When determining which emerging technologies will persist long into the future, Geeks will argue that Star Wars invented the idea of cloud computing with the Jedi Temple Archives – a centralized network of information accessible through a particular model of Data Pad.

It’s an interesting comparison, and a surprisingly apt one. Wookiepedia, the definitive authority on all things Star Wars, describes the Data Pad as, “a small, usually low-cost, electronic device … that can store textual, graphic and holographic data.” Sound familiar? How about this? “They were commonly used as notebooks, day planners, calculators and sketchpads. Some models could interface with and download information from larger computer networks.” If that isn’t a multi-functional tablet computer with access to remote data servers, what is?!

A die-hard Trekkie of the Nerd variety most likely will cite the USS Enterprise’s seamless computing infrastructure as a more credible instance of a data center capable of supplying vast on-demand data. The system must scale to perform each of the many and variegated tasks the crew gives it — from producing holograms in an instant to performing the complex calculations necessary to navigate subspace.

Data Pads are an almost perfect analogue for the consumer cloud as we know it: The relationship between remotely accessible servers and handheld devices (cell-phones, tablets, etc.), pulling information from massive data centers into Proto-iPads. The Enterprise is an example of on-location Cloud Computing; it lacks the wireless device capability of the Data Pads and is primarily available on the starship, but processes billions of bytes of information at a moment’s notice in the same fashion as the data centers “enterprise” businesses use today.

The argument among Geeks and Nerds could go on for decades, but no matter what space drama you prefer, Cloud Computing is a technology that will exist when we are all dead and gone, or living as cyborgs in the dunes of some other planet. Also, we are the worst kinds of Geeks and Nerds, but that wasn’t news to anyone. Check out this Infographic for the other ways we don’t seem to live on the same planet.