- Title:
- The Computers of Star Trek
- By:
- Lois H. Gresh
- Pages:
- 192
- Rating:
- 2
The depiction of computers on the various Star Trek series has ranged from lame to breathtakingly imaginative. This book covers the gamut, and makes lucid and entertaining comparison of these fictional computers with those that now exist or are likely to inhabit our future. Throughout its history, Star Trek has been an accurate reflection of contemporary ideas about computers and their role in our lives. Affectionately but without illusions, The Computers of Star Trek shows how those ideas compare with what we now know we can and will do with computers.
Though promising in title, this book suffered from a lack of source material. This meant that the authors resorted to repeating themselves fairly often and were almost gleeful in their pointing out where Star Trek “got it wrong”, superbly ironic with the book’s touting of ZIP disks, floppies, and other now arcane storage media. The thing that put me off more than anything, though, is the acknowledgments sectionwherein the authors have to thank an individual who “made available to us” his Star Trek video collection. What sort of a trek fan doesn’t have that to hand? Shame on them.