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Nice. The "universal translator" is the 'Trek thing' I'm looking forward to getting next. Seems like the race is on between the replicator and the translator.

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I'm not super optimistic about either, but 3d printing is nothing even remotely like replicating. We haven't even started on that problem.

Radio telephones were invented in the 40's. Even in the late 80's cell phones were nothing like communicators.

Now, in most places on earth, I can tap my phone and say a name and get the person on the line.

I am very optimistic. I'm tired of the dystopian naysaying that seems to be so popular these days. The future is full of win.

I think he means that they are two fundamentally different devices. 1980s cell phones still do voice communication. A replicator, unlike a 3-D printer does not simply reproduce a shape. It also reproduces the constituent matter.

My cell phone doesn't call starships in orbit via 'subspace' radio either. With the hairs and the splitting.

Check out iTranslate on iOS if you haven't seen it. Voice-to-voice translation between dozens of languages.

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