Amazon's voice-activated personal assistant Alexa has just upped her appeal to Star Trek fans with the addition of a simple new "wake-up word." Now Trekkies can get Alexa's attention and play out fantasies of being aboard the Enterprise at the same time by uttering "Computer."
Characters in various iterations of the series used the word to activate the voice commands of the ship's computer. To access this capability users just have to change their wake up phrase choice from the Alexa app. No word on the inclusion of a self-destruct command.
A note of caution: given how often a tech-savvy household might say the word "computer," and Alexa's notorious tendency of activating itself, this could turn novelty into annoyance. You wouldn't want to have every season of every Star Trek series to show up at your door without knowing about it first.
Despite this possible annoyance, we are continually blurring the lines between science-fiction and what is possible to accomplish in real life. From actual tricorders to personal holodecks, our lives are continually looking more like Star Trek's vision of the future.
Let's keep our fingers crossed for the development of a real Replicator and a lifetime supply of "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."
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