Didn't exactly realize it til today, on the 29th birthday of the copyright of the term "email"—another brand lost to generic language use!—but the guy behind the name and early system credits Star Trek for that, too.
Says developer V.A. Shiva on his website, getting attention
today in news stories for the anniversary of his Aug. 30, 1982 copyright filing—first developed at age 14!—for his EMAIL messaging system.
"The two words, 'Electronic' and 'EMAIL' juxtaposed together for me originally brought images of vaporizing paper and somehow transporting it across electrical wires, like the transporter in Star Trek," says Shiva. "That is how NEW those two terms next to each other were in 1978."
Once again, it's NASA and/or Star Trek that inspired the dreamers—plus, in this case, a a college computer lab professor's personal challenge to create such a system. We never know where, or how—but it comes back, time and again. And it's waaaay beyond just cell phones.
That's why we need them BOTH back—at full funding, and more frequently than just the occasional splash! (I'm lookin' at
you, Congress and CBS...)
There's a lot more about it all on
Shiva's website (Shiva, at left), including a great timeline infographic about his work and others' in the development of email—a great snapshot for those of you whom this all sneaked up on, or for those of you who never knew anything else!
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