It doesn't matter if you're transferring contracts via e-mail or looking for a date with specific gene pool qualifications, we've all had some experience with the blessings and the burdens of technology. In the 21st Century, the science fiction of the 1960's has become the reality of the day. Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek television series was futuristic but was it science fiction or a prediction of the future?

With the exception of high speed molecular travel, LCD touch screens have been common in offices for years and scanning systems including MRI, bar code and eye scanning are not exactly new technologies. Captain Kirk's flip-open communicator is a good example, mine happens to be a Motorola T730 cell phone with a color screen, voice recognition dialing and an Internet connection including instant text messaging. This gadget boasts a variety of features remarkably similar to the device Captain Kirk used to communicate with Mr. Spock on the original Enterprise.

If this sounds familiar, it should because most of us use a similar network for communications ? it's called the Internet. When we need to contact a group of clients or friends, it's common to use e-mail to blast our message out over the World Wide Web. Not unlike the Borg communications system, information flies from one source to another anywhere in the world or to anywhere that is part of the network. E-mails arrive at their destination in seconds and responses can be returned immediately. We are connected. We are "nearly" Borg.

Starbucks Coffee Company along with T-Mobile USA Inc. and HP (Hewlett Packard) have established Wi-Fi access throughout Boston and including more than 2,900 Starbucks coffeehouses around the country. Order a latte, surf the Web, continue working on that research paper or chat with your friends right at a Starbucks table via a fast, Wi-Fi Internet connection. Boston students love this service as Starbucks reports a brisk student business after 9 PM.

Internet dating services provide members with the ability to search a database for specific types of people with the educational background, physical appearance and prerequisites that appeal to you. If you're going away, many international sites offer access to a worldwide database of hotties. Once you find your match, send an e-mail and move the relationship to the next level. Some sites list male and female escort divisions offering a la carte sexual services all chargeable to plastic. Just remember to make sure that both your e-shopping cart and your libido is big enough to handle all that you buy.

A few minutes after clicking on "send," replies started arriving from all over the world. "I'll be in Boston next week and would love to meet you," one said. Yet another announced, "I have everything you want and I know how to use it." "What's going on," our baffled executive assistant thought.

Technology Struggles.  We hear predictions that technology will get easier.  Software now does more intuitively but we still see people struggling to handle ATM cards at the local Shaw's Market.  We're all familiar with the constant assaults on our systems through virus attacks.  Now, we have "spy-ware" that records all of your activities on your computer and then reports that information to advertisers or people that first steal your identity and then your money.

E-mail or breakfast?

Is our society becoming more divided when it comes to using technology? Do you welcome tech innovation or immediately frown when the latest and greatest becomes available? "I was hired to answer the phones - not run a computer," a disgruntled employee said as her new software was being installed. "Just teach me exactly what I need to know - nothing more," was her credo and yet a few months later, our anti-tech telephone operator had completely redecorated her screen with seasonal themes and nautical screen savers.

Do you still buy a newspaper? You can subscribe to newspapers from all over the world and they will send you daily "front-page" headlines that allow you to search for all the stories that interest you - all via e-mail. When the story breaks, it's immediately on the newspaper's Web site. You don't have to wait until tomorrow to see today's headlines.

Cell phone or land line - which do you have? Many have both but we're seeing an increase in the number of people who choose to only have a cell phone. Coverage is almost everywhere and it's a good thing because when was the last time you had to look for a pay phone? What does a pay phone look like? I forget.

Going someplace? Do you need directions? Lots of people go to the Internet and print off a Mapquest page, which includes a map and move by move directions to get where they are going. On-Star, a cell phone like service for your car, provides person to person directions and will actually guide you all the way. But, if you're really high tech, you'll get in your car and enter the address in your Global Positioning System (GPS), relax and enjoy the ride. No need to worry because your GPS will get you there as fast as possible and with little stress.

Here's how technology works for me: I start my day looking at e-mail. Leaving the house with my wireless earphone that goes with my flip-open, color screen and Internet ready cell phone, I carry my IPAQ Pocket PC that I just finished synchronizing with my ACT contact management software giving me my contacts, calendar and e-mail in the palm of my hand. If I need to add a contact or alter my schedule, I've got it with me. If I'm asked, "Are you available next Thursday for a meeting," I have the answer. I make the appointment and everything synchronizes to my PC at my office when I return.

My car has the best GPS; it connects to a satellite and gives me animated maps of where I am and where I am going.  It's the best because it's current -  I'm not carrying around 7 CD's with maps from all over the United States in the trunk of my car. When the satellite updates locations, I'm updated automatically. I don't have to change my CD maps. If I don't want to look at the map too often, I turn on the gentle female voice and "she" takes me every step of the way. Recently, I used it to guide me to the opening of Stil, a new clothing store on Newbury Street. My car knows exactly where to go, but whether I'm visiting clients in New York City or friends in Vermont, I feel secure knowing that the car is taking me in the right direction. "Take a right at the next light," she softly announces and if I make a mistake, I don't get a harsh comment like I might get from a passenger. "Make a legal U-turn at the next stop," she softly reminds me. How civilized is that?