfect world might not need a celebrity author to sell such a book; in our world we at least get an author who knows what he is talking about and meshes gracefully with his collaborator. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
William Shatner is the author of several Star Trek novels: The Ashes of Eden, The Return, Avenger, Spectre, and Dark Victory. In addition to his ongoing role as Captain James T. Kirk, he has appeared in such plays as The World of Suzie Wong and A Shot in the Dark, such notable films as The Brothers Karamazov and Judgment at Nuremberg, and on television in T.J. Hooker and Rescue 911. He is also the author of several other nonfiction books, including Get a Life!

Customer Reviews

Fascination with the Future
For this neo-Trekkie with a fascination for the future, "I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact", is an entertaining look at how our imaginations have converged with reality and how technology is impacting our lives now and will, exponentially, change the way we live tomorrow. The book should resonate even more with those well versed in the toys and voyages of the Enterprise. Chip Walter and William Shatner explore where fiction meets reality in a smart style that is absorbing, tangible, and fun, and will engage the novice futurist as well as those conversant in the theories and foresights of Kurzweil, Moravec, Teller, von Neumann, and their contemporaries.

Great Book for even those who are not into Star Trek
I have to admit, I wasn't sure about this book at first. It seemed kind of like a silly notion, however, I stopped by my local bookshop and after taking a quick gander at the first few pages and decided to pick it up.

Well, I wasn't able to put it down. Some of what is in there has been discussed elsewhere, so it's not like it's showcasing future technologies for the first time. Though there was plenty that I had never heard of before.

All kinds of things that may be coming down the road are shown here. A lot of them bear resemblances to technologies from Star Trek, however, you do not need to be a fan of Star Trek to get enjoyment out of this book.

Shatner's writing style is easy to read, and he does not overburden you with techno mumbo jumbo.

Buy this book!

Science fiction or science fact?
This is a unique book that examines the connection between the science fiction universe of Star Trek and our current understanding of science fact. Inspired by Shatner's curiosity about how things work and the uncanny embodiment of 1960's Star Trek gadgetry, such as the flip-open communicator, in what are now common consumer products - Bill and Chip toured the country, with many fun adventures along the way, to find out what other Star Trek inventions are likely to pop into reality in the near future. To look for answers, they visited some of the premier think-tanks and universities in the US, posing the question to a host of leading researchers, including luminaries such as Edward Tellar (father of the hydrogen bomb - Los Alamos Labs), Eric Drexler (leading nanotechnologist - Foresight Institute) and Marc Millis (propulsion visionary - NASA). Using Star Trek episodes as a light-hearted guide, particularly reminiscent for the real fans that can recognize an episode in a few sound bites, all areas of Star Trek science and technology are examined. Teleportation, warp drive, time travel, computer science, robotics, genetics and nanotechnology are some of the hottest topics on the agenda.

The book raises the question, does science fiction help us invent technology and explore science by providing compelling visions of what might be possible? What comes first, the invention, or the fantasy about the invention? These are questions I also find myself asking as a researcher, one who had the good fortune to meet the authors during their visit to Xerox PARC, described in Chapter 8, Get Smart. Star Trek certainly inspired me in my career and influenced many of my colleagues who are also Star Trek enthusiasts. Reading this book you will discover that even the great physicist Stephen Hawkins is a fan, who's passing comments led to the title of this book. There is no doubt in my mind that a strong connection exists between science fantasy and science endeavor, and drives many of us to push the limits of what is possible.

The book does an excellent job of bringing these issues to the fore, and I can recommend the result as a good read. You'll have flash backs to all the best Star Trek episodes and find the commentary and technology discussions enjoyable, sometimes humorous, but always well informed.