2nd April 2010, 12:08 PM
In the sense that we'd have established permanent colonies outside of Earth by now, yeah, way off. However, keep in mind that those pads and communicators did accurately predict current tech. It really demonstrates more that they just weren't forward thinking ENOUGH. They never expected awesome 3D graphics would be so commonplace you could stick it in your pocket, for example, hence all those laughably outdated graphical "models" they point to all the time.
Also, instead of the physical hardware, that is robots, we've put far more development into raw software capability. That's part of the reason why modern Megaman is the "Battle Network" series with programs on the internet.
Heck, come to think of it, notice that all those Starships seem almost completely cut off from any sort of galactic sized network? At best they have a sort of rudimentary phone system set up, but no real internet to speak of. Too many episodes have someone complaining about how "our ship's database doesn't have any information on that", the sort of problem a Federation Internet could solve instantly. Heck, how many episodes could be solved if all the Federation engineers on all Starships could just instantly communicate and work with each other? Come across an ancient alien asteroid defense system that's mysteriously modified the phase variance of your warp drive so you can't escape? Call up all the star ships that AREN'T currently going through this surprisingly regular bulltonk and have a roundtable discussion!
Also, instead of the physical hardware, that is robots, we've put far more development into raw software capability. That's part of the reason why modern Megaman is the "Battle Network" series with programs on the internet.
Heck, come to think of it, notice that all those Starships seem almost completely cut off from any sort of galactic sized network? At best they have a sort of rudimentary phone system set up, but no real internet to speak of. Too many episodes have someone complaining about how "our ship's database doesn't have any information on that", the sort of problem a Federation Internet could solve instantly. Heck, how many episodes could be solved if all the Federation engineers on all Starships could just instantly communicate and work with each other? Come across an ancient alien asteroid defense system that's mysteriously modified the phase variance of your warp drive so you can't escape? Call up all the star ships that AREN'T currently going through this surprisingly regular bulltonk and have a roundtable discussion!
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)