Science fiction writers and inventors dream of technologies that fundamentally change the way people interact with each other and with the world around them. Sometimes their “crazy ideas” materialize into everyday products that surprise one generation and are taken for granted by another.

Take Star Trek technology, for example.

When Star Trek first aired in 1966, automatic doors were anything but pervasive. After all, the first automatic door had been installed just six years before. At the time, most other Star Trek tech appeared to be fantasy or at least impossible to achieve based on the technological capabilities of the time. Yet, many of the concepts exist in some form today, some of which may surprise the average person.. and even a random tech geek.