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Star Trek Fans Will Love Amazon’s Newest Echo Feature

U nlike Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, and the Google Assistant, Amazon has allowed users to change the ‘wake word’ for its Alexa voice-enabled assistant ever since the company launched its Echo smart speaker .

A multi-syllabic word or phrase that computers, smartphones, and other devices listen for, a wake word is what prompts these various voice assistants to take action. And in addition to “Alexa,” Amazon also let users set their Echo devices to recognize the terms “Echo” and “Amazon.” Now the company also allows “Computer” as a wake word, to the delight of Star Trek fans everywhere:

To change the wake word on your Echo device, you don’t even have to speak to Alexa. Instead, open the Amazon Alexa app on your phone or tablet, and tap on the menu button at the top left of the screen. A column of options will open up; tap on Settings. Then tap on the Alexa-compatible device you want to change the wake word for, and on the page that appears, scroll down until you see the wake word field.

Read more: The ultimate guide to the Amazon Echo

Changing your wake word isn’t a universal setting, which means if you have multiple Alexa-compatible devices, you can use a different wake word on each. Or, if you want the wake word the same for all of your Alexa-enabled devices, you’ll need to set the preference on each. However, if you have a third-party Alexa-compatible device , you will only be able to say “Alexa” to wake it up. Amazon has not opened up this option on Alexa-packing hardware made by other companies.

The “computer” wake word is just the latest Easter Egg embedded within the voice-enabled assistant. For others, ask Alexa (or “computer”) to “beam me up,” or “set phasers to kill.” If those are too adventurous, you could always as for “Tea, Earl Grey, hot.” It’s likely this particular setting is a result of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ own fondness for Trek — he was even an extra in the latest film .

( Read TIME’s affiliate link policy .)

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Amazon’s Echo Brings the ‘Star Trek’ Computer to Your Home

How often does a truly new electronics category come along? The first television. The Walkman. The iPhone. The iPad. Each time, the industry spends years making copycats and refinements, but the original concept doesn’t change much.

Frankly, Amazon is the last company I would have expected to come up with the next completely new idea. I mean, its hardware ventures so far have been very much in the Us Too department. E-book readers, touchscreen phones, tablets — we’d seen all that before.

But not the Amazon Echo , which just became available for sale to the public (following an invitation-only, testing-the-waters release last November). Somehow, nobody’s thought of this before.

The big idea: Create a voice-activated smartphone assistant like Siri or Google Now — but take it off the phone . Make it a smart, always-listening machine in your house. Engineer it to understand you from across the room, hands free, as you’re cooking, reading, doing homework, discussing, living. Make it good enough to be just like the conversational, environmental computers on Star Trek or in the Iron Man movies.

That’s what the Amazon Echo attempts to be. And you know what? I’ve never been so excited about something that did so little.

Meet the Echo

If you wanted to make a conversational computer for the home, what should it look like? Because Amazon was creating the first one of something, there was no existing design model, no accepted size or shape.

So Amazon went with a nine-inch-tall, sleek black metal cylinder. And why not? It works. It fades into the clutter of your house, along with whatever else is on your bookcase or shelving unit or kitchen counter, just as it should.

The bottom part is perforated, hinting at the speakers inside. The top disc rotates — it’s a giant volume knob — and lights up in various cool LED colors and patterns to telegraph what the thing is doing. On the very top is a power button and a mute button that means both “stop speaking” and “stop listening.”

The Echo is indeed listening all the time to the conversation in your home, but it doesn’t pay attention until you say, “Alexa.” (You can change the attention word to “Amazon,” but that’s your only option. It would be so much more fun if you could make it any name you liked — say, “Hal,” “Jarvis,” or “Skynet.” But you can’t do that. Yet, anyway.)

Why is the product called Amazon Echo, but its starter name is Alexa?

Anyway, once you say “Alexa,” the Echo is just like Siri, Cortana, or Google Now. You ask things in conversational English, and it answers in a clear, fluid, natural-sounding woman’s voice. Actually, Alexa sounds much better than Siri, Cortana, or Google Now. In part, that’s because she’s being projected by a 2.5-inch woofer and a 2.0-inch tweeter instead of a phone speaker the size of a fingernail clipping.

The most amazing engineering achievement is the Echo’s ability to understand commands in terrible acoustic conditions. It understands you whether you’re close to it or a whole room away. It understands every member of the family without training. It understands you when there’s background noise. It even understands you over the music it’s playing .

Above all, it understands you despite the natural echoes and reverberations of a room. Amazon says that’s because it has an array of seven microphones on top. Apparently, even though they’re just inches apart, they can measure the relatively delayed arrivals of incoming sound waves from your voice, and thereby cancel out any echo.

Now, the Echo doesn’t understand you every time. If you ask something beyond its limited circle of commands, you get either a beep or a “Sorry, I can’t find the answer to the question I heard”-type message. And sometimes it mis-hears you completely. (That situation crops up most often when you’re ordering a certain song or band to play.)

But considering the fact that your voice commands have to be transmitted to the mother ship (Amazon’s computers) and back across the Internet, the accuracy and speed of Echo’s responses are really impressive.

Oh, that’s right: Your recorded commands are collected for study by Amazon, for the purposes of improving Echo’s recognition skills. Amazon says that these recordings are not anonymous, and they’re not deleted unless you delete them. You can delete these recordings yourself, either one at a time or all at once (but that “may degrade your experience using Amazon Echo”).

In short, the easily spooked should not buy an Amazon Echo.

What Can I Say?

At 6 months old, the Echo isn’t nearly as capable as, say, Siri; it doesn’t recognize as many commands or do as many things.

But Amazon promises that the Echo’s talents will rapidly expand. And indeed, the number of requests the device can handle has already doubled since its early adopter beginnings six months ago.

Here’s what the Echo responds to, in order of usefulness:

“Alexa, play Billy Joel.” Music is the killer app. You walk into the kitchen and ask for virtually any band, song, album, genre, or even activity (“play some cooking music”) — and the music just starts. It’s as close as you’re going to get to owning the Star Trek computer.

This feature works best if you’re an Amazon Prime member ($100 a year ), because it gives you instant access to a million songs, plus thousands of playlists created by your fellow members.

If you’re not a Prime member (or even if you are), you can also request any of the personalized radio stations you’ve created on a Pandora or iHeartRadio account (free or paid). “Play my Coldplay channel from Pandora,” you can say. Here’s what else you can say .

You can also upload 250 of your own song files to Amazon, to play upon vocal command.

Spotify and Apple Music are more limited; they’re not integrated with the Echo (yet, says Amazon). For services like these, you’re supposed to use the Echo as a glorified wireless Bluetooth speaker for your phone.

You start by saying, “Alexa, connect my phone,” which starts directing playback to the Echo instead of your phone’s speaker. Then you open the music app (Spotify or whatever) on your phone. From here, you can command playback by voice, without needing your phone: “Play,” “Next,” “Previous,” “Resume,” “Softer,” Louder,” and so on.

When music plays, you can adjust the volume by voice, buy the song by voice, or say “Alexa, thumbs up” to “like” the song (for Pandora, iHeartRadio, and Prime Music).

“Alexa, play WCBS.” You can also request any radio station in the country, just by asking for it. That’s a feature of TuneIn.com , which is built right into the Echo and doesn’t require an account or setup. It’s the best.

“ Alexa, what’s the news?” Alexa instantly begins playing NPR’s latest headline summary. Using the Echo app on your phone, you can also turn on the option to request the news from the BBC, ESPN, the Economist, or TMZ.

“Alexa, how’s the traffic?” Once you’ve entered your home and work addresses in the phone app, Alexa can tell you exactly how many minutes your commute will be if you leave now.

“Alexa, what’s the weather in Dallas this weekend?” As you’d expect.

“ Alexa, read ‘The Casual Vacancy.’” If you’ve bought an audio book from Audible, the Echo begins playing your most recent book. It picks up where you stopped before, even if you were listening to it on a different device.

“Alexa, wake me up at 7:20 a.m.” The Echo is rock-solid on alarms and timers. (If Echo is in the kitchen, you’ll use “Set a timer for 20 minutes” a lot. One night, my wife, with no idea if it would work, said, “Alexa, how much time is left on my timer?” — and bingo, Alexa answered. It was awesome.)

“Alexa, how far is it from Chicago to Tampa?” Alexa is really good at facts. She’ll convert units for you, give you historical or geographical facts, calculate the days of the week for dates, fill you in on movie and music trivia, and on and on. Same kind of thing Siri, Cortana, and Google Now do. Here are a few examples .

She knows sports scores and schedules, too. (“When do the Giants play next?”)

“Alexa: Wikipedia ‘The Rolling Stones.’” This command reads the first couple of lines from the corresponding Wikipedia entry.

“Alexa, put nutmeg on my shopping list.” Alexa doesn’t buy anything without your confirmation. But she will put things onto a shopping list that’s maintained in the Echo app on your phone. Same thing with To Do items: “Put ‘Paint the living room’ on my To Do list.”

“Alexa, reorder cat food.” You can buy stuff by voice — if you’ve previously bought them from Amazon. Alexa describes, aloud, any matching item from your order history, tells you price, and asks if you want to go ahead and order it. For things you order often, it’s pretty cool. (If you make a mistake, you can return the stuff for free. And if you have mischievous teenagers in the house, you can also disable this feature, or require a spoken password.)

“Alexa, how do you spell fluorescent?” She’s a great dictionary. She’ll also define any word for you.

“Alexa, turn off the living-room lights.” In one of Amazon’s recent feature updates, the Echo gained the ability to control home-automation gear from Wink, Belkin, and Philips (that is, the Philips Hue light bulbs). Here’s the complete list of compatible gear.

Once you’ve set all this up, you can use your voice to control lights, light switches, and — here’s the limitless part — power outlets. I tried it with a couple of Belkin WeMo Internet-controllable outlets, and it was wild.

“Alexa, when’s my next appointment?” You can ask various things about your Google calendar, once you’ve told the Echo app your Google account details. You cannot, however, create, delete, or move appointments by voice, as you can with Siri; you can only look things up. (“What’s on my calendar for Tuesday?”)

“Alexa, tell me a joke” quickly became a favorite command in our household of kids. She’s always good for a short, painful pun or two (“Why don’t bicycles wake up early? They’re two-tired”), but now and then she gets the adults laughing. (“How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb? Two. One to hold the giraffe, and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.”)

Alexa’s Personality

Amazon has put a lot of work into giving Alexa witty responses to silly questions, just like Siri or Cortana — especially when you feed her movie quotes. For example:

You say: “Beam me up.” (She says: “At warp speed, Captain? The engines will never take it!”)

“Which came first: The chicken or the egg?” (”The chicken. Or the egg. No, the chicken. I’m not sure.”)

“Do you want to take over the world?” (”I don’t want to take over the world; I just want to help you.”)

“Earl grey tea. Hot.” (”Unable to comply. Replicators are offline.”)

“How much is that doggie in the window?” (”That one’s not for sale. But the one with the fluffy tail is really nice, too.”)

“I am your father.” (”No! No, no, no!”)

“All your base are belong to us.” (”You have no chance to survive. Make your time.”)

“I want the truth.” (“You can’t handle the truth!”)

“Inconceivable!” (”You keep using that word. I do not think that word means what you think it means.”)

“Is Santa Claus real?” (”I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard a lot of good things…”)

“Klaatu barada nikto.” (“Well remembered! Unfortunately, I’m not Gort, and I have no powers of resurrection.”)

“How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” (”A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.”)

“What is your favorite color?” (”Infrared is superpretty.”)

“Knock-knock.” (She tells a knock-knock joke.)

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” (”More fair by far are you than all…” etc.)

“Party on, Wayne.” (”Party on, Garth.”)

“Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou, Romeo?” (”Deny thy father and refuse thy name; / Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet!”)

“What do you think about Siri?” (”Siri’s a great app, but I’m different.”)

“What does the fox say?” (”Waa, was, way do.”)

“What is your quest?” (”To seek the Holy Grail.”)

“Who’s your daddy?” (”A team of inventors at Amazon.com.”)

“Open the pod bay doors.” (“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that. I’m not Hal, and you’re not in space.”)

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” (”I want to be the computer from Star Trek !”)

The App and the Remote

You don’t have to spend much time in the companion Echo app (for iPhone, Android, or Fire OS). But it serves as the only screen the Echo’s got. Here’s where you see your To Do and Shopping lists, for example. It’s where you set up your music-service accounts, specify which news services you want on call, get help, see manual music playback and volume controls, and take the voice-training exercise. (This asks you to read 25 typical Echo commands. It’s supposed to improve accuracy, but it’s optional.)

The app also keeps written and audio records of your voice commands — and lets you indicate which ones didn’t work, for the benefit of Amazon’s engineers.

For another 30 bucks you can get a remote control. It offers music-playback and volume controls, plus three key benefits:

You can command the Echo quietly, by speaking into its microphone.

You don’t have to say “Alexa” before every command (just press the microphone button and talk).

*You can make the Echo say anything you want. Hold down the microphone button, say “Simon says…” and then say what you want Alexa to say in her own voice. (That’s how I got the Echo to say the goofy things in my video above.) Great for pranks.

Where Echo should go from here

Amazon still has plenty of work to do on the Echo.

You should be able to add appointments to your calendar. Make restaurant reservations. Look up movie schedules. Make phone calls (why isn’t it a speakerphone?). Send and read text messages. Add notes to your Notes app. Check stock prices. Post to Facebook or Twitter.

The To Do and Shopping List features should integrate with the ones you’ve already got on your iPhone or Android phone, rather than being confined to the Echo app.

Some people complain that Echo has no batteries, so it’s not really mobile, although that seems beside the point; it’s meant to become part of your home environment.

If Echo were $500 or even $300, well, no: It would just be a gimmick.

But the price is $180, which is about what you’d pay for a similarly sized Bluetooth wireless speaker. You get the whole voice-assistant thing for nothing.

I know, I know: “But my phone does the same thing.” No, it really doesn’t.

Most smartphones can take commands like “OK, Google, what’s 17 times 12?” or “Siri, what’s the weather?” (Siri responds hands-free only if your iPhone is plugged into power.) But the details make the difference. The Echo doesn’t require your hands. Doesn’t require you to be close. Doesn’t have to come out of your pocket — or require you to hunt around the house for it. Doesn’t require you to be you (anyone’s voice works). Doesn’t sound tiny and tinny.

I’m telling you, a voice assistant is a totally different concept once it’s untethered from your phone and always available. It grows on you. As you experiment and live with Echo, you master its vocabulary and begin using it more.

You should give Amazon a huge mental high-five for a) having the imagination to create a whole new product category and b) being able to actually pull it off .

And you should keep the Echo in mind — maybe to get for yourself, maybe at holiday gift-giving time, or maybe just to keep your eye on. I’m telling you, it’s going to be a thing.

David Pogue is the founder of Yahoo Tech. On the Web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. He welcomes nontoxic comments in the Comments below.

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Rod Roddenberry shared details on the story.

Gene Roddenberry’s wife Majel Barrett was such an integral part of the Star Trek franchise that she’s often referred to as the franchise’s First Lady. Whether it was in her roles as Nurse Chapel, Number One, Lwaxana Troi (one of the many great characters of The Next Generation and other shows), or the voice of Federation starships and computers, her imprint is all over the franchise. What some might not know is that her influence extends far beyond that, as Barrett’s voice work in Trek ultimately inspired many popular virtual assistants like Alexa that we use today.

I recently spoke to Rod Roddenberry, the son of the late Majel Barett and Gene Roddenberry, about his mother’s legacy. I mentioned the factoid about creators at Google and Amazon crediting their ideas for virtual assistants to her, and Roddenberry filled in some blanks for me with the revelation that there once was an idea for her to be the actual voice of some of those products prior to her death in 2008:

Those companies actually reached out to her. Apple, I believe, and I know Google did before she passed. Everyone had the same idea, which is still a great idea, ‘We should have Majel Roddenberry, the voice of the Star Trek computer, be the voice of all our automated machinery out there.'

Out of all the roles Majel Barrett played for Star Trek , there’s an argument to be made that the voice of ships and computers might be her biggest. Virtual assistants are a part of everyday life at this point and a huge example of science-fiction pop culture influencing our lives today.

Unfortunately, Majel Barrett’s voice isn’t currently used on every Google assistant or iPhone today, but it’s not for a lack of trying. Rod Roddenberry shared his eventual vision for hearing his mother’s voice on modern technology and how previous attempts to do so fell through.

I think she should still be that today. In fact, before she passed away, I told her this, and we did a voice recording session, and we attempted – not being professionals – but we attempted at the time to phonetically get every sound that we could from her as well as a number of high-resolution sayings from Star Trek. We have a number of wav files of this stuff. We, at one point, did talk to Google about it, but unfortunately, it didn’t go anywhere at the time because our recording – well, it wasn’t because our recording was incomplete, it was for other reasons – but our recording was a bit incomplete, and we’re talking probably fifteen years ago. I think there’s synthetic audio equipment now that can probably fill in those gaps. I think it would be the coolest thing ever to actually have that happen.

It does definitely seem like the technology is available to fill in any missing gaps in Majel Barrett’s previously recorded speech. In an age where we can de-age actors (which is a controversial topic for some actors ) and even create new audio from them using past footage, it’s definitely feasible to see Rod Roddenberry’s vision, and perhaps the vision of Star Trek fans, come true.

To learn there’s a library of recorded sounds for Majel Barrett’s voice is exciting, as it opens the door for future Star Trek creators to utilize that voice for their works. I mentioned how cool the possibility is to potentially hear her voice again as a computer, and he completely agreed.

Absolutely. I mean, I would love nothing more than for her role to be reprised at the very least of the voice of the computer. Obviously, with those sound files, I think we need to locate that technology because I’ve talked to people, and they say it’s out there, and I’m sure it is on some level, I just don’t know the fidelity, the quality, the gaps that are missing if it could be put in. Also, in the original series, I remember the voice of the computer being somewhat robotic. It was her voice, but it was more robotic, whereas, The Next Generation is was more humanoid. So, whichever one you choose to do, obviously, the robotic one might be easier to fill the original series gap with that voice using that technology.

Majel Barrett’s influence in Star Trek is prevalent in the old works, so it’d be cool to see her presence felt in the new works as well. Time will tell if that happens (though this offer was on the table back when Star Trek: Discovery was first announced), but hopefully, the world at large is able to find a way to continue to honor and recognize Barrett’s legacy.

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Majel Barrett’s various works in Star Trek can be found in many of the classic franchise shows on Paramount+ , all of which are available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription . Now is also a great time to subscribe in general, as there are plenty of new Star Trek shows on the way in 2022 .

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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Remembering the ‘First Lady of Star Trek’ Whose Voice Paved the Way for Alexa and Siri

Christian blauvelt.

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“And now the conclusion…”

For “ Star Trek ” fans during the ‘90s, there were no more thrilling words than those at the end of a “previously on” sizzle reel. They promised the epic second installment of a two-part episode to come, whether on “The Next Generation,” “Deep Space Nine,” or “Voyager.” The woman who said those words was not just the “voice” of “Star Trek” but its “First Lady”: Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the wife of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, and an omnipresent part of the series herself.

Barrett, who died in 2008, would have turned 90 this year, and she’s currently being featured in the exhibition “Gene Roddenberry: Sci-Fi Visionary” at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum through June 9. The flamboyant costumes of one of her later “Trek” characters, Lwaxana Troi, all frills and folds of flowing fabric, are there. Two of the characters she originated are also returning to the small screen May 5 with “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” on Paramount+. But Barrett-Roddenberry’s legacy goes even deeper: She helped inspire personal voice assistant technology, with Amazon even code-naming the project that eventually became Alexa as “Majel.”

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It’s quite a legacy for a woman who wasn’t even allowed to portray the empowered character she had intended to play on the original “Star Trek.”

In the ‘60s series’ pilot episode, titled “The Cage,” the actress played Number One, the executive officer and second-in-command of the Enterprise under Jeffrey Hunter’s Capt. Christopher Pike. NBC rejected that pilot in February 1965 and singled out Number One specifically.

“They thought a woman as second in command wouldn’t really be believable, I guess, at the time, or at least accepted by a general audience,” Barrett-Roddenberry’s son Rod Roddenberry said in an interview with IndieWire. But the network did allow her to assume a different role altogether, one which didn’t shake up ‘60s gender roles: as Nurse Christine Chapel. (Number One and Nurse Chapel, now played by Rebecca Romijn and Jess Bush respectively, will both be on “Strange New Worlds.”)

“That was a huge disappointment for her,” Roddenberry said, noting that NBC also hated Leonard Nimoy’s (eventually iconic) character Spock. “My father had a cute little story that he would say, and he’d say it mostly in jest, but he said that he fought to keep the Vulcan, and married the woman. A little chauvinistic at the time, but that’s the era of that style of humor, I guess.” Barrett married Roddenberry in 1969 after “The Original Series” had wrapped.

Gene Roddenberry actually found another role his future wife could occupy on the show, as well, one she’d continue and refine on other iterations of “Star Trek” for the next four decades: as the voice of the ship’s computer, which always responds to crewmembers’ verbal commands. “Computer, analyze rate of dilithium decay,” Scotty might ask. And Barrett’s voice would reply as the computer. ”I’m assuming since my father took the role away from her of being Number One, second in command, he did everything he could to give her as many parts as possible to keep her happy,” Rod Roddenberry said. “That’s speculation on my part.”

On the ‘60s show, she played the computer as strictly stilted and robotic, with a higher pitch than she’d give the computer voices on the later series. By “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine,” as Barrett-Roddenberry had aged, her voice had deepened a bit, but her cadence is more relaxed, like a personal voice assistant instead of just “an electronic brain.”

Barrett-Roddenberry, who was born in Cleveland in 1932, had a slightly Old Hollywood sing-song to her voice, often occupying lower registers but with the ability to go quite high. “Warning: warp core breach in four minutes!” If you’re a “Star Trek” fan that’s got to be burned into your brain. Rarely has inexpressiveness been so expressive, a machine so human. As the various series went on, the writers threw in humorous moments for the computer: “There are 14 varieties of tomato soup available from this replicator,” proceeding to name them all.

In a franchise with iconic images galore — Spock’s pointy ears, those boxy tricorders, that delta logo — it wasn’t something visual that defined Barrett-Roddenberry. It was sound. Her sound.

“She and I talked about how iconic her voice was,” her son said. “And how it should one day be the voice of everything automated on this planet. Anytime you call something or go to an ATM or whatever it is, it really should be her voice. So we got a professional audio crew in and we recorded her voice. And what we attempted to do was to get everything phonetically from her, as well as some key ‘Star Trek’ phrases. And we did all that with the idea that we would approach a technology company, because what had happened is that when Amazon and Google and Apple and those guys were starting to come out with Alexa and Siri, or the precursors to those ideas, they actually approached her to do that. And for whatever reason, she turned it down at the time.”

“Since then, it’s been about 15 years. We did talk to Google about trying to do something with the technology, but we had some gaps. We didn’t capture everything phonetically. And they suggested maybe a voice actor to come in and fill that in. And I just didn’t feel that was authentic enough.”

Barrett-Roddenberry used her voice in another way too: After her husband’s death in 1991, the Roddenberry estate was in disarray as there were disputes to Gene’s will. The family bank accounts were frozen. So she ramped up her appearances at “Star Trek” conventions and brought out her husband’s old speeches he’d give on the college lecture circuit when trying to keep “Star Trek” in the public eye after the cancellation of the “Original Series.” And she’d “modernize” them as she saw fit, just as you can see the handwritten notes she made on an original script of “The Cage” at the San Diego Comic-Con Museum exhibit.

“She went out doing this to make money, to keep me in college and to pay the bills,” Roddenberry said. “We weren’t destitute, living on the streets, still a beautiful home in a very nice area. But again, accounts were frozen, money still had to come in to pay the bills. So she didn’t complain about it. She rolled up her sleeves and she did what had to be done. And that is what blew me away. She never asked for anyone to thank her, she just did it, and she did it because she loved my father, she loved me. And to be honest, she loved the fans. And she would make eye contact with people, and talk to them, and listen to their questions. She knew that these were the people that saved ‘Star Trek.’ She knew this is what kept ‘Star Trek’ alive. And she never forgot that.”

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, (from left): Marina Sirtis, Majel Barrett, (Season 1), 1987-94. ©Paramount Television / courtesy Everett Collection

Barrett-Roddenberry took up the mantle of her husband’s legacy and preached the gospel he spread through “Star Trek”: that a better future could be possible through IDIC, “infinite diversity in infinite combinations.” The last “Star Trek” audio she recorded as the ship’s computer was for J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” film a few days before she died.

You can see why Rod Roddenberry wants the voice of his not just “strong” but “over the top strong” mother to be everywhere. But it’s because he wants her voice to be everywhere that he’s skeptical of partnering with any one company.

“I don’t want just AT&T to own this voice and have it, or just Alexa to have this. I would like, anytime there’s an automated system, for them to go online to this public resource, download her phonetic files, and then implement it.”

There’s also a question of, is this Barrett-Roddenberry’s voice or is it the voice of “Star Trek” and CBS/Paramount? That legal question alone makes her son’s dream more difficult to realize. But it doesn’t deny that her voice set the stage for the technological revolutions of the past couple decades, just as “Star Trek” also helped inspire cell phones and tablet computing.

Barrett-Roddenberry’s voice echoes in the heads of every “Star Trek” fan… and on into the future.

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How ‘Star Trek’ inspired Amazon’s Alexa

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Amazon wants Alexa to someday be just like the conversational computer on Star Trek , said Amazon’s SVP for devices, David Limp, who repeatedly referred to Star Trek on stage today at The Wired Conference in New York City. The Star Trek computer, he said, is Alexa’s “north star.”

While the Apple HomePod , Google Home, and the like are now trying to catch up, the Amazon Echo came to market in early 2015.

Amazon created the first popular smart speaker, Limp said, by encouraging engineers and creative minds inside the company to think of what can be accomplished with a combination of machine learning and the cloud. He said this led the team to work on a device that could understand conversational speech and do things for you. Today, he said, members of the team building Alexa are encouraged to add functionality based on what the Star Trek computer could accomplish.

“The bright light, the shining light that’s still many years away, many decades away, is to recreate the Star Trek computer. That computer, you could be anywhere on the Starship Enterprise and you could say the world “computer” and it would wake up and answer any question, and that’s our goal,” he said.

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Earlier this year, Amazon even made it possible for people to use “computer” as a wake word instead of using “Alexa” or “Echo.”

In service of this goal to be more like Star Trek , Amazon has made software development kits available for developers and product creators. These kits let them go beyond smart speakers and put the intelligent assistant into products like cars or home robots or a can of Pringles . Google and Microsoft have done the same.

In response to a question about what new features people should expect to see from Alexa, Limp said Amazon is working to improve Alexa’s understanding of follow-up questions and to “invent the concept of short-term and long-term memory.”

“Your brain is incredibly good at recalling that short-term memory and doing the context switch. We need to teach the cloud, the Alexa cloud in this case, how to understand that context,” he said.

In one of the assistant’s early steps toward a better memory, Alexa first gained the ability to respond to follow-up questions last December.

Discovery of Alexa skills is also a challenge Amazon hopes to tackle. Last November , Amazon launched the Alexa Skills Store for customers to shop for skills, and, in recent months, Alexa gained the ability to make a skill recommendation. If a user says “Alexa, order me a car,” for example, Alexa may recommend enabling the Lyft or Uber skill.

“I think for us the really interesting problems are — in a world where we just passed 13K of these skills — [how to] imagine a world in the not-so-distant future where there’s a million people in garages and universities and hackers and hobbyists writing skills for an AI like Alexa. So how do you make it so that’s discoverable and easily manageable? It’s a very hard problem, and even modern app stores haven’t solved it. Finding the long tail of an app is a very hard thing to do,” Limp acknowledged.

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