Fiction: Star Trek. A series of television shows.

Technology Highlight: Computers driven by artificial intelligence that can recognize verbal and physical input.

Description: The computers on the various Enterprises (and Deep Space Nine) were powered by artificial intelligence. They had no personalities or names, but were vocalized by a bland, pleasing female speaker (familiar, anyone?) and could respond to simple verbal input (Earl Grey tea — hot).

Current Projects: Siri is an excellent example of the early iterations of this technology. Capable of responding to voice commands (most of the time), Siri can activate many of the commands on your phone — but for some functions, it’s easier to just do it yourself, as evidenced on Star Trek by the fact that most of the stations had human operators. In fact, Siri’s limited ability might be an excellent parallel for the technology level evidenced in Star Trek; but if you’re hoping for more, you’ll have it soon. Siri’s replacement, Viv, has been announced by Apple, with the promise of much more sophisticated vocal recognition software and integration into all the functions of your smartphone, not just search and music. No word on when Vivi will launch, though it could be as early as this winter. And Google is loathe to be left behind; their Google Assistant has a less human touch, but an equally sophisticated voice and search system.

Estimated Timeline: A year.