When the Original Star Trek aired back in the late 1960s, some viewers wondered about the ship's intercom panels. They asked how a single button could connect the unit to anyone on the huge starship, without even a rotary telephone dial. At the time, it seemed a valid question. Neither Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, nor designer Matt Jefferies could have anticipated the computerized voice recognition technology that would make such connections possible, much sooner than Star Trek's century. Whether by prescience or sheer luck, these intercom panels are another example of Star Trek "predicting" the future.