Science fiction also benefits society by providing a way to awaken the imagination of its readers. One might look at Star Trek as an example case. Conceived in 1960, Star trek immersed viewers in a world a teleportation, communicators, and phasers. Star Trek crew members set out to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” Officially, their mission was to go out and chart the universe, looking for other forms of life, while have entertaining missions once a week. Some of the more unusual pieces of technology were the computer cores, consisting of hundreds of nano-computers working simultaneously to control the starship, energy shields, phasers (energized lasers), tractor beams, and both impulse and warp engines. An interesting fact is that, with the exception of energy shields, all of the other technology has either been invented or proven physically possible. In fact, teleportation has become such a reality that the United States Air Force released a “Teleportation Physics Study” by Eric Davis of Warp Drive Metrics. It was the result of the Air Force’s interest in the possible military ramifications of teleportation. In the study, Davis analyzes different possible ways of teleportation, concluding that psychic teleportation is most plausible and that “this phenomenon could generate a dramatic revolution in technology, which would result from a dramatic paradigm shift in science.” (4, pg. 61) Other laboratories have also claim to have transported matter by instantly teleporting one atom quantum state to another atom, using the theory of particle entanglement and squeezed light (5). The study also shows that theoretically, man could make rips in space-time and send objects (such as starships) through it. (4, pg. 26) And while we may not have phasers in the same form as Captain Kirk, we do possess the technology to create lasers with sufficient energy to cut through the metal of, say, a space ship. (6) While it may be hard to imagine, one must find it entirely unlikely that research and innovation would be applied to create such inventions would have occurred, if it was not for science fiction. For example, what person would desire to know if a person could create a hole in space time (or even to know about space-time) in order to travel through it? When one considers many of the other modern inventions and innovations (Segway transporters, quantum computers, nanotechnology, S.E.T.I,) it becomes clearer and clearer that without the creativity born from science fiction, most of them would not exist, or at least not in this time period (as opposed to further in the future).

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